People v. Garrett CA2/8

Filed 9/10/15 P. v. Garrett CA2/8 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

THE PEOPLE, B260697

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. MA063390) v.

MARCUS DEWAYNE GARRETT,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles. Charles A. Chung, Judge. Affirmed.

Caneel C. Fraser, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent.

_______________________________

On October 28, 2014, defendant Marcus Dewayne Garrett was convicted by a jury of carrying a dirk or dagger in violation of Penal Code section 21310, a felony.1 In a separate proceeding, the trial court found defendant’s prior conviction in another state qualified as a strike. The court sentenced defendant to six years in state prison (the upper term, doubled for the strike). The facts were these. Deputy Sheriff Mike Reynolds was on patrol at 2:46 a.m. on June 24, 2014, in a park area called Boeing Plaza, across the street from the Lancaster sheriff’s station. He approached defendant, who was sleeping on a mattress, intending to warn or cite him for illegal camping in the park. Two other men were there as well, about 20 feet away. Deputy Reynolds woke defendant up and asked him for identification. (One of the other men present later testified that Deputy Reynolds was “rude,” and woke up defendant by kicking at his mat and yelling at him.) As defendant was digging through his pockets, Deputy Reynolds noticed what “appeared to be possibly a knife in his right pocket sticking out.” The deputy saw “approximately an inch of the end of the handle,” and asked defendant about it. Defendant told him “it was a knife and he had it for his protection.” Deputy Reynolds removed it from defendant’s pocket and saw it was a fixed blade knife, with a metal blade about four and a half inches long. Deputy Reynolds then arrested defendant. (He did not arrest the other two men, who complied with his request to leave the area.) As he was transporting defendant across the street to the sheriff’s station in his patrol vehicle, defendant spoke to Deputy Reynolds (who did not solicit any statements from defendant). Defendant told the deputy “about a prior contact that occurred on June 8th with respect to [the] knife.” Defendant said “he had possessed the knife on