People v. Rodriguez CA1/4

Filed 9/17/15 P. v. Rodriguez CA1/4 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FOUR

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A142369 v. WILLIAM ALEX RODRIGUEZ, (San Mateo County Super. Ct. No. SC079378B) Defendant and Appellant.

William Alex Rodriguez appeals from a judgment upon a jury verdict finding him guilty of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury. (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)(4).) He contends that the judgment must be reversed because the trial court violated the secondary evidence rule in admitting the testimony of a witness who made observations of the incident on a live closed-circuit security monitor. We affirm. I. FACTS On May 18, 2013, at about 3:00 a.m., defendant and five of his friends entered a Denny’s restaurant in San Mateo. They were seated to the right of the register next to a table of four people who were also dining. The people at both tables appeared intoxicated. At one point, defendant got up to leave the restaurant, and Vicky Williams, the restaurant manager, heard him say “I’m leaving. I’m not going to get into it over a female.” After defendant left, Williams went to her office to get change. Her office has a monitor of the closed circuit surveillance camera of the restaurant’s register area. Williams looked at the monitor and saw that defendant reentered the restaurant and

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walked straight to Deepak Kumar. Kumar was one of the men who had been seated at the table next to the one where defendant had been seated. Williams ran from her office into the restaurant area and saw defendant hit Kumar. Kumar put his hands up in front of his face to try to stop the punch. At that point, the people at defendant’s and Kumar’s tables got up and proceeded to get defendant and Kumar to exit from the restaurant into the parking lot. In the parking lot, Williams observed that the people from both groups were fighting and throwing punches. Kumar was on the ground and people, including defendant, were kicking and punching him. Williams also saw another man on the ground being kicked by people in defendant’s group. They continued fighting until the police arrived. Neersh Narayan testified that he and a group of three friends went to Denny’s in the early morning hours of May 18, 2013. He was the designated driver for the evening and had only one drink. He went into Denny’s with his friends, Kumar and Hendry Singh. They had been drinking. Nilesh Dabeesing, who was also with them, stayed in the truck because he was too intoxicated. Narayan was at the register paying the bill when he heard a scuffling noise. He turned to see defendant on top of Kumar on the floor. Kumar, who was intoxicated, was trying to defend himself. Defendant and Kumar exchanged punches until Narayan approached to break up the fight by pulling defendant off Kumar. William Cartagena, one of defendant’s friends, then struck Narayan in the head. Narayan and Kumar went outside and continued to fight with defendant and his friend. Dabeesing got out of the truck and was hit in the head and lost consciousness. Kumar required stitches to his lip. Detective Stephen Bennett responded to the scene and interviewed Williams. She told him that she saw defendant hit Kumar on the video feed in her office and then ran into the restaurant area and observed it in person. Frank Taylor, a private investigator, interviewed Williams on January 12, 2014, several months after the incident. He testified that Williams told him she observed the fight on the closed circuit video monitor and then ran into the restaurant area.