People v. Watson CA3

Filed 5/10/16 P. v. Watson CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Yuba) ----

THE PEOPLE, C078754

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. CRF1420)

v.

ROBBIE GENE WATSON, JR.,

Defendant and Appellant.

Defendant Robbie Gene Watson, Jr., repeatedly beat his wife following a phone call to his mother regarding a visit to his lawyer about a prior incident of domestic violence his wife had reported. A jury found him guilty of 10 crimes, including torture and dissuading a witness. On appeal, defendant raises four contentions relating to his torture conviction, his dissuading a witness conviction, and his sentence. Disagreeing with these contentions, we affirm with directions to the trial court to correct the abstract of judgment to reflect the court’s properly-imposed sentence.

1

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Defendant, his wife, and their two children lived together in a house in Marysville. On Friday, January 10, 2014, defendant was in the living room talking on the cordless phone with his mother about a visit to his lawyer about a prior incident of domestic violence his wife had reported for which he had a court appearance on Monday. Defendant, who was drunk, was “yelling . . . about what had happened at the lawyer’s office.” Defendant told his mother, “if we didn’t fix this, that he was going to kill us.” Defendant hung up the phone and threw it at his wife’s chest. He then grabbed her by the throat, but he let go when his wife hit him over the head with an ashtray. She ran into the kitchen. Defendant followed her and punched her in the face four or five times, and when she fell to the ground, he told her not to get up. She tried to get up, so defendant shoved her into the refrigerator and, taking hold of her hair, slammed her head into the floor. She grabbed a spatula and hit defendant, causing him to let go of her momentarily and call his mother. Defendant got hold of his wife again and told his mother he was “going to kill us.” His wife begged in the background for his mother to call the police. The children started screaming in their bedroom, so defendant let go of his wife, and she went to calm them down. His wife started rocking their two-year-old daughter in her arms, and then defendant came inside the bedroom and hit his wife on the head, knocking her on to the bed. She grabbed the phone and called 911, but defendant hung up the phone and continued to punch his wife in the face. Defendant momentarily stopped when his friend got to the house and grabbed defendant’s arm. Defendant told his friend that his wife had already called police. Defendant then started beating his wife again telling her, “ ‘You’re dead.’ ” Defendant’s friend took the daughter away, and defendant went outside to the front porch. His wife locked the front door. Defendant kicked in the door and came inside with a posthole digger. His wife knocked it loose from his hands, but then