People v. Vasquez CA2/8

Filed 6/9/16 P. v. Vasquez CA2/8 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, B262832

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BA413693) v.

JULIO VASQUEZ,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Leslie Swain, Judge. Affirmed.

Jennifer Hansen, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Assistant Attorney General, Paul M. Roadarmel, Jr. and Daniel C. Chang, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

__________________________

Julio Vasquez appeals from his conviction of first degree murder, contending there was insufficient evidence of premeditation and that the trial court erred by refusing to instruct the jury concerning his contention that he shot his victim accidentally. We conclude that there was sufficient evidence of premeditation and that even if instructional error occurred, it was harmless. We therefore affirm the judgment.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY1

Shortly after midnight on July 15, 2013, Julio (Mike) Vasquez shot and killed his childhood friend, Ricky Torres, inside Vasquez’s house. The shooting occurred at the end of a party hosted by Vasquez. Torres’s son, Ricky Jr., had been playing a video game with Vasquez’s son, Brandon, right before the shooting. According to Ricky Jr., as Vasquez and his wife, Rommy, walked down the hallway outside the room where the boys were playing, Ricky Jr. heard Vasquez ask Rommy if she was having an affair with Torres. Vasquez then asked Rommy to summon Torres. Ricky Jr. saw Rommy walk into the backyard. He then heard Vasquez’s footsteps as Vasquez walked into his bedroom. Ricky Jr., who had been shooting with his father many times and was familiar with the sounds guns make when being loaded, heard a magazine being inserted into a gun, and then heard the gun being cocked. Ricky Jr. then saw Vasquez walk back into the hallway, where he was soon joined by Rommy and his father. Ricky Jr. heard his father loudly say “No, Mike.” The boy then saw a laser gunsight beam appear on the hallway wall, followed by a single gunshot. These events were corroborated in part by video footage from Vasquez’s home surveillance cameras, which showed the following: At approximately 12:06 a.m., Rommy entered the house from the backyard. Right before 12:10 a.m., Rommy returned to the backyard and summoned Torres, who was outside talking to Renecca Ababneh. About 30 seconds later, Ababneh, who had been sitting on the backdoor steps with her back to the house, turned around in an apparent response to the sound of a gunshot. At