People v. Qualey CA2/2

Filed 9/17/20 P. v. Qualey CA2/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 TWO

THE PEOPLE, B300220

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. PA091747) v.

TIMOTHY JAMES QUALEY,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Hayden A. Zacky, Judge. Affirmed.

G. Martin Velez, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Assistant Attorney General, Steven E. Mercer and David A. Voet, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. ******

INTRODUCTION Timothy James Qualey (defendant) argues that his conviction for making criminal threats is invalid because he threatened his victim on two separate occasions and the jury was not given a unanimity instruction. Because the threats were so close in time as to “form part of one transaction,” no unanimity instruction was required. (People v. Stankewitz (1990) 51 Cal.3d 72, 100 (Stankewitz).) We accordingly affirm his conviction. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND I. Facts In October 2018, defendant and Jamie R. (Jamie) were in a dating relationship that involved “a lot” of “argu[ing] and fight[ing].” One Sunday evening that October, Jamie was at home in her condo with a male friend. Defendant called her, accused her of cheating on him with the friend, and told her, “Bitch, I’m going to come to your house and kill you.” Frightened, Jamie and her friend decided to leave and got into Jamie’s car. As she was driving down the driveway of her condo, defendant “jump[ed] out from behind a bush,” stood in front of her car, and pulled out a knife. While looking Jamie in the eye, defendant said, “I’m going to kill you” and stabbed the hood of the car with a knife. When defendant pulled the knife from the hood and started to approach the driver’s side of the car, Jamie hit the gas, bumped defendant to the ground, and drove to a nearby gas station. Jamie recounted these events three times. She called 911 while driving to the gas station, and reported that defendant had “threatened” her “at [her] house” and “stabbed [her] car with a knife.” And she spoke with two law enforcement officers—a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy at the gas station and a Sheriff’s