People v. Graham CA1/2
Filed 9/24/20 P. v. Graham CA1/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 TWO
THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A158222 v. (Sonoma County Super. JESSE JAMES GRAHAM, Ct. No. SCR7222691) Defendant and Appellant.
Jesse James Graham appeals from his conviction after a jury trial for stabbing a woman we shall refer to as Jane Doe, who lived in Santa Rosa, a block from where Graham stayed with his mother. Graham claims his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by not objecting to lay person opinion testimony by two witnesses identifying him on surveillance video recordings taken on the night of the incident. We disagree and affirm. BACKGROUND In a February 2019 information, the Sonoma County District Attorney charged Graham with felony assault with a deadly weapon (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)(1)) and alleged that he personally inflicted great bodily injury (id., § 12022.7, subd. (a)). A jury trial followed.
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I. The Attack on Jane Doe Doe testified through an interpreter that she left work at about 11:30 p.m. on November 20, 2018, and drove home to her apartment on Jennings Avenue. She pulled into her parking lot space about nine yards from her apartment and went to the lighted area in front of her door to open it, but her key would not work. She heard footsteps behind her, turned and saw Graham about three or four feet away dressed in a black cap, his face covered below his nose. She was positive it was Graham; he stood out because of his facial tattoos and tall, thin stature. She had seen him twice before at a local gym but had never spoken to him. He stabbed her in the left side of her back with a shiny silver knife, and she yelled. He left, and she sought help from neighbors. Later that night, she had surgery at a local hospital for a perforated lung. In the early morning following her surgery, she spoke to a Detective DeLeon. She “was badly hurt,” in a lot of pain, tired, and “did not know what was going on.” Nonetheless, she remembered more and more about the attack as she spoke to him. As a result of the attack, her body was scarred and she had to use a cane to move around. Two Santa Rosa police officers testified that they went to Doe’s apartment complex shortly after 11:40 p.m. on November 20, 2018, to investigate a stabbing incident. Doe was there, crying and screaming in pain. Her daughter, acting as translator for Doe, said a man whose identity Doe did not know had stabbed Doe in the back. The officers found blood drops in front of and on the threshold of her apartment door, which was well lit, and found no witnesses to the incident. Detective Hector DeLeon of the Santa Rosa Police Department testified that he interviewed Doe briefly in a hospital intensive care unit at about
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