People v. Watkins CA2/1

Filed 9/25/20 P. v. Watkins CA2/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 ONE

THE PEOPLE, B299454

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. MA073129) v.

CURTIS DAL WATKINS,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Kathleen Blanchard, Judge. Affirmed. ____________________________

H. Russell Halpern, 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, Scott A. Taryle and Daniel C. Chang, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. ____________________________

MEMORANDUM OPINION1 A jury convicted defendant Curtis Dal Watkins of 10 counts of second degree robbery (Pen. Code,2 § 211), four counts of attempted second degree robbery (§§ 211, 664), two counts of kidnapping to commit robbery (§ 209, subd. (b)(1)), and one count of carrying a loaded firearm (§ 25850, subd. (c)(2)). The trial court imposed an indeterminate sentence of 16 years to life for the kidnapping counts, plus a consecutive aggregate determinate sentence of 11 years 8 months in prison for the remaining counts. Over the course of one week in November 2017, men wearing masks robbed or attempted to rob five cellular phone stores across Southern California. No victim or eyewitness was able to identify any of the perpetrators. Police linked Watkins to the robberies through circumstantial evidence, including rental car records, cellular phone records, and the activation of an Apple Watch stolen in one of the robberies. Watkins contends that this evidence was insufficient to support his convictions. We disagree and affirm. The first two robberies occurred on consecutive nights, November 20 and 21, 2017, between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. at Verizon stores in Mission Hills and La Crescenta. In both cases, the perpetrator wore a mask, pointed a gun at the store clerk, and demanded that the clerk put the contents of the store’s safe