People v. Beres CA1/4

Filed 12/28/20 P. v. Beres CA1/4

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 FOUR

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A159292 v. (San Mateo County MELISSA MARIA BERES, Super. Ct. No. 17-SF-004575-A)

Defendant and Appellant.

In September 2019, Melissa Maria Beres was convicted by plea of no contest to a commercial burglary (Pen. Code, §§ 459, 460, subd. (b))1 of Flavor Restaurant in Half Moon Bay in November 2016, as part of a negotiated disposition that resolved several other charges as well. She was sentenced to 16 months in prison, consecutive to a sentence of eight years, eight months that she was already serving for convictions in Santa Clara County. She now appeals from her sentence and postplea orders. Her attorney has filed a brief raising no issues, in accordance with the procedure prescribed in People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436. We shall affirm the conviction and sentence.

Further undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code 1

unless otherwise indicated.

1

I. BACKGROUND With respect to the Flavor Restaurant burglary (count 2), a sheriff’s investigation showed that on or about November 17, 2016, Beres had driven a truck to the restaurant to help an accomplice transport a safe containing $500 in cash that he and another accomplice had removed from the restaurant premises. Several of the restaurant’s cash drawers had also been knocked over and emptied. The burglars had pried open the glass front doors to the restaurant to gain access. Beres was also charged with a second count of commercial burglary (count 1) based on a similarly-executed burglary of Jersey Joe’s Restaurant in Half Moon Bay approximately two weeks earlier, in that the front glass door to the restaurant was smashed to allow the burglars entry. The burglars pried open an interior office door and took the owner’s credit card, $1,000 in cash, and the restaurant’s security camera system. Early the next morning, Beres was caught on video in a car with a White male when he used the restaurant owner’s credit card at a gas station. Beres admitted in social media messages that she had been present during the Jersey Joe’s burglary. Beres was further charged in counts 3 and 4 with misdemeanor methamphetamine possession under Health and Safety Code section 11377, subdivision (a), and misdemeanor possession of paraphernalia (id., § 11364, subd. (a)). The information also alleged that Beres had suffered a prior strike conviction (§§ 667, subds. (b) through (j), 1170.12) in 2010 for residential burglary (§§ 459, 460, subd. (a)), that she had served prior prison terms in connection with four prior convictions (§ 667.5, subd. (b)), and that her prior convictions made her ineligible for probation (§ 1203, subd. (e)(4)).