People v. Evans CA2/7

Filed 3/17/21 P. v. Evans CA2/7 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 SEVEN

THE PEOPLE, B299953 Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. NA071649) v. KEVIN EVANS, Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Daniel J. Lowenthal, Judge. Affirmed. Cindy Brines, 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, Senior Assistant Attorney General, David E. Madeo, Acting Supervising Deputy Attorney General, and Thomas C. Hsieh, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

INTRODUCTION

Kevin Evans pleaded no contest in 2006 to inflicting corporal injury on his wife. The trial court placed him on formal probation for five years. Evans did not comply with his probation conditions and left California in 2009. In 2019, following a contested probation violation hearing, the trial court found Evans had violated probation, terminated Evans’s probation, and sentenced Evans to three years in state prison. Evans contends that the trial court erred by allegedly failing to provide a statement of reasons for its decision to sentence Evans to state prison. Evans also argues his counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to object to the trial court’s alleged failure to state its reasons for sentencing Evans to prison. We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Evans’s No Contest Plea and Grant of Probation On September 13, 2006 Evans punched his pregnant wife five to six times in the head and once in her face. She suffered a fractured mandible. On September 29, 2006 Evans pleaded no contest to one count of corporal injury to spouse or cohabitant. (Pen. Code, § 273.5, subd. (a).) The trial court suspended imposition of sentence and placed Evans on formal probation for five years with several conditions. On February 2, 2009 the probation department filed a report recommending Evans’s probation be revoked and the court issue a bench warrant. Evans had moved to Las Vegas in January 2009, despite instructions from his probation officer to remain in Los Angeles County until his interstate compact transfer had been processed. The transfer had been previously denied because