In re N.M. CA2/6

Filed 8/3/21 In re N.M. CA2/6

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

In re N.M., a Person Coming 2d Juv. No. B304412 Under the Juvenile Court Law. (Super. Ct. No. MJ24625) (Los Angeles County)

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

N.M.,

Defendant and Appellant.

N.M. appeals a dispositional order declaring him a ward of the court and placing him home on probation. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 602.) The order follows the juvenile court’s finding that N.M. committed assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)(4)) and made criminal threats (Id., § 422, subd. (a)). N.M. contends the court erred when it found him competent to proceed to adjudication and

refused to appoint a second expert to opine on this issue. N.M. also contends the juvenile court lacked sufficient evidence to sustain the allegations that he committed the charged offenses. We affirm the dispositional order. FACTUAL BACKGROUND Los Angeles County Sheriff deputy Adan Ordaz responded to a domestic disturbance call at a Lancaster home on July 8, 2019. He saw appellant N.M. standing outside the house yelling profanities at the occupants of a car in the driveway. Deputy Ordaz detained N.M. in his patrol car and began interviewing those at the scene. N.M.’s mother, told the deputy that her son’s girlfriend K.F. walked into her bedroom visibly upset after an argument with N.M. K.F. did not want to talk about why she was upset. N.M. entered the bedroom a few minutes later and the two minors walked out, only to resume arguing loudly. N.M.’s mother called 911 when she tried but failed to calm them down. She told the deputy she saw her son pull K.F. into his bedroom, pick her up, then throw her to the floor. Deputy Ordaz recalled K.F. shaking and crying when he interviewed her. She said the argument began when she declined N.M.’s sexual advances and tried to leave his bedroom. He pulled her back into the bedroom and threw her on top of a mattress. He punched her multiple times in the arm and leg then choked her hard enough to block her breathing for about 20 seconds. She ran to N.M.’s mother’s bedroom but N.M. persuaded her to come out. He again pulled her into his bedroom, picked her up, then “slammed” her to the ground. When K.F. told N.M. she would tell her brothers what he had done, he told her “he would get a gun and kill . . . her brothers and . . . her” if she did so. She said