People v. Alvarez CA2/6

Filed 4/25/22 P. v. Alvarez 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NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

THE PEOPLE, 2d Crim. No. B313110 (Super. Ct. No. 2020013105) Plaintiff and Respondent, (Ventura County)

v.

ALAIN ALVAREZ,

Defendant and Appellant.

Alain Alvarez appeals the judgment entered after a jury convicted him of inflicting corporal injury on a person with whom he had a dating relationship (Pen. Code,1 § 273.5, subd. (a)). The trial court granted appellant’s request to reduce the charge to a misdemeanor and placed him on three years of probation with terms and conditions including that he serve 90 days in county jail. Appellant raises claims of evidentiary, prosecutorial, and cumulative error. We affirm.

All statutory references are to the Penal Code unless 1

otherwise noted.

STATEMENT OF FACTS Prosecution Appellant and A.R. met in January 2020 and began dating. In the early morning hours of May 6, 2020, Ventura County Deputy Sheriff Conrad Meadows and his partner were dispatched to appellant’s apartment regarding a noise complaint. The deputies entered the apartment and saw appellant, his mother Columba Ceja, and his sister L., who was 17 at the time of trial. While searching the apartment for other people, Deputy Meadows opened a downstairs bathroom door and saw A.R. inside the bathroom. A.R. had bruises and scratch marks on her chest, her nose was bleeding, and blood was on the bathroom wall. When asked about her injuries, A.R. said she had been pushed into a wall as she and Ceja attempted to physically restrain appellant, who was highly intoxicated, from leaving the apartment. In phone calls appellant made to A.R. from jail after his arrest, A.R. said “you kinda like uppercutted me” and “got my fuckin’ nose and my lip.” At trial, A.R. testified that she and appellant had been drinking on the night of the incident and that her injuries were the result of a fall on the stairs outside appellant’s apartment as she attempted to help appellant when he stumbled. She denied that appellant had punched her and claimed that her blood somehow ended up on the bathroom wall while she was cleaning her face. L. testified that she was sleeping upstairs when she heard appellant arguing with A.R. and Ceja. L. went downstairs and saw appellant moving toward the door as if he were about to leave the apartment. L. persuaded appellant to stay and went back upstairs. She subsequently heard a thump and went back