People v. Meredith CA4/1

Filed 10/25/23 P. v. Meredith CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

THE PEOPLE, D082243

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. No. RIF2002655)

RODNEY MITCHELL MEREDITH,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Riverside County, Louis R. Hanoian, Judge. Affirmed. Alissa Bjerkhoel, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Senior Assistant Attorney General, A. Natasha Cortina, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Christine M. L. Bergman and Lynne G. McGinnis, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

MEMORANDUM OPINION1 In this appeal, we consider and reject Rodney Mitchell Meredith’s sole contention that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion to dismiss two strike prior convictions pursuant to People v. Superior Court (Romero) (1996) 13 Cal.4th 497 (Romero). The evidence at trial established that sometime in the early morning of July 28, 2020, S.H. was shot in the left leg in the parking lot between a motel and diner. He underwent surgery to repair a broken femur as a result of the gunshot wound. Police obtained surveillance footage from the motel and diner. It showed that Meredith emerged from his motel room with a semiautomatic handgun at about 1:30 a.m. on July 27, approached S.H., raised his right hand and “possibly fired” a shot at S.H. In response, S.H. ducked and crouched, and then walked away while Meredith returned to his room. At about 1:54 a.m., Meredith returned to the parking lot with the handgun. He raised it to a shooting position, fired it, brought it down to his side, placed the gun in his waistband, and returned to his room. Police found two spent 9-millimeter shell casings in the parking lot that came from a Glock-type pistol. After Meredith was arrested four hours later at a nearby location, police found an unexpended 9-millimeter round in his motel room that had the same head stamp as the two fired shell casings found in the parking lot. A jury convicted Meredith of assault with a semi-automatic firearm