People v. Mendoza CA4/1

Filed 3/29/24 P. v. Mendoza 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NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, D082397

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. No. SCD292374)

ALFREDO MENDOZA,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Joan P. Weber, Judge. Affirmed. Richard L. Fitzer, 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, Assistant Attorney General, Eric A. Swenson and Christine Y. Friedman, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Alfredo Mendoza appeals from a judgment imposed after a jury

convicted him of assault with a deadly weapon (Pen. Code,1 § 245, subd. (a)(1); count one) and attempting to prevent or discourage a witness from seeking or causing his arrest (§ 136.1, subd. (b)(3); count two). He contends: (1) there is insufficient evidence that he attempted to dissuade a witness from reporting a crime; and (2) the trial court should have instructed the jury that it had to agree unanimously on which of two possible weapons he used to commit the assault with a deadly weapon. Finding no error, we affirm the judgment. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND On the night of April 3, 2021, Diego A. and his wife were at home with their four children. Shortly after 10:00 p.m., their teenage daughter looked through her bedroom window and saw a stranger in the yard. She was scared and screamed. Diego ran to her room and looked out the window. He saw a man later identified as Mendoza in the backyard in front of his daughter’s window. Diego opened the window and yelled, “What are you doing?” Mendoza took off running. Diego went through the window after him. Diego’s wife called 911. Mendoza jumped over a fence into Rafael M.’s backyard. Rafael came out of his house. He and Diego grabbed Mendoza as he tried to climb over another fence. Mendoza told the men “to let him go, that he didn’t want any trouble.” He promised that “he wasn’t going to come back.” While Mendoza was trying to get over the fence, Rafael saw him swinging a sharp object towards them in a slashing motion behind his back. Another neighbor arrived to help detain Mendoza. When they got Mendoza down from the fence, they “told him the police were coming, and he