California Court of Appeal

Conviction and sentence for assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and attempting to dissuade a witness from testifying are affirmed where: 1) defendant's phone call asking a third party to deliver a message to a witness that she should not testify against him was an attempt to dissuade a witness under Penal Code section 136.1(a)(2); 2) giving an unnecessary CALJIC No. 2.61 instruction to jurors was not prejudicial error; 3) the court properly applied Penal Code section 1170.15 in sentencing defendant; and 4) the court did not violate Cunningham v. California by imposing an upper term for assault.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/19/2007
• Published 09/19/2007

Judges

• GILBERT, P.J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Susan Pochter Stone, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, Santa Barbara, for Defendant and Appellant., Edmund G. Brown, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Scott A. Taryle, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Erika D. Jackson, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.