California Court of Appeal

Conviction for assault with a deadly weapon and by force likely to produce great bodily injury is reversed where the trial court abused its discretion by authorizing a uniformed and armed deputy sheriff to stand or sit behind defendant during his testimony based on: 1) the court's failure to inquire whether defendant posed any danger to courtroom security; 2) the absence of a showing defendant presented such a danger; 3) the likelihood that the challenged procedure prejudiced defendant in juror's eyes; and 4) the refusal to give a cautionary instruction that might have diminished the possibility that the jury would infer from the deployment of the armed guard that defendant was dangerous and untrustworthy.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/13/2009
• Published 07/13/2009

Judges

• KLINE, P.J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Gail E. Chesney By Appointment of the Court of Appeal Under the First DistrictAppellate ProjectAssisted-Case System, for Appellant/Petitioner on Habeas Corpus.


• For Appellees:
  
• Edmund G. Brown Jr., Attorney General Dane R. Gillette, Chief Asst. Atty., General GeraldA. Engler, Senior Asst. Atty., General ReneA. Chacon, Supervising Dep. Atty. Gen., Joan Killeen, Deputy Attorney General, for Respondent.