People v. Cervantes CA4/3

FACTS

Around 10:30 p.m. on February 8, 2021, R.D., a delivery driver for a medical marijuana business, was making her last delivery to an address at Katella Avenue in Anaheim. After she parked and exited her delivery van, a man approached her. The man posed as her delivery customer, grabbed her wrist, and said he needed her keys. The man pointed a handgun at her stomach. She gave him the keys, and the man got into the van. She asked for her phone, and the man threw it out the van before driving away. R.D. called 911. The van, which had a GPS tracker, was tracked to an address in Fullerton, about a few miles from the site of the carjacking, and a police helicopter was dispatched to the area. The tactical flight officer in the helicopter spotted a van matching the description of, and later confirmed to be, the stolen van.1 The van was on the street near an SUV as police vehicles approached. The tactical flight officer saw an individual, later identified as Cervantes, flee the van. A police vehicle followed and stopped

1 The video footage from the helicopter was also played at trial.

2 the SUV. The driver of the SUV was a woman who identified herself as Denise Cervantes-Sandoval.…