People v. Lopez CA4/3

STATEMENT OF FACTS2

On the evening of March 16, 2012, Juan Morales and his friend Angel Bravo Gonzalez were celebrating Morales’ birthday at Gonzalez’s apartment in Anaheim near the corner of Juno and Roberts Avenues. Around 1:00 a.m. (by this point, on March 17, 2012), Morales asked Gonzalez for a ride home. Morales had been drinking, but according to Gonzalez, he was in a happy mood and was still able to walk and function normally. Morales went outside first, and began hitting a tree in front of the apartment with an object. One witness testified Morales was swinging a

1 Effective June 30, 2022, Penal Code section 1170.95 was

renumbered section 1172.6, with no change in text (Stats. 2022, ch. 58, § 10); all further undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code. 2 The facts in this section are gleaned from the trial transcripts,

which the trial court reviewed in making its decision.

2 bat at the tree. To this witness, he seemed intoxicated and like he was “screwing around.” However, Gonzalez said he and his roommate kept an ax by the front door for protection, and Morales was playfully hitting the tree with that. He said he told Morales to put the ax back, as the…