People v. Flores CA2/1

BACKGROUND

A. Prosecution Case On August 23, 2020, the date of the events at issue, Jossue Lopez1 and his friend Kristian Ramos met up with defendant Flores and his friend Colin Hendricks at Venice Beach. A few months before, a mutual friend introduced Flores to Lopez, and the two men regularly played online video games together but did not meet in person until the gathering at Venice Beach. Lopez and Ramos had been friends for years, but Lopez had disassociated from him in recent months due to Ramos’s aggressive behavior while intoxicated. On two occasions within the previous year or two, Ramos punched Lopez for no apparent reason after drinking alcohol. Nonetheless, when Ramos asked Lopez to get together with him in the afternoon on August 23, 2020, Lopez agreed.2 A short time later, Lopez received a message from Flores, inviting Lopez to join Flores and his friend at the beach. When Lopez and Ramos arrived at Venice Beach between 4:00 and 4:30 p.m., they had already been drinking from a bottle of vodka Ramos had purchased. For the next few hours, they sat near a drum circle on the beach, drinking vodka, beer, and

1 Lopez testified at trial for the prosecution, and during…