People v. Cooper CA3

BACKGROUND

In his opening brief, defendant provided a background that the People adopted in their respondent’s brief. In September 1979, when defendant was 22 years old, he struck a victim on the back of her neck. She passed out and defendant took her purse. Defendant pleaded guilty to robbery and he was sentenced to three years of formal probation. In March 1987, defendant was arrested while carrying a videocassette machine from a home. He pleaded guilty to residential burglary and was sentenced to four years in prison. In February 1992, defendant broke into a home. Convicted of residential burglary, the trial court imposed 16 years in prison. Then, in September 2000, a neighbor reported seeing someone on the porch of a house that had a broken window. Sheriff’s deputies caught defendant climbing over a fence in the backyard. When the homeowners returned, they reported two rooms disturbed and a window broken. Defendant was convicted of first degree burglary. Defendant said his father abused his mother, and his mother abused defendant and his five siblings. Defendant’s parents divorced when defendant was 11 years old and his mother remarried when he was 14 years old. Defendant…