People v. Vientresca CA5

FACTS

First Incident On September 22, 2019, appellant and his girlfriend of one year, E.P., were in the process of breaking up. They had gotten into an argument, and she went into another bedroom to sleep. In the middle of the night, appellant woke E.P. up and confronted her with accusations of her cheating on him. He had jumped on top of her, and inserted his fingers into her vagina, but E.P. could not remember whether he pulled down her pajama pants to do so. He went on to grab her, choke her, and slap her, and she testified she felt she might die. At one point, he pulled a knife on her and held it against her throat. E.P. eventually was able to get to her laptop in another room and sent a message to a friend for help. The police arrived, and appellant pulled E.P. into a closet and held her there. After the police were unsuccessful in making contact with appellant and E.P., the police eventually had to force entry into the residence. At that point, appellant pushed E.P. out of the closet and told her she could go but remained in the closet. The police then tried to negotiate with appellant to come out of the closet, and he told them he was armed with a knife, which officers,…