People v. Vindiola CA2/5

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Offense Conduct On June 16, 2008, Galvan and Michael “Minor” Trejo (Trejo), a local drug dealer who used his Covina apartment as his

1 Undesignated statutory references that follow are to the Penal Code.

2 base of operations, attacked Christopher “Spooks” Saucedo (Saucedo) because they did not want him near Trejo’s apartment. The following evening, at approximately 11:15 p.m., Trejo again saw Saucedo in the area of his (Trejo’s) apartment. Trejo also observed defendant’s automobile, a black Toyota Camry, and Wilson Omar Alfaro (Alfaro)’s vehicle, a white Nissan SUV, parked one behind the other. Moments earlier, Alfaro had come to Trejo’s apartment to complain about the poor quality of the methamphetamine he recently purchased from Trejo. Although he saw defendant’s vehicle, Trejo did not see defendant. After spotting Saucedo, Trejo asked his brother to contact Galvan, who arrived shortly thereafter. Because both Trejo and Galvan considered Saucedo an “enemy,” they went outside and confronted him. As they moved across the street, Trejo thought Saucedo was “acting funny”—he was just holding a cell phone but not looking at or talking on it and the screen…