People v. Baldonado CA4/1

INTRODUCTION

Margie Nieves Baldonado appeals her conviction for first degree murder. She asserts the trial court erred by denying her motion to suppress evidence. The evidence she sought to exclude was the location of another person’s vehicle obtained from an automatic license plate reader database. Given that Baldonado did not own the vehicle and was not in the vehicle at the time of the data collection, we conclude she is not entitled to assert a Fourth Amendment challenge to exclude this evidence. At Baldonado’s request, we have also reviewed the reporter’s transcript of an in camera hearing for potential exculpatory evidence from the investigation of an unrelated murder and conclude the trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining no exculpatory evidence existed as part of that investigation. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment.

BACKGROUND

I. Trial Evidence Margarito Villasenor and Luis Sanchez were both members of the El Sereno Criminal Street Gang. In January 2021, Villasenor sent Sanchez

Facebook messages suggesting there was hostility between them.1 On February 2, 2021, Sanchez sent Baldonado messages on Facebook telling her he “want[ed] a rider” and asking…