People v. Garcia CA6

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Offenses Because Garcia pleaded no contest, we draw the description below of his offenses from the preliminary hearing. Garcia was a member of a gang. Early in the morning of July 13, 2013, Ricardo Angel Espana, a fellow gang member, drove Garcia in San José. Around 2:50 a.m., they screeched to a halt next to a garage where David Pineda, his cousin, and several friends were gathered with the door open. Without saying a word, Garcia fired a shotgun blast from the passenger’s seat into the garage. Although Pineda had anticipated an attack and tried to run, the blast him in the head. As a result, Pineda lost vision in his right eye, and because he fell to the ground, one of his teeth was cracked in half, and his nose was broken. Minutes later, around 3:00 a.m., two men stopped a car near Juan Antonio Garcia Garduno, who was parked waiting for a friend. When Garduno later drove away, Garcia told Garduno to stop and then fired four shotgun blasts into the side of Garduno’s car. Afterwards, Garduno, who was unharmed, called the police and described the other car. Around 3:30 a.m., a police officer spotted a car matching Garduno’s description. The car was moving…