People v. Salazar CA4/2

BACKGROUND

In January 2025, the People filed a first amended information charging Salazar

with making a criminal threat (§ 422), inflicting corporal injury on a spouse (§ 273.5,

subd. (a)), assault with a deadly weapon (§ 245, subd. (a)(1)), false imprisonment (§ 236),

and preventing or dissuading a witness from reporting a crime (§ 136.1, subd. (b)(1)).

The People alleged that he used a deadly weapon in the commission of the corporal

injury count (§§ 12022, subd. (b)(1), 1192.7, subd. (c)(23)), and they alleged as

aggravating factors that he took advantage of a position of trust and confidence (Cal.

Rules of Court, rule 4.421(a)(11)) and was armed with and used a deadly weapon (Cal.

Rules of Court, rule 4.421(a)(2)). The information also alleged that Salazar had a prior

strike conviction. (§§ 667, subds. (c) & (e)(1), 1170.12, subd. (c)(1).)

At trial, the victim testified that she and Salazar were married for “almost

years.” She lived with Salazar and her two youngest daughters in a house in Cathedral

City, and her oldest daughter (Karen) lived with her husband (Jonathan) in a “casita”

behind the main house.

2 By December 2021, the victim had been asking Salazar…