Neuman

A jury convicted defendant of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a minor (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a)). He was granted probation. He appeals, claiming the trial court erroneously denied his Wheeler/Batson challenge to the prosecutor’s use of peremptories. We disagree and affirm. The facts surrounding defendant’s conviction are irrelevant to this appeal.

Issue and Discussion

The prosecutor exercised his first peremptory challenge against a Hispanic prospective juror. He exercised his second against an African-American prospective juror. His third was against a prospective juror defense counsel asserted was Latino, based only on his accent. The trial court later concluded that his accent was not that of a Hispanic, but of someone from the South, with which defense counsel appeared to agree. The court said it had no idea what this person’s ethnicity was and defense counsel failed to make any assertion in response. The prosecution’s fourth peremptory was exercised against a person who the trial court guessed, based on her name only, was Southeast Asian. After this, defense counsel challenged the prosecutor’s use of peremptories under Wheeler/Batson, claiming all four…