People v. Johnson

Defendant William Charles Johnson appeals from his conviction of attempted murder of his girlfriend and related charges and enhancements that resulted in a sentence of 60 years to life. The issues on appeal concern the trial court’s admission of evidence of two prior incidents involving domestic violence under Evidence Code sections 1101 and 1109, as well as a jury instruction relating to that evidence. We find no error in the evidentiary rulings and find the instructional error harmless.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Defendant, whose nickname was “Mookie,” and the victim, Nicole Henderson, had grown up in the same neighborhood in Oakland and had been friends since Henderson’s teenage years in the late 1980’s. By 2004, they had become romantically involved, and defendant had moved in with Henderson and her two sons about two years before the events in question. The relationship was deteriorating by late 2006 because Henderson could no longer tolerate defendant’s drug abuse and his threats against her. She told him that if he could not get off drugs she would leave him. He said if she left, “somebody was going to die.” Somebody almost did.

While Henderson was…