People v. Avalos CA3

FACTS

On February 18, 2011, in a fit of road rage, defendant fired a gun multiple times at a truck that had hit and disabled his vehicle, shooting the driver as well as the truck. Defendant told Detective Timothy Bauer that he had been driving a car involved in a crash with a pickup truck. The truck’s driver sped through a red light, hit defendant’s car, and then left the scene. Defendant’s car was inoperable, but he told his two friends to chase the truck because it “seemed like [the truck’s driver] was trying to leave the scene.” But, after stopping briefly down the street, the truck came back toward defendant and then “everything just went crazy.” He knew there had been gunshots but denied owning a gun, though he had fired one at a shooting range a couple of weeks earlier--a .45-caliber pistol like the one recovered from the crime scene. Eventually, defendant admitted to Bauer that he had been carrying the gun in his car. He was angry because he was a hard-working man, he needed his car for commuting to work, and the truck driver (who was probably drunk) was trying to get away, so he tried to shoot the truck’s tires out as it passed. He then ran “like hell, just trying to get…