People v. Meyers CA3

BACKGROUND

On May 29, 2012, officers saw victim Alexis M. engage in a hand-to-hand drug sale from a parked car. The officers’ subsequent investigation of the drug sales revealed that Alexis M. had recently received a beating from her boyfriend, defendant Jesse Manule Myers. The victim had dark bruising around both of her eyes as well as bruising on her arm and chest. When questioned about the bruising, she initially claimed she fell off a wood pile. She subsequently admitted that defendant, her boyfriend with whom she

1 lived, had beaten her severely several days before. The officers transported her to the hospital, where an MRI revealed “left globe bleeding and an underlying skull base fracture.” A jury found defendant guilty of inflicting corporal injury to a cohabitant, a felony. (Pen. Code, § 273.5.) Defendant had a lengthy criminal record that included two previous convictions related to domestic violence, one of which resulted in a plea to misdemeanor assault in 2001 and another resulting in a felony conviction for corporal injury to a cohabitant in 2003. He had a drug-related felony conviction in 2005 and a number of other misdemeanor convictions. He denied committing the…