People v. Cardenas CA5

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Shortly after 5:00 p.m. on July 29, 2009, Albert Schopp was seen leaving his house in Modesto driving his blue Chevrolet. Around 6:00 p.m., Stanislaus County Deputy Sheriff Luke Schwartz was dispatched to Boulder Avenue and Broadway Avenue on the report of a shooting. He saw an older Chevrolet parked in the middle of the roadway. It appeared that the rear window had been shot out. The victim was lying on the ground outside the driver’s-side door with one foot still in the car. Schopp died of a gunshot wound to the head.

1Subsequent statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise specified.

2. Witnesses reported that a sport utility vehicle (SUV) had been following or chasing Schopp’s car right before the shooting. Witnesses saw someone in the SUV with a firearm, although accounts of the size of the weapon and the armed person’s location within the SUV varied. Schopp’s stepbrother, Erick Fernandez, and Fernandez’s friend, Dario Rios, had been riding in the Chevrolet with Schopp. Fernandez told a detective that a blue SUV had chased them; Schopp told his passengers to get down and, after Fernandez ducked down, he heard one gunshot. Jose…