People v. Sepulveda CA2/3

BACKGROUND

Viewed in accordance with the usual rule of appellate review (People v. Ochoa (1993) 6 Cal.4th 1199, 1206), the evidence established the following. 1. Prosecution evidence. a. The troubled marriage of Alvarez and Virginia. Defendant Alvarez had served on a U.S. Navy submarine until a too-rapid dive caused his eardrums to rupture. The Navy gave him a disability discharge. Alvarez subsequently worked as a telephone technician for AT&T. Virginia and Alvarez were married in 1996 and they lived in Pico Rivera. They had one son together and Virginia had a son from a former marriage. At the time of her death in 2003, Virginia was working as a secretary to the head of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Internal Affairs Bureau. In early 2001, Alvarez began an affair with Deanne Joe, a coworker at AT&T. Joe testified that, by April 2001, Alvarez had moved out of his house and was living on his boat. Asked if Alvarez had said anything about his marriage, Joe testified: “Just that he wasn’t happy, that [Virginia] seemed to be overbearing. And the example that he used is that he had to ask permission to make a sandwich if you were hungry.” Joe broke up with Alvarez in June 2002 when…