People v. Olloqui CA2/5

FACTS

Prosecution

On October 19, 2006, Injun Cho’s Print Shop was burglarized. Ricardo Ramirez, defendant’s roommate and a former Print Shop employee, brought computers and blank checks taken from the Print Shop back to the basement where they lived. Marcela Galindo forged signatures on the checks. Defendant was given two or three of the checks a few days later. Galindo and defendant’s friend, Judith Cabrera, cashed some of the checks at Maple Liquor and Market on 30th Street and Maple Avenue, which was owned by brothers Sam and Simon Khalil.4 When the forged checks were cashed, the money was either kept by the person who passed them, or divided. Cabrera split the proceeds of a forged check with defendant on one occasion.

We refer to the Khalils by their first names for clarity.

3 Cho closed the Print Shop’s checking account five days after the burglary. Sam and Simon stopped cashing checks from the Print Shop after several of the checks were returned unpaid. In the early afternoon of November 2, 2006, Simon was working in the market at the counter and Sam was behind a door in the restaurant section. Sam heard Steven Cuellar demand that Simon hand over “all the money.”…