People v. Porter CA1/1

I. BACKGROUND1

On the night of March 25-26, 2010, Flores and her cousins, Christina and Stephanie, and their friends, Sandra, Anna, and Carla, were returning from a club in Bay Point to their Richmond homes in a van driven by Christina. They left the club around 1:30 a.m. on March 26. During the approximately two and one-half hours they spent at the club, Flores received several calls (which she did not answer) from her boyfriend Jorge Ponce, with whom she had a “sketchy” or “rough” relationship. While they were stopped at a stoplight in Richmond at approximately 2:00 a.m., a Buick driven by Porter pulled up to the right side of Christina’s van. Porter and his passenger began talking to Flores and the other women in the van. Christina drove away, but Porter followed. Christina drove around the block, thought she had lost Porter, and then stopped at Sandra’s house, where Sandra, Anna, and Flores got out. Flores told her friends she did not want to return to her own apartment because her boyfriend was there. As Christina was driving away from Sandra’s house, Porter pulled up to the house in the Buick. Sandra and Anna went into the house; Flores walked over to Porter’s car and began…