People v. Johnson CA3

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

A detailed recitation of the facts underlying the offense is unnecessary to the resolution of the issues on appeal. Instead of stopping in response to a California Highway Patrol officer’s activation of emergency lights and the siren, defendant accelerated to twice the legal speed limit and ran a red light before losing control of his vehicle, skidding through a ditch and crashing into a stop sign. The jury found defendant guilty of reckless evasion of a pursuing peace officer. In a bifurcated proceeding, the jury found true that defendant had sustained a prior conviction for robbery in Washington. The trial court found the robbery conviction constituted a strike, as the statutory definitions of robbery in Washington and California were similar. The trial court denied defendant’s request to dismiss his prior strike and sentenced defendant to the upper prison term of three years, doubled to six years for the strike.

DISCUSSION

I

Instructional Error

Defendant contends his conviction must be reversed because the trial court misspoke when charging the jury with the instruction on the prosecution’s burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. He contends the…