People v. Mendoza CA2/1

BACKGROUND

1. The burglary Because defendant’s sole appellate contention pertains to his motion for self- representation after the jury convicted him of burglary at the first phase of the bifurcated trial, we set forth only a cursory summary of the evidence presented at trial. On the morning of January 12, 2012, defendant spoke to Maria Almaraz, asking which of two homes on the same lot she lived in. He then broke into the other home, where Maria Guerrero resided with her family, and took a black backpack, an Apple laptop computer, and some computer games and game consoles belonging to Guerrero’s grandson. Almaraz saw defendant climb out the window of Guerrero’s grandson’s bedroom and shouted at him and to Guerrero, who confronted defendant and demanded he surrender what he had stolen. Defendant denied stealing anything and walked to a bus stop, where he changed shirts. When a police officer stopped across the street from the bus stop, defendant abandoned the black backpack and a second backpack and ran. Police officers chased defendant and caught him. Almaraz and Guerrero identified him. The missing computer, game consoles, and games were recovered from the black backpack.…