People v. Washington CA1/4

I.

INTRODUCTION

Appellant Vincent Earl Washington, convicted by jury verdict of a domestic violence offense (Pen. Code, § 273.5, subds. (a), (e)), false imprisonment (§§ 236, 237, subd. (a)),1 and dissuading a witness from reporting a crime (§ 136.1, subd. (b)), appeals on two grounds: that evidence of prior incidents of domestic violence was erroneously admitted under Evidence Code section 1109, and that the dissuading a witness count should have been dropped to a misdemeanor (§ 17, subd. (b)). We reject appellant’s arguments and affirm the judgment.

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

II.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. Evidence of Domestic Violence Against Alleged Victim Danielle Carter About 5:50 a.m. on September 10, 2012, police responded to a neighbor’s report of a domestic quarrel between appellant and his girlfriend, Danielle Carter. Emauni Williams, Carter’s 18-year-old next door neighbor, heard appellant order Carter to get back into the house, and Carter refused. Reine Turner, a friend who was spending the night with Williams, saw a woman approach the front door and saw someone drag her into the house by her upper body, although she could not…