People v. Cheam CA2/3

BACKGROUND

We view the trial evidence in the light most favorable to the judgment. (People v. Ochoa (1993) 6 Cal.4th 1199, 1206.) At approximately 5:30 p.m. on October 9, 2012, Long Beach Police Officer Daniel Mendoza received a call to respond to 1030 Grand Avenue concerning a battery. On the ground level, next to an apartment complex, the officer found a wounded woman and a female teenager with an injury to her leg. A number of persons were standing with them outside the complex. No one spoke English. Sunra Sorn (Sorn), the occupant of apartment No. 8, pointed upstairs to her apartment. About twenty minutes later, appellant surrendered himself to the police and came downstairs from apartment No. 8. The officers recovered two knives from the unit: one covered with dried blood in a kitchen drawer and another folding utility knife, which was located behind the couch in the living room. Sorn pointed out the knives for the officers. After the uniformed officers responded, Long Beach Police Officer Udom Sawai (Officer Sawai), a detective who spoke Khmer, also responded.2 Initially, he spoke to the victims who were sitting outside apartment No. 8 with the other onlookers. Officer…