People v. Tobar CA1/4

I.

INTRODUCTION

Appellant Alfredo Junior Tobar was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury against a single victim. He claims on appeal that his silence after being given Miranda warnings (Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 (Miranda)) improperly was used to prove his guilt at trial. He also contends that his Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were further violated by: (1) the trial court instructing the jury that it could consider his post-Miranda silence in response to questions posed by the interrogator as adoptive admissions, (2) the use of an adoptive admission jury instruction that was incomplete, and (3) the prosecutor commenting on his silence during closing arguments. We reject these contentions and affirm the judgment.

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II.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

A. The Prosecution’s Case On July 21, 2012, appellant lived in the basement of the home of Johnny Ramos and his girlfriend, Carissa Trolesi, in Oakley. On that date, David Castellanos arrived at Ramos’s door asking for the return of his chainsaw. Appellant then called Ruben Ortiz on the phone and told him to come over to Ramos’s house because Castellanos…