People v. Orozco CA3

FACTS

Defendant, a felon, testified at trial that he beat his girlfriend Judith Sepulveda, the mother of his two children. He was 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 230 pounds. In August 2010 Sepulveda worked full time, and defendant was unemployed. They lived in the same apartment building as the victim. Fed up in part because defendant failed to pick up the children from their after-school program and had watched television and slept rather than cleaning the apartment, on the evening of August 25, 2010, she told him to leave the apartment. She went to bed but kept her car keys with her. She awoke around midnight and saw defendant standing in the living room. She said, “I don’t know what you’re doing. I don’t know what you’re up to. I don’t know what you’re on, but you need to get out of my house.” There were no witnesses and none of the neighbors heard the victim in distress. Defendant testified that while he was smoking outside his apartment sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. he saw some keys on the ground, and by clicking on the remote device, he determined that they belonged to his upstairs neighbor. Although he claimed he did not know his neighbor, he wanted to return…