People v. Gaston CA3

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The facts of the underlying offense are not at issue and need not be set forth in this opinion. On May 31, 2013, San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Correctional Officer Albert Carter noticed defendant sitting in the bunk bed area of a barracks at the Honor Farm. Defendant was showing an item to another inmate. As Officer Carter approached the area, defendant placed the item in the waistline of his pants. Officer Carter asked defendant to pull out his shirt from his pants. Defendant pulled out a white sock from his waistline and tossed it onto a bunk. Inside the sock was a metal bolt, approximately nine inches long, with threading on each end and a nut screwed onto each thread. The nuts were round and were not filed down or sharpened. However, the instrument could be rendered sharper by removing the nuts. A photograph of the instrument was admitted into evidence. (Exhibit A.) Officer Carter testified that the object was “a start of a tool to be transposed to a weapon or to make-shift to a weapon.”

Further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated.

2 Defendant’s counsel argued to the trial court, “I don’t think the…