People v. Amezcua CA2/6

Facts At 2:15 a.m. on July 9, 2011, Officer Rolando Tejeda was dispatched to the scene of a vehicular collision. A Ford Mustang had struck a utility pole and chain link fence. The utility pole had fallen on the Mustang. Both front airbags had deployed. Two persons - Denise Lopez and appellant - were standing nearby. Lopez told Tejeda that she had been driving the vehicle. She said that appellant had stopped to help her and that she did not know him. Appellant told Officer Tejeda that Lopez was his girlfriend. He was a passenger in a friend's vehicle that had been following Lopez's Mustang. When the Mustang collided with the utility pole and fence, "his friend dropped him off and left the collision scene." Tejeda requested the name of the friend, but appellant did not reply. Officer Tejeda noticed that a Blackberry phone on the driver's side floorboard of the Mustang appeared to match an empty phone case that was strapped to appellant's belt. But the position of the driver's seat "was consistent with someone of a short stature," and appellant was about six feet tall. Appellant displayed symptoms of intoxication: an "odor of alcohol, red watery eyes, . . .…