People v. Mejia CA1/1

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL

BACKGROUND

Early on the morning of December 21, 2011, R.L. was walking home in the Mission District of San Francisco after having two beers at a bar nearby. As she arrived at the house where she was staying, she noticed a “Latin” male with a shaved head and wearing a black hooded sweatshirt walking toward her, “hugging the wall” of the house. He approached her and demanded her cell phone, but she refused to give it to him. He then pulled out a black handgun and held it against her head while threatening to kill her. Based on her experience shooting handguns, she believed the gun “was fake” because it felt too light when pressed against her temple. The man shoved R.L. into the wall, at which point she “panicked and . . . started screaming.” The man ran across the street, and R.L. testified he then entered the passenger’s side of a “black SUV” illegally parked in some neighbors’ driveway. She ran into the street to try to get its license-plate number, and the SUV “was put into reverse at a speed that [one] would not drive to casually back out of a space.” Believing the driver intended to hit her, R.L. jumped out of the way. Before the SUV left the scene,…