People v. Belton CA3

BACKGROUND

Defendant was involved in robbing and killing the victim, Baljinder Kumar, on or about December 16, 2010. Defendant and two juveniles, Kevin Hjellum (also referred to as Nathaniel L. or Nate) and Monica Elizabeth Ortiz, discussed robbing Kumar, a drug dealer, in his car. Kumar was strangled and his body was left near Hood-Franklin Road in rural Sacramento County.1 Defendant spoke to a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer when she was arrested in Oroville while driving Kumar’s car on December 19, 2010, the day after Kumar’s body was found. She told the officer that her father gave her the car to drive. Early the next morning she told the same story to Sacramento detectives. In a later interrogation that day, she admitted strangling Kumar and helping to dump his body. At trial, defendant testified she did not kill Kumar. Although she knew Hjellum and Ortiz discussed robbing him during a fake drug deal, she did not take them seriously. However, she got into Kumar’s car with them, and put a belt around Kumar’s neck, because she thought Hjellum was going to hit her with a rock. Then Hjellum jumped in the back and began to strangle Kumar. At that point, defendant got out…