People v. Ragan CA3

BACKGROUND

We take the facts of defendant’s crimes from our unpublished opinion affirming his conviction. Cameo James (Jodi), who by all accounts ran a drug house and was charged as a codefendant in this case, committed suicide after pleading guilty to the possession and sale of various drugs. Her teenage son, C. J., and various neighbors testified for the prosecution and presented compelling evidence that defendant either spearheaded the narcotics business or aided and abetted Jodi’s operation out of her house on Oakview Drive in Roseville. C. J. testified defendant lived with him and his mother for several months until a few days before a SWAT team descended on the house, confiscated drugs and weapons from throughout the house, and arrested his mother. He saw defendant with a .38-caliber handgun while defendant was living at the house. Jodi’s mother testified that on one occasion while defendant was living with her daughter, she went to visit. Although she saw Jodi’s car parked in the driveway, defendant would not allow her in the house. When she persisted, defendant told her to “get the hell off of that porch,” followed by a threat that if she did not leave, he had “a .38 that…