People v. Toms CA2/3

I. Factual background.

Olga Guerra owned a gold Mercedes. On April 18, 2014, it was stolen. A few days later, on April 21, Anthony and Cristina Anguiano were home.1 Upon investigating a noise from the garage, they saw a man in their car. Cristina yelled. The man ran to a brown or gold Mercedes with Penske plates, driven by a second man, who Cristina identified at trial and from a photographic six pack as Toms.2 Cristina was in front of the Mercedes when Toms stepped on the gas. “At that point, I put my hands on the hood of the car to push myself away from the car, and my forearm struck the front” of the car. After the car struck Cristina’s forearm, the car stopped and the second man got in. Cristina was still standing “in the corner of the vehicle” when it moved and struck her again. Cristina “rolled off the car.” The car “made her spin around the car with her arm.” Cristina’s forearm was bruised, and she “got hit” on her thigh. Toms was arrested later that day about four miles away. He was next to a gold Mercedes with Penske plates, which Guerra later identified as her car. Toms’s fingerprints were on the car.

II. Procedural background.

On August 28, 2014, a jury found…