People v. Rivas CA4/3

FACTS

One October night, Rivas attacked a female jogger with a knife. Although he managed to inflict several stab wounds, the victim escaped. The vicitm told investigating officers she thought the man intended to rob her. She offered him her iPod and cell phone, but that did not stop the attack. When police officers later located and arrested him, Rivas asked them, “How did you catch me?” Rivas told the officers he had been drinking with friends all day, and he sometimes forgets things after drinking. He only remembered coming home and throwing his knife on the ground outside his house before going to bed. Officers found a couple of items that linked Rivas to the crime. They found a knife near the location of Rivas’s arrest. The knife had Rivas’s and the victim’s blood on it. In Rivas’s house, the officers found a pair of blood-stained gloves. The blood on the gloves also matched Rivas and the victim. Rivas did not testify at trial. His friend, Justin Yorba, said he and Christian Lloyd spent the afternoon of the attack with Rivas at Yorba’s house. At one point, they drank some beer, and smoked a joint. Rivas showed Yorba his knife. Rivas and Lloyd left Yorba’s house around 7:30…