People v. Sanders CA2/7

INTRODUCTION

When counsel for a defendant informs the court of a belief that the defendant may be mentally incompetent, the court must suspend the criminal prosecution until the court determines whether the defendant is competent to stand trial. If the court, after ordering an examination of the defendant and holding a competency hearing, concludes the defendant is competent to stand trial, the court makes that finding and resumes the criminal prosecution. The issue in this appeal is whether the trial court made a sufficient finding that the defendant was competent to stand trial before the court resumed the prosecution. Because we conclude that the court made a sufficient finding of competence, we affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND1

A. The Assault At approximately 6:45 a.m. on May 12, 2013 Christopher Wong went to a drug store in Los Angeles to shoot a promotional video for the store. After he walked through the store with his producer, he went outside to his car to get his professional camera equipment and a metal tripod. Wong found a shopping cart near the entrance of the store, and put his equipment into the cart so he could take it to the area of the “shoot.” As…