People v. Mejia CA3

I. BACKGROUND

On August 14, 2013, defendant’s son, C., was seven or eight years old. Mykel Hill had been raising C. since he was a baby. Hill also lived with his biological son, who was then four years old. The boys have the same mother, Lisa Belmontes. When Hill dropped C. off at his first day of school that morning, Hill had expressed concern that C. would be taken out of school by defendant and Belmontes. Consistent with these concerns, at noon, defendant arrived at Hill’s apartment with C. Hill testified defendant had not given him any notice that he would pick C. up from school or for the visit generally. When Hill opened the door, defendant said he had come for the low top tennis shoes he had purchased C. Defendant’s demeanor was not pleasant. After Hill found the shoes, he tossed them out the door at defendant’s feet using an underhand motion. He did this because he did not want defendant to enter: “There was no reason for him to come in, you know, come get them, they are his shoes, so he can go.” Defendant was standing about three feet away from the doorway and behind C.; the shoes hit the side of his foot. Defendant looked down at the shoes, and then entered the…