People v. Williams CA1/2

BACKGROUND

In February 2019, the San Mateo District Attorney charged Williams, as well as Ronette Marlene Torres, who was not tried with Williams and is not a party to this appeal, with one count of multiple identity theft (Pen. Code, § 530.5, subd. (c)(3)1) and ten counts of identity theft with a prior conviction (id., subd. (c)(2)). The prosecutor sought to prove these charges through circumstantial evidence connecting Williams to the activities occurring in the hotel room in 2019 and evidence from a 2015 incident. I. The 2019 Incident On January 8, 2019, at about 9:00 a.m., a South San Francisco police officer went to a South San Francisco hotel room as part of an investigation into the possible abuse of credit cards at the hotel involving a third party who was a registered guest for a hotel room rented to another third party. The officer never determined if the room was legitimately rented or not. Outside the hotel room door, the officer first knocked and announced he was “housekeeping,” upon which he heard “rustling throughout the room.” After a couple of minutes, he announced himself as a police officer and ordered the occupants to open the door. He heard more rustling,…