People v. Jimenez CA5

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

The Stanislaus County District Attorney filed an information charging Jimenez with one count of premeditated murder with personal use of a knife. (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a); § 12022, subd. (b)).1 The jury found Jimenez guilty of first degree murder and that he personally used a knife. Consequently, the court sentenced him to 25 years to life for premeditated murder, plus one year consecutive for the knife-use enhancement.

BACKGROUND

Around November 2016, Jimenez, his wife, and their three daughters moved into an apartment in Ceres, California shared by approximately ten people. Jimenez separated from his wife around January 2017 and moved to Santa Rosa, California. Jimenez traveled from Santa Rosa to Ceres to see his daughters about once a week. In February 2017, Jimenez’s wife began dating another man. A few days before February 26, 2017,2 Jimenez arrived in Ceres and stayed in the apartment, sleeping in his wife’s bedroom. On the night of either February 24 or 25, Jimenez argued with his wife about a broken cell phone, telling her to have her new boyfriend purchase her a new phone. On February 26, messages were sent from Jimenez’s wife’s new cell phone…