People v. Minjarez CA4/2

I. INTRODUCTION

A jury found defendant and appellant Michael Oscar Minjarez guilty as charged of

attempting to deter, or resisting, by force or violence, an executive officer in the

performance of the officer’s duty. (Pen. Code, § 69.)1 The trial court found that

defendant had two prior strike convictions (§ 667, subds. (c), (e)(1)), and sentenced him

to four years in state prison (the middle term of 2 years, doubled, based on 1 of the prior

strike convictions).

In this appeal, defendant raises two claims of prejudicial trial error:

(1) insufficient evidence supports the knowledge element of his conviction for violating

section 69—that is, he claims insufficient evidence shows he knew that the officers he

attempted to deter, or resisted, were police officers; and (2) a video taken by the body

camera of one of the officers who did not testify, Sergeant C., was erroneously admitted

because it was not authenticated. We conclude that substantial evidence supports the

knowledge element of defendant’s conviction for violating section 69, and that any error

in admitting Sergeant C.’s body-camera video was harmless. Thus, we affirm the

judgment.

II. BACKGROUND

On…