People v. Sandoval CA6

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Summary Sandoval and his girlfriend, Margaret Z., lived in San Jose next door to Roman Alvarado. On October 7, 2016, Sandoval lent his car to his friend Jeffrey Cooper. Cooper was only supposed to be gone an hour, but he still had not returned the car three days later. Sandoval and Margaret contacted Cooper to convince him to return the car without success. Early on the evening of October 10, Alvarado happened to run into Cooper, who was with Sandoval’s car. Alvarado drove the vehicle to Sandoval’s house with Cooper in the passenger seat. Sandoval went outside when Alvarado and Cooper arrived in his car. According to Margaret, who was watching out the window of the home she shared with Sandoval, Sandoval was frustrated and punched or slapped Cooper in the face. Sandoval then took Cooper’s belongings—including a suitcase and a storage bin—out of the car and threw them on the ground. Cooper eventually left in a cab. Records from Yellow Checker Cab Company showed that, on October 10, 2016, a passenger by the name of Jeffrey was picked up by a cab at Sandoval’s address at 6:54 p.m. and was dropped off on Ridder Park Drive at 7:19 p.m. Margaret…