People v. Messer CA3

BACKGROUND FACTS AND PROCEDURE

A. Responding officers’ testimony On the morning of May 7, 2019, Deputy Sheriffs Patrick Rude and David Isham responded to a 911 call regarding possible domestic violence and brandishing of a

Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

2 weapon at the victim’s residence. When they arrived at the scene, they contacted the victim, who explained that she had been in a romantic relationship with defendant but they had recently broken up. The victim said that defendant had come to her house that morning to ask to use her camper shell. Although she asked defendant to leave, he instead followed her inside the house and back to her bedroom where they began to argue about the camper shell. When she refused to give him the camper shell, he became angry and threw a soda against the wall. He then held up an open pocketknife, threatened to slit the victim’s throat and kill everyone who lived in the house. The victim told the officers that in response to defendant’s threats, she began to push defendant down the hallway toward the front door. As she was doing so, defendant grabbed her by the throat, pinned her against the wall, and pushed…