People v. Leyva CA4/2

I. INTRODUCTION

A jury found defendant and appellant, Onre Leyva, guilty as charged of making a

criminal threat against L.T. (Pen. Code, § 422,1 count 4); misdemeanor battery against

defendant’s former wife and current cohabitant, J.J. (§ 243, subd. (e)(1), count 7); and

misdemeanor child abuse or neglect of defendant’s 12-year-old child, A.J. (§ 273a,

subd. (b), count 8). Defendant was acquitted of several other charges. 2 The court found

defendant had a 2011 criminal threats conviction, which constituted a prior serious

felony conviction (§ 667, subd. (a)) and a prior strike conviction (§ 667, subds. (c), (e)).

The court sentenced defendant to nine years in state prison: the middle term of

two years on count 4, doubled to four years based on the prior strike (§ 667, subd. (c)),

plus five years for the prior serious felony conviction (§ 667, subd. (a)). The court

imposed concurrent county jail terms of 365 days and 180 days, respectively, on counts

and 8, and did not impose any fines or fees on the ground that defendant lacked the

ability to pay them.

In this appeal, defendant claims that insufficient evidence supports his conviction

in count 4 for making…