Iboa

INTRODUCTION

Defendant and appellant Margarito A. Iboa told firefighters and deputies trying to put out a fire in his backyard to, among other things, “get the fuck” *114 off his property. He combined his belligerent words with aggressive conduct, albeit stopping short of threatening to “kill” the officers and of physical violence. Iboa was charged and convicted, under Penal Code section 69, 1 of seven counts of deterring or preventing, by means of any threat or violence, an executive officer from performing a duty imposed by law.

Iboa contends on appeal that his convictions on those counts must be reversed because the First Amendment protected his speech and because the jury was not instructed his threat must have been “a serious expression of intention to inflict bodily harm.” In the published portion of this opinion, we find that where, as here, there is sufficient evidence a defendant combined threatening language with threatening physical behavior, he may be convicted, under section 69, of threatening unlawful violence without running afoul of the First Amendment. We also conclude that the trial court did not err by failing to instruct the jury that a threat under…