Aledamat

*1151 Yazan Aledamat (defendant) thrust the exposed blade of a box-cutter toward a man while threatening, "I'll kill you." A jury convicted him of assault with a deadly weapon and making criminal threats. Defendant argues that the assault conviction is invalid because the trial court wrongly instructed the jury that a "deadly weapon" includes an "inherently deadly" weapon when a box cutter is not an inherently deadly weapon as a matter of law. (See People v. McCoy (1944) 25 Cal.2d 177 , 188, 153 P.2d 315 ( McCoy ).) Defendant is correct. Further, because this error placed a legally invalid theory before the jury, we are compelled to reverse this conviction as well as the enhancement for personal use of a deadly weapon, which used the same inapplicable definition of "deadly weapon."

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

I. Facts

In October 2016, defendant approached a woman working at a lunch truck parked in downtown Los Angeles. He told her that he found her attractive and asked her for her phone number; she declined, explaining that she was married with children. On October 22, 2016, defendant approached the woman's husband, who owned the food truck. Defendant asked, "Where's *1152…