People v. Rios CA5

DISCUSSION

Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his post-plea Marsden motion to appoint new counsel. The People disagree, as do we. A. Additional Background On October 29, 2020, in a closed hearing, the trial court permitted defendant to explain the reasons why he believed substitute counsel should be appointed. Defendant told the court that he has posttraumatic stress disorder. At the most recent appearance, when he entered his no contest plea, he was under considerable stress and asked his counsel questions to which she would not give him a direct answer. She also refused to give defendant a direct answer regarding the strength of his self-defense case, stating both that it was “self-defense all the way” and that a self-defense case was “going to be hard to prove.” He further explained that on a previous occasion, he had prepared three or four motions that his counsel refused to file on his behalf. He also told the court that his counsel misled him regarding, or withheld, the evidence: she originally told defendant that law enforcement had recovered a “weapon full of blood” then told him “[t]hey don’t have it[;] they assume [defendant] threw it away ….” She…