People v. Newsome CA3

I. BACKGROUND

In August 2019, defendant and codefendants, Deandre Fowler and Alexander Smith, were charged with the second degree robbery of E.M. (Pen. Code, § 211.)1 It was alleged that defendant had suffered a prior serious felony conviction (§ 667, subd. (a)), which was also a strike (§§ 667, subds. (b)-(i), 1170.12). Smith pled guilty prior to trial, and defendant and Fowler were tried jointly before a jury. The following evidence was adduced at trial. The victim, E.M., testified that one night in October 2018 he attended a Kings basketball game in Sacramento.2 He had consumed a large quantity of alcohol. After the game, he went to a bar, and then later took the light rail to go home.

1 Further undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code. 2 When recalled by the defense, E.M. conceded he did not know that the Kings were not playing in Sacramento that night, and said he must have watched the game while drinking at a bar.

2 E.M. exited the light rail station at Broadway. He was very intoxicated and was unsure why he got off at that station as it was not his stop. He began talking to a Black man, and they eventually started drinking together. At some point, E.M.…