People v. Tolbert CA1/2

BACKGROUND

I. The Initial Criminal Proceedings In November 2019, the Alameda County District Attorney filed an information charging Tolbert with one felony count of making a criminal threat (Pen. Code, § 422, subd. (a)2). This was accompanied by an enhancement allegation, made under section 12022.1, that Tolbert committed the offense while released on her own recognizance in another criminal case. The information also gave notice that the criminal threat offense was a “serious felony” under sections 1192.7, subdivision (c) and 1170, subdivision (h)(3) that required Tolbert to serve any sentence in state prison.

Statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise stated. 2 At the preliminary hearing that led to the filing of the information, the prosecution called a witness who testified that on the morning of September 3, 2019, she was meeting with a contractor in the front yard of a house that her husband owned in Oakland, California. The witness was remodeling in order to sell the house, which was next door to Tolbert’s house. Tolbert, while standing about eight to ten feet away on her own property behind a short fence, “started screaming at” the neighbor “to leave…