People v. Atlas CA2/5

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Murder of Ontario Courtney 1. The testifying co-defendant’s account of the shooting At around 2:00 a.m. on September 13, 2017, co-defendant Dasha Goldston (Goldston) arranged to meet with Jailen Yoakum (Yoakum), a young man with whom she was in a relationship. Goldston drove to Yoakum’s home between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. The two smoked marijuana in her car for some period of time.

3 Eventually Yoakum went back inside the residence and reemerged with defendant Atlas, defendant Love, and another man. Yoakum said he wanted to take the other men to their homes. Goldston knew Yoakum and defendant Atlas were Main Street Mafia Crips (Main Street) and she considered herself an associate of the gang. Yoakum drove, Goldston sat in the front passenger seat, and defendant Love, defendant Atlas, and the other man sat in the back seat. Rather than driving his companions home, however, Yoakum drove the car into the territory of the Hoover Criminals street gang. The men in the car started pulling out guns. At some point during the ride, Goldston saw defendant Love flashing his gun and asked him to hand it over. He gave it to her and she tried to put it in the glove…