People v. Dinaali CA4/2

I. INTRODUCTION

A jury found defendant and appellant, Aladdin Dinaali, guilty as charged of five

offenses: stalking (Pen. Code, § 646.9, subd. (a),1 count 1); extortion (§§ 518, 519,

count 2); sending a threatening letter with the intent to extort (§ 523, count 3); violating a

civil restraining order, a misdemeanor (§ 166, subd. (a)(4), count 4); and filing a false

instrument with a public office, namely, a mechanics lien (§ 115, subd. (a), count 5).

Defendant was sentenced to six years four months in state prison: the upper term of four

years on count 2, consecutive eight-month terms on counts 1 and 5, and a consecutive

one-year term on count 3. A concurrent 365-day county jail term was imposed on

defendant’s misdemeanor conviction in count 4.

Defendant represented himself at trial, but after the jury returned its verdicts he

asked the court to appoint counsel to represent him in posttrial proceedings. The court

appointed Peter S. to represent defendant in all posttrial proceedings and denied

defendant’s subsequent Marsden3 motion to relieve Peter S.

Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

2 Defendant was awarded 1,444 days of presentence…