People v. Alvarez CA2/5

I. BACKGROUND

A. Defendant’s Crimes, Convictions, and Sentencing Defendant and Terrell Frazier (Frazier) were members of a criminal street gang. In early August 2004, Frazier snatched $20 in cash and a cell phone from a woman at a gas station; defendant was the getaway driver. The woman pursued the two men in her car and defendant pulled over and threw the victim’s phone on the ground (defendant told the victim he did not know Frazier was going to take her phone).

2 A month later, defendant and Frazier, with another accomplice who was also a fellow gang member,1 robbed a video game store located on the second floor of a two-story strip mall. When they arrived at the mall, Frazier entered the store first and defendant and the accomplice followed a few moments later. When defendant and the accomplice entered, Frazier was pointing a gun at two employees, the manager and a sales associate, who were lying face down on the store’s floor. While Frazier continued to point the gun at the employees, defendant and the accomplice duct-taped them. After binding the employees, defendant and the accomplice filled a bag with video games, game consoles, and a laptop computer. Frazier…