People v. Barnett CA2/5

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Offense Conduct In January 2021, defendant was staying with his mother, Darlene Hoopii (Hoopii), at the Rivers Hotel, a single-room occupancy (SRO) residence in downtown Los Angeles. A man known to many only by his first name, “Gabriel,” started frequenting the Rivers Hotel around the summer of 2020. Hoopii believed Gabriel was destructive and under the influence of drugs, and he tried to get into Hoopii’s room at around 3 or 4 a.m. one night.1 Another resident of the Rivers Hotel, Leon Clark (Clark), also believed Gabriel was a menace and under the influence of methamphetamine. On January 7, 2021, Gabriel was loitering in the area in front of the Rivers Hotel. Manolo Martinez, a security supervisor for SROs including the Rivers Hotel, responded to two complaints that Gabriel was trying to obtain access to the building that day.

1 Defendant was aware Gabriel tried to enter Hoopii’s room.

2 Martinez confronted Gabriel twice and told him he could not be in the area. Gabriel was hostile, physically aggressive, and cursed at Martinez. Later that afternoon, Gabriel was lying in the alcove outside the front door of the Rivers Hotel. Defendant approached the…