People v. Aguilar CA2/2

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

I. Facts2

A. The underlying crime Just after 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday in January 1985, defendant drove up alongside a car with five occupants to enable his passenger—Arthur Vasquez (Vasquez)—to open fire on those occupants with a rifle. Minutes earlier, Vasquez had encountered Alex Alvara in the parking lot of a Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department station in Norwalk. Vasquez and Alvara belonged to rival gangs. They “mad dogged” each other, flashed gang signs, and swore at

All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated.

We draw these facts from the record at trial, as neither party supplemented that record at the evidentiary hearing on defendant’s section 1172.6 petition.

2 each other. Vasquez left the area when Alvara went into the station. But Vasquez was not done. Instead, he asked defendant—his friend—if he would drive him back to the station in a different car so that Vasquez could shoot Alvara. Vasquez brought along his long rifle. They parked across from the station and waited. Alvara exited the station with four others—Joe Hernandez (Hernandez), Hernandez’s teenage sister,…