Opinion ID: 2832196
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Court of Appeal Opinion

Text: Creech appealed. The California Court of Appeal addressed both questions at issue here, namely Creech’s Due Process challenge of the sufficiency of the evidence to convict him of assault with a firearm and child endangerment, and his Sixth Amendment challenge to his sentence. In affirming Creech’s convictions, the court reasoned that the inquiry for assault with a firearm focuses on the ability to inflict injury, rather than whether, given the circumstances, injury could have been the “instantaneous result of the defendant’s conduct.” Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, it held that the jury could “reasonably infer from the evidence that Creech had the present ability to inflict injury on Jennifer, Sofia and Juliane.” Regarding the child endangerment convictions, the court of appeal found “substantial evidence that Creech’s conduct endangered his children under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm or death.” In so concluding, the court rejected Creech’s argument that the prosecution failed to proffer evidence that the shotgun pellets could have penetrated Sofia’s and Zachary’s skin. In rejecting Creech’s Sixth Amendment challenge to his sentence, the court noted that in response to the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Cunningham v. California, 549 U.S. 270 (2007), the state legislature had revised the determinate sentencing law to give trial judges discretion in selecting among three possible prison terms. It further noted that the California Supreme Court held in People v. Sandoval, 41 Cal. CREECH V. FRAUENHEIM 9 4th 825 (2007), that the change in the law corrected the Sixth Amendment deficiency addressed in Cunningham. Although Creech argues that the post-Cunningham sentencing system under which he was sentenced did not comply with Apprendi and its progeny, he acknowledged before the court of appeal the California Supreme Court’s decision in Sandoval. Noting that it was bound by Sandoval, the court of appeal did “not further address th[e] issue.” The California Supreme Court denied Creech’s petition for review.