Court Opinion

ID: 9881945
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-04 19:18:13.887687+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:25:27.494873
License: Public Domain

Filed 10/4/23 P. v. Gray CA5

                  NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for
publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication
or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

           IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
                                     FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

 THE PEOPLE,
                                                                                             F085680
           Plaintiff and Respondent,
                                                                              (Super. Ct. No. 16CMS-3062)
                    v.

 ISAAC WALTER GRAY,                                                                       OPINION
           Defendant and Appellant.

                                                   THE COURT*
         APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Kings County. Michael J.
Reinhart, Judge.
         Laura P. Gordon, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and
Appellant.
         Office of the State Attorney General, Sacramento, California, for Plaintiff and
Respondent.
                                                        -ooOoo-

         * Before Hill, P. J., Detjen, J. and Snauffer, J.
                         STATEMENT OF APPEALABILITY
       This appeal is from the trial court’s December 15, 2022, order denying Gray’s
request for a Franklin1 hearing and appointment of counsel. (Pen. Code,2 § 2031.) The
appeal is authorized by section 1237, subdivision (b).
                             STATEMENT OF THE CASE
       On November 8, 2017, the Kings County District Attorney filed an information
charging Gray with the murder of Lazaro Gonzalez Ramirez and personal infliction of
great bodily injury (§§ 187, subd. (a), 12022.7, subd. (b); count 1). The offense was
alleged to be a serious felony and a violent felony (§§ 1192.7, subd. (c)(8), 667.5,
subd. (c)(8)). The information also charged Gray with misdemeanor resisting an officer
(§ 148, subd. (a)(1); count 2).
       On July 1, 2019, Gray entered a plea of no contest to the murder charge, with an
agreed upon sentence of 25 years to life and waiver of his appellate rights in exchange for
the dismissal of the remaining allegations and count 2 along with the dismissal of the
following cases: 16CMS-2945, 17CMS-2698, 17CMS-4175, and 17CMS-4178.
       On July 30, 2019, the trial court imposed the stipulated 25-years-to-life sentence.
       On November 9, 2022, Gray filed a motion for a Franklin hearing3 pursuant to
section 3051 and for appointment of counsel.
       On December 15, 2022, Judge Michael J. Reinhart, who was also the sentencing
judge, denied Gray’s motion without appointing counsel. The trial court’s detailed order
specifically stated:

       “Unlike the defendant in Franklin, [Gray] had the opportunity to put
       information on the record for a future youth offender parole hearing.

       1 People v. Franklin (2016) 63 Cal.4th 261 (Franklin).

       2 All statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise stated.

       3 With respect to this request, Gray was born April 23, 1992, making him 24 years
old on September 15, 2016, when he committed the offense resulting in his conviction.

                                             2.
       [Citations.] [Gray] was given sufficient opportunity to make a record of
       information relevant to his eventual youth offender parole hearing at his
       sentencing.”
       On February 1, 2023, Gray filed a timely notice of appeal.
                               STATEMENT OF FACTS4
       Just after midnight on September 15, 2016, Detentions Deputy Celina Lomeli was
on duty in B Pod at the Kings County Jail when she received a request for assistance
from Deputy Bradford. Two inmates, James Vargas and Mariano Herrada, were kicking
the door to cell 50 and making a loud banging noise. They were yelling “get off him.”
       After Vargas and Herrada were removed, Lomeli say Gray inside the cell, facing
the back wall, holding onto the top bunk, and kicking Lazaro Ramirez in the head with
his right leg. Ramirez was laying motionless on the bottom bunk and not defending
himself.
       Lomeli asked Gray to stop numerous times. Gray eventually complied and laid
face down on the ground but then got back up and resumed kicking Ramirez in the head.
       Deputy Bradford ordered Gray to get down and, when he refused, Bradford fired
his taser through the food hatch, striking Gray in the back. After Gray was tased,
deputies opened the cell door, but when they started to cuff Gray, he resisted and was
tased again. Gray was handcuffed, placed in leg restraints, and taken to the yard.
       Ramirez was bleeding and his face was swollen; there was “massive amounts of
blood” near his head and neck area and blood smeared on the back wall and on Ramirez’s
bed.
       Registered nurse Kendra Swiney treated Ramirez until the ambulance arrived.
Ramirez was unconscious with staggered, heavy breathing, and large cuts and a great
deal of swelling on the right side of his face.

       4 The parties stipulated that the police reports and preliminary hearing provided
the factual basis for Gray’s no contest plea. The following summary is taken from those
documents.

                                              3.
        Detective Kevin Smyres viewed surveillance footage of Gray and Ramirez inside
the cell earlier in the evening which showed them sitting at a table at the front of the cell,
conversing and eating with no apparent hostility between them.
        However, just before midnight, one of the cleaning crew inmates kept looking into
the cell window and pounding on the door with his fists, then intermittently kicking on
the door. The inmate would go back to cleaning the floor and then kick on the door;
Smyres described him as looking “frantic.”
        Smyres saw and photographed Ramirez the night of the attack and then at Fresno
Regional Medical Center about a week later. Ramirez died on October 6, 2016.
        Dr. Walter conducted an external autopsy of Ramirez and concluded the cause of
death was respiratory arrest due to traumatic brain injury from blunt force trauma to the
head.
                            APPELLATE COURT REVIEW
        Gray’s appointed appellate counsel has filed an opening brief that summarizes the
pertinent facts, raises no issues, and requests this court to review the record
independently. (People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436 (Wende).) The opening brief also
includes the declaration of appellate counsel indicating Gray was advised he could file
his own brief with this court. By letter on August 14, 2023, we invited Gray to submit
additional briefing. To date, he has not done so.
        Having undertaken an examination of the entire record, we find no evidence of
ineffective assistance of counsel or any other arguable error that would result in a
disposition more favorable to Gray.
                                      DISPOSITION
        The trial court’s December 15, 2022, order denying Gray’s request for a Franklin
hearing and appointment of counsel is affirmed.

                                              4.