Court Opinion

ID: 9374281
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-02-22 18:03:21.019833+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:46.191569
License: Public Domain

Filed 2/22/23 P. v. LaBarre CA4/1
                 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for
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                COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

                                                 DIVISION ONE

                                         STATE OF CALIFORNIA

 THE PEOPLE,                                                          D080927

           Plaintiff and Respondent,

           v.                                                         (Super. Ct. No. SCN428879)

 LUCAS ELI LABARRE,

           Defendant and Appellant.

         APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of San Diego County,
Brad A. Weinreb, Judge. Affirmed.
         Lucas Eli LaBarre, in pro. per.; and Sheila O’Connor, under
appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
         No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent.
         A jury convicted Lucas Eli LaBarre of assault with force likely to cause

great bodily injury (Pen. Code,1 § 245, subd. (a)(4)) and found that LaBarre
had personally caused great bodily injury (§ 12022.7, subd. (a)). LaBarre was

1        All further statutory references are to the Penal Code.
sentenced to the low term of two years in prison, consecutive a three-year
term for the great bodily injury enhancement.
      LaBarre filed a timely notice of appeal.
      Appellate counsel has filed a brief pursuant to People v. Wende (1979)
25 Cal.3d 436 (Wende), indicating counsel has not been able to identify any
arguable issues for reversal on appeal. Counsel asks the court to review the
record for error as mandated by Wende. We offered LaBarre the opportunity
to file his own brief on appeal. He has responded by filing a lengthy
document (approximately 50 pages). We will address his submission later in
this opinion.
                           STATEMENT OF FACTS
      We will adopt appellant’s statement of facts to provide background for
this appeal.
      A. Prosecution Evidence
      Christopher Johnston was a student at Mira Costa College Technology
Career Institute and in November, 2021, he was attending a class called
Machining Technology. There were 12 students in the class along with two
instructors including John Abram. On November 10, 2021, the students,
including Johnston and LaBarre were working on a variety of different
projects. Johnston was working on a vice and had to use a CNC machine to
do it. The classroom had two different rooms, one with the manual machines
and one, the CNC room, which contained the computer control machines.
Johnston wrote his name on the sign-up sheet to use one of the two CNC
machines and that day, he began by turning on the machine to start to warm
it up, which takes about ten minutes. No one else was listed on the sign-up
sheet. While the machine was warming up, Johnston left the room to gather
his supplies. At the time, he didn’t notice any tools or soft jams inside or on

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the machine. Soft jaws are located inside the machine, so you have to open
up the machine to retrieve them.
         When he returned from getting his supplies, there were two other students in
CNC room, including LaBarre. LaBarre and another student were talking between
the machines, so Johnston went over to the machine he signed up for and began to
open the doors to work the machine. As soon as Johnston walked up to the
machine, LaBarre said, from about five feet away, that he was using the machine.
Johnston replied he had signed up for the machine, but LaBarre said there was no
sign up. Johnston stated again there is a sign up, its right here, and told LaBarre if
he has a problem with it, to go talk to an instructor. Johnston turned back to the
machine and LaBarre walked toward him and came up behind Johnston. LaBarre
stated again that it was his machine; Johnston disagreed and told him to take it up
with the instructor. LaBarre then asked if could at least get his parts, and
Johnston agreed, but remained in front of the machine.
         Johnston carried a pocket-knife which was visible to others. LaBarre then
began to hit Johnston, whose body was still facing the machine, but his head was
turned to face LaBarre. LaBarre hit Johnston about four or five times in his face,
just below his nose, right on the mouth. The two began to fall backward toward the
other CNC machine and eventually hit the ground. Johnston needed to stop
LaBarre from hitting him again so he tried to hold LaBarre against his body so
LaBarre couldn’t make contact. LaBarre was laying on top of Johnston, so Johnston
pulled him closer in an attempt to restrain him and then LaBarre bit him.
Johnston then released his grip but saw LaBarre’s arm again so he pulled him
closer again and then LaBarre bit him again. LaBarre bit him about three or four
times.
         Other students eventually came in and pulled LaBarre out of
Johnston’s grip. Johnston went to the bathroom to clean up his wounds. His
upper lip was completely cut through, he had a cut on his chin and a cut on
the back of the head. The bites caused light scraping, but no stitches were

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required. His lip and chin, however, both required sutures. One of the bites
took a few months to heal, while the lip and chin healed in about a month.
      James Miller was another student in the class and friendly with
Johnston. He was also friendly with one of the instructors, John Abram. On
November 10, 2021, he was working on one of the computers in the room next
to the CNC room. He heard another student loudly saying Lucas, stop.
Lucas, stop. He looked through an adjoining window and saw Lucas running
toward to the CNC machine and then disappearing behind a wall. At that
point he didn’t see Johnston. So, he ran into the room and saw LaBarre on
top of Johnston and also saw blood everywhere; Johnston was holding
LaBarre down in a defensive move to prevent anything else from happening.
      Miller grabbed LaBarre by the head and bear hugged him, then told
him to “get the fuck out” of the room. LaBarre turned around and hit a
machine and yelled, “I can do whatever the fuck I want.” LaBarre then
grabbed a metal bar and turned around and looked like he was going to hit
Miller with it. LaBarre had the pipe in a ready-to-swing posture and was
about 2 feet away.
      Miller heard from someone else that Johnston and LaBarre were
talking about parts in the machine before the incident. After the incident,
Miller was with Johnston until he was taken to the hospital.
      John Abram was the instructor of the class. At the time of the incident,
he was in the manual machine room which is adjacent to the CNC room. At
some point he heard a noise coming from the CNC room, so he turned his
head and saw a foot and a leg fly across the window. As an instructor, he was
worried about the students’ safety, so he ran into the room. He saw blood
and LaBarre and Johnston on the floor, and it looked like they were
wrestling. A group of them ran and pulled them apart. Abram pulled

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Johnston away and someone else pulled LaBarre away. Johnston had a split
lip and was pretty bloody. Johnston was not happy but didn’t seem
aggressive towards Abram or anyone else.
      Abram saw Miller and LaBarre leave the room, when LaBarre grabbed
a metal rod off of a cart and continue into the manual machine room. It
looked like LaBarre was testing the weight of the bar, moving his hand up
and down, and going towards something with a sense of urgency. Abram
then yelled, “you will put that down immediately.” LaBarre complied after
motioning towards Abram with the rod. Abram told him to leave the room
and LaBarre left. Abram locked the door after LaBarre left and he has not
seen LaBarre since.
      B. Defense evidence
      LaBarre, who was taking the machine class to further his career, was
working on a 3d test part on November 10, 2021. In order to continue to
work on that project, he needed to use the CNC mill, so he went over to the
machine that he had previously used and bolted his soft jaws, which were
needed to manufacture his part, into the vice. He also had his 3D test part
on the machine center’s little shelf and a stack of papers near the machine as
well as his USB in the control panel. The doors into the machine were
transparent so one could see the stuff inside.
      When Johnston arrived, he started riling through LaBarre’s papers and
tinkering with the control panel of the machine where LaBarre’s stuff was
located. LaBarre told him that it was his stuff and Johnston went to the side
of the machine, looked at a piece of paper, and then left. LaBarre believed
that the sign-up list on the side of the machine was not legitimate. He may
not have known LaBarre had stuff already in the machine. Johnston
returned about a minute later and LaBarre told Johnston again that he was

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using the machine. Johnston replied that he had put his name on the sheet,
but LaBarre had actually seen him write his name on the sheet when
LaBarre was already there. Previously the instructors, including Davis and
probably Abram, had told them not to use those sheets so LaBarre thought
they were unauthorized. Johnston also told him to talk to the instructor
about the list. LaBarre did not know who put the list up there; it could have
been one of the instructors but that would contradict that they had been
saying don’t use one. LaBarre did not go see the instructor after what
Johnston said.
      LaBarre then told Johnston he had property on the machine and asked
to retrieve it. Johnston at that point was in front of the machine and poked
his head into the machine to confirm the stuff was in there; he would have
had to move out of the way. LaBarre was behind Johnston on the left about
four feet away; he could see his soft jaws still in the machine. He asked again
if he could get them.
      Then, Johnston turned around to face LaBarre and was moving his
hand toward his folded pocketknife and saying, “No. No. No. You should
have thought about that before. Not my problem.” In order to use the knife,
Johnston would have had to take it out of his pocket and open it up. They
were nose-to-nose at this point. LaBarre was afraid because he believed that
Johnston was probably going to attack him, so he punched him one time, and
Johnston tumbled backward. LaBarre thought the fight was over, but
Johnston began to swing back; they exchanged three or four blows with each
other. Then Johnston grabbed LaBarre and pulled him to the ground, so that
LaBarre’s head was pushed into Johnston’s chest. Johnston was holding on
tightly and LaBarre was still afraid; LaBarre fell with his mouth open and
was forced into Johnston’s chest. Because LaBarre had difficulty breathing,

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he clamped down on Johnston’s chest. He bit him twice because Johnston did
not let go.
      Miller, Johnston’s friend, came in and pulled LaBarre out of Johnston’s
grip. Miller had an aggravated attitude and was ordering LaBarre outside;
LaBarre was afraid of further physical confrontation, so he put his hand on
that metal rod. He denies that he picked it up to use as a weapon, but
instead because he was scared.
      The instructor Abram came in and immediately told LaBarre to put
down the rod, which he did. Abram also told LaBarre to leave the building.
LaBarre acted the way he did because he was in fear of an imminent threat.
After Abram told him to leave, Abram locked him out of the room. He left the
campus and did not call the police.
                                  DISCUSSION
      As we have noted, appellate counsel has filed a Wende brief and asks
the court to review the record for error. To assist the court in its review, and
in compliance with Anders v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 738 (Anders), counsel
has identified a possible issue that was considered in evaluating the potential
merits of this appeal: Whether there is sufficient evidence to support the
finding of infliction of great bodily injury.
      In his supplemental brief, LaBarre complains about numerous failures
of the system. He argues the victim was not credible and the injuries could
not have occurred as they were described. LaBarre complains about the time
and resource issues he encountered in writing his brief. His brief discusses
the inadequacy of trial counsel, bias by the trial judge, and improper conduct
by the prosecutor. He also complains about being in custody at trial and the
disadvantages he suffered as a result.

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      Essentially, all of LaBarre’s grievances are based on matters outside
the record, or he asks this court to reweigh the evidence and make credibility
decision. LaBarre has not raised any arguable issues for reversal on this
direct appeal from the judgment.
      We have reviewed the entire record as required by Wende and Anders.
We have not discovered and arguable issues for reversal on appeal.
Competent counsel has represented LaBarre on this appeal.
                               DISPOSITION
      The judgment is affirmed.

                                                     HUFFMAN, Acting P. J.

WE CONCUR:

DATO, J.

BUCHANAN, J.

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