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People v. Ceja6/23/1994
d his car. Pettus recovered a small caliber handgun from underneath the steering column dash and two expended .380 casings, one from the front of the vehicle and the other from the rear of the vehicle. One unexpended round was jammed into the chamber of the firearm and two live rounds were in the magazine inside the weapon.
Compton police officer Stoney Jackson collected evidence at the crime scene. No weapon was found, but two expended bullets and one expended .380 caliber casing were found. Jackson inspected the blue Escort automobile, looking for additional casings, bullets, bullet holes, etc. He found no bullets, casings or bullet holes on the exterior or interior of the vehicle. He inspected Rafael Padilla's automobile and found no guns, bullets or expended casings.
During an autopsy of Juan Padilla, the deputy medical examiner recovered a bullet which had been fired from the gun found in defendant's automobile.
DEFENSE
Defendant testified that on March 8, he was near the courthouse, somewhere on Raymond, dropping off one of his brother's friends. To get home, he drove north on Tamarind. When he got to Alondra he asked a guy at a pay phone (Avila) "where he was from," because he just wanted to know "where he was from"; he knew he was in the CV-70's neighborhood; he is in a rival gang, the "CV T-Flats." Avila responded, but he (defendant) was listening to the radio and didn't know exactly what was said; he figured Avila was a CV-70 and said, "fuck the '70s" to "disrespect" them; Avila rode off on a bike, and he followed Avila to intimidate and scare him; when Avila stopped, he stopped his car and had a Discussion with him and asked why he had to run; when he called Avila a punk, Avila approached, and he pulled out a gun; he did not point it at Avila, just showed it to him, and said to stay right there; he only intended to intimidate and scare Avila.
Defendant further testified he then drove down Raymond and turned right on Willowbrook and drove to Alondra; while on Alondra, a train was passing; since he had to wait for the train, he decided to go to a liquor store and get a soda; while looking for a place to park, three people came out of the store, one of whom asked him, "What do you want, what do you want," so he asked him for the time; while Rafael Padilla looked at his watch, Juan Padilla approached and with his right hand pulled out a revolver from his waistband; he saw the barrel of the gun and got scared, extended his arm and, without aiming, fired three times; he did not want to hurt Juan Padilla but was scared; if Juan Padilla had shot him, he would get killed; he was just defending himself, and fired three rounds; he was not sure if Juan Padilla fired his gun, it happened so fast; he did not shoot at any of the other people in the liquor store; he drove away from the scene because he believed Rafael Padilla would come after him and do something.
Defendant carried a gun for protection; where he lives a lot of things happen; there are a lot of gang related shootings; rival gangs hate each other; you do not really go into other gangs' neighborhoods, if you do, you might get shot; by going into their neighborhood as a "T-Flat," he was kind of "disrespecting" them, especially by saying, "fuck the '70s"; the store where he shot Juan Padilla was not the same store at which the incident with Avila occurred.
After the shooting, an analysis for gunshot residue was performed on Juan Padilla's hands; a particle of gunshot residue was found on his right hand. There was also a second particle that was consistent with gunshot residue but not unique to it. One can get a particle of gunshot residue on his hand from firing a gun, h
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