P. v. Tran CA4/3 filed 1/29/13 A

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State: California

Court: California Eastern District Court

Docket No: G045302

Case Date: 01/29/2013

Plaintiff: P.

Defendant: Tran CA4/3 filed 1/29/13 Case Details

Preview:Filed 1/29/13 P. v. Tran CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS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 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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION THREE

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. SON KIM TRAN, Defendant and Appellant. G045302 (Super. Ct. No. 09CF2429) OPINION

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, Carla M. Singer and Lance Jensen, Judges. Affirmed. Lizabeth Weis, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, James D. Dutton and Alana Cohen Butler, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Upon being convicted of kidnapping and assault with the intent to rape, appellant Son Kim Tran was sentenced to 55 years to life in prison. He contends he was incompetent to stand trial and there is insufficient evidence to support his kidnapping conviction, but we disagree and affirm the judgment. FACTS In September 2009, Patricia H. was 57 years old and destitute. Like many homeless people in Santa Ana, including appellant, she spent much of her time around the Civic Center Plaza. Patricia had seen appellant in that area from time to time, but until the night of September 29, 2009 she had never talked to him. That evening, Patricia was eating on the grass near Ross Street when appellant came over to her with his dinner and said, "Are we having a meal? Yes, we're having a meal." He then asked Patricia for a cigarette and sat down next to her. Although Patricia wasn't expecting appellant's company, she gave him some cigarette butts and they ate together. When it began getting dark, Patricia walked over to a nearby bench to get her cart and gather her belongings. She then sat down on the bench and appellant joined her there. To her surprise and dismay, appellant suddenly started rubbing up to her and talking "nasty." He told her he wanted to have sex, but she said she did not want to. She then got up from the bench and began walking with her cart toward Broadway. She was moving quickly, trying to get away from appellant, but he followed her and kept putting his hands on her neck and shoulder. He also kept telling her, as well as other people in the area, that he wanted to have sex with her. Patricia made her way from Broadway to Civic Center Drive. When she reached the Old Orange County Courthouse, appellant grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her away from her cart. He took her from the sidewalk on Civic Center to a more secluded grassy area that is bordered by a parking lot on one side and some bushes and a three-foot retaining wall on the other. Then he threw her to the ground, jumped on her 2

and told her he was going to rape and kill her. As he was holding her down, he started tugging at her pants and thrusting his pelvis against her body. He also tried to unhitch his own belt, but he wasn't able to lower his pants more than a few inches before a Good Samaritan came to Patricia's aid. Refugio Hernandez had been talking with some friends in the area when he saw appellant pull Patricia away from her cart. When he biked over to see what was going on, he saw appellant holding Patricia on the ground. He asked what was going on, and after getting to his feet and pulling up his pants, appellant insisted everything was fine. However, Patricia said she needed help because appellant was trying to rape her. At that point, appellant took a step toward Hernandez, but Hernandez unfurled a bike chain he was holding, and appellant turned and walked away. Hernandez then called 911 and followed appellant across the street. When appellant noticed Hernandez was tailing him, he turned to him and said, "You better leave or you're going to die." Within minutes, Santa Ana Police Officer Adam Aloyian was on the scene. When appellant saw him, he took off running, but Aloyian cornered him in a stairway, and he eventually surrendered. Appellant was cooperative when Aloyian initially handcuffed him. However, as he was being led away to a police car, he began ranting and raving about how he was going to "break [Aloyian's] fucking back" and "fucking kill" him. After appellant was taken away, Aloyian turned his attention to Patricia, who, according to Aloyian, looked battered, fearful and "utterly broken." She told Aloyian that as she and appellant were walking near the Old Orange County Courthouse, he pulled her away from her cart and tried to rape her in a grassy area near some bushes. Aloyian walked out the distance from Patricia's cart to the grassy area, and it turned out to be about 18 to 20 feet. He did not believe the grassy area would have been visible to the drivers on Civic Center or most of the pedestrians in the area.

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At the police station, Aloyian interviewed appellant about the incident. When Aloyian asked him if he knew why he was in custody, appellant said, "Because I threw that bitch on the ground." Asked why he did it, appellant said it was because Patricia wouldn't give him a cigarette. He also suggested the incident was related to the fact he was a registered sex offender. Appellant told Aloyian he had recently gone to the Sheriff's Department to register, and they made him wear an orange jumpsuit when they photographed him. Appellant told Aloyian that this violated his civil rights and that ever since then, he had begun doing "weird things." He admitted, as well, that he had a long history of mental illness and that he couldn't control himself around women. When Aloyian asked him what he would have done to Patricia if he hadn't been stopped, he said "the worst." Asked if that meant raping and killing her, he replied "yes." Appellant was charged with kidnapping with the intent to rape, assault with the intent to rape and making a criminal threat. (Pen. Code,

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