People v. Flores CA1/2

── People v. Flores CA1/2 ── Court: California Court of Appeal Date: May 12, 2026 Category: General Filed 5/12/26 P. v. Flores CA1/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION TWO THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A173513 v. JESUS EDUARDO FLORES, (San Mateo County Super. Ct. No. 24-SF-014712-A) Defendant and Appellant. Jesus Eduardo Flores appeals from a conviction of infliction of corporal injury on an intimate partner. He contends the trial court erred in admitting lay witness testimony that bruises on the victim’s neck were consistent with being strangled and marks on Flores’s face were not inconsistent with having resulted from the victim’s resistance. We affirm. BACKGROUND Flores was charged by information filed on January 3, 2025, with felony infliction of corporal injury on a cohabitant. (Pen. Code,1 § 273.5, subd. (a).) The following facts were presented at Flores’s jury trial. At about 11:56 a.m. on October 24, 2024, a 911 dispatcher received a call from a woman saying she needed help from police and medics. The Further statutory references will be to the Penal Code unless 1 otherwise specified. 1 recording of the call was played at trial. The caller, Jane Doe, gave her address and said, “I’m in danger. My boyfriend beat me the fuck up.” She said he was still attacking her, he “knocked [her] tooth out,” she was epileptic and she could not breathe. In response to the dispatcher’s questions, Doe said Flores punched her in the face, she had a bruise on her neck from him choking her with his hands, and she kicked him to get him off of her. East Palo Alto police officer Oscar Sanchez responded to the 911 call, arriving at about noon. He noted Doe’s injuries and took photographs that were admitted as exhibits at trial. The photographs showed Doe’s face; her mouth with a missing tooth next to a tooth chipped at the corner; and bruising on the right side of her neck. Sanchez also photographed injuries on Flores’s face, described by defense counsel as looking like scratches. Subsequently, when Flores was taken to jail, Sanchez photographed an injury to his arm. An officer conducting a pat search found a tooth in Flores’s jacket.2 The parties stipulated that it was an acrylic tooth that was glued in and not removable. On cross examination, defense counsel asked Sanchez about various injuries he did not observe. Sanchez testified that with a report of choking with the hands, he would look for redness or bruising throughout the whole neck area; the photograph of Doe showed a bruise on the “outer edge . . . by the end of the jawline” and going down “into the collarbone area,” and Sanchez acknowledged he needed to pull Doe’s sweatshirt down to get a good picture of it. Defense counsel asked if Sanchez was familiar with “the phrase, in choking situations, petechiae” and responded, “I don’t know”; asked if he 2 The officer testified that “on the right side of his jacket, I felt like there’s something on it. So I felt like it was stone or something like that. [¶] . . . [¶] . . . When I pulled it out, it seemed like it was a teeth [sic].” 2 saw “red spots” in Doe’s eyes, he said, “I don’t believe so.” He