MERE CONCLUSIONS BY THE POLICE GANG EXPERT ARE NOT ENOUGH FOR THE GANG
It's amazing how everything gang members do is for the gang. Or at least the police gang "expert" will so testify.
This is the latest in a series of cases where appellate courts aren't accepting mere claims that the crime was done for the gang.
This was a carjacking. Oh sure, the police expert testified that it was for the gang. But apart from that conclusory claim, there wasn't any evidence: there was no display of gang signs or anything else. Sure, the carjacking could benefit the gang, but there was no evidence that it
actually did so. The Court of Appeal, "The gang enhancement cannot be sustained solely on defendant's status as a member of the gang and his subsequent commission of crimes." Reads like a jury instruction, no?
People v. Ochoa; 2009 DJ DAR 16454; DJ, 11/24/09; C/A 4th, Div. 2
