People v. Brooks

Brooks was charged with first-degree residential burglary; the court granted a motion in limine to admit evidence of Brooks’s prior uncharged burglaries, Evid. Code, 1101(b). After his conviction, the court sentenced Brooks to prison for the two-year low term, imposed mandatory fines and fees, and ordered him to pay $2,351.34 in direct victim restitution that included reimbursement for a burglar alarm and new door locks. The court of appeal affirmed, rejecting Brooks an argument that Penal Code section 1202.4. does not permit restitution for security improvements against a defendant not convicted of a “violent felony,” as defined in section 667.5(c). the statute permits restitution for security costs incurred by the victim of a nonviolent felony, notwithstanding the more specific provisions in section 1202.4(f)(3)(J) requiring the court to award such restitution to the victim of a violent felony. The court’s erroneous admission of Brooks’s uncharged prior acts to establish intent, common plan and identity and the prosecutor’s misconduct in closing argument, by mischaracterizing the nature of the fingerprint evidence and overstating its strength caused Brooks to suffer little, if any, prejudice because other evidence independently and definitively linked him to the crime. View "People v. Brooks" on Justia Law