People v. Gonzalez
Annotate this CaseFollowing a "road rage" incident, Gonzalez was convicted of assault with a firearm, shooting at an occupied motor vehicle, and possession of a firearm by a felon. The jury found that he personally used a firearm during the commission of the assault and that Gonzalez had a prior felony conviction for attempted second-degree robbery. An employee of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office witnessed the incident and followed the cars, using his cell phone to take a video, which was played for the jury. When Gonzalez was arrested for driving with a suspended license, officers found gunshot residue on the interior window of his car. His home was searched and the license plate shown in the video was found. An automated license plate reader program revealed photos of the Buick with that license plate; when Gonzalez was arrested, it had different license plates. The victim identified Gonzalez as “resembl[ing]” the Buick driver, but was not 100 percent sure. The court of appeal remanded for resentencing but otherwise affirmed. The trial court erred in admitting uncertified and unauthenticated records to prove the prior conviction. Gonzalez is entitled to remand under new legislation granting trial courts discretion to strike or dismiss a firearm enhancement. Any error in the admission of an automatic license plate reader report was harmless. The court upheld a jury instruction statement, “You’ve heard eyewitness testimony identifying the Defendant” as not assuming that the eyewitness testimony was definitive.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.