California v. Hamernik
Annotate this CaseDefendant-appellant Kristie Hamernik was a licensed vocational nurse employed at the Vista Cove Care Center in Corona. Defendant was suspended from work but returned to the facility purportedly to retrieve personal items. While at the facility, she entered the room of one of her former patients, Eiko Dorsch, who used a mechanism called a "CADD pain pump." After defendant visited Eiko, the medication in the pain pump was empty. Defendant was found guilty of attempted possession of a controlled substance. Defendant appealed, arguing: (1) the trial court erred by finding that attempted possession of a controlled substance was a lesser included offense of possession of a controlled substance; thereby substituting the attempted possession of a controlled substance for the drug possession charge after granting defendant's motion to dismiss the greater charge at the end of the People's case-in-chief; and (2) the trial court erred by admitting prior acts evidence pursuant to Evidence Code section 1101, subdivision (b). After review, the Court of Appeal agreed with defendant that the trial court erred by substituting attempted possession of a controlled substance for the possession of a controlled substance. Moreover, the Court rejected that it could correct the error by ordering the trial court to amend the information or that such error was harmless. As such, the Court reversed defendant's conviction.
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