People v. Brackins
Annotate this CaseBrackins was convicted of aggravated assault (Pen. Code 245(a)(4)),1 inflicting corporal injury on a former cohabitant (section 273.5(a)), attempting to dissuade a witness (section 136.1(b)(1)), and misdemeanor vandalism (section 594(a), (b)(2)(A)), and was sentenced to four years in prison. Before the charged incidents, the police had been called by the victim many times and had noted evidence of physical assault, although the victim denied such assaults. The charged incidents were witnessed by one of Brackins’s four children with the victim. The court of appeal affirmed, rejecting an argument that the trial court prejudicially erred in denying defendant’s request to modify CALCRIM No. 2622, the attempted dissuading instruction, to insert language requiring a finding of malice and describing when a presumption that malice was absent would apply. A violation of section 136.1(b), unlike a violation of section 136.1(a), does not require malice. The court upheld the trial court's instructing the jury with CALCRIM No. 850 about expert testimony by a prosecution expert on intimate partner violence.
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