People v. Triplett, 48 Cal.App.5th 655

Background

Defendant Yosaya Johnson Triplett (20) was convicted by a jury of assault with a deadly weapon, carjacking, and attempted murder; enhancements for personally inflicting great bodily injury on two counts were alleged; sentence totaled 11 years 8 months (modified on appeal to correct assessments).
Victim Dalilah Young testified defendant repeatedly stabbed her (head, neck, wrist, torso), choked her, said “fittin’ to die bleeding,” and then drove away in Young’s car; Young hospitalized a week and suffered a lung-penetrating wound.
Defendant testified she acted in self-defense after Young allegedly pulled her from a car and beat her; she said she carried a knife for personal protection.
During voir dire the prosecutor used peremptory challenges to strike two prospective African‑American female jurors (Jurors 7 and 16); defense made a Wheeler/Batson motion which the trial court denied.
During deliberations the jury asked for transcripts of Young’s and defendant’s testimony; the trial court refused to provide transcripts and declined defense counsel’s request to tell jurors they could request a readback, replying only that jurors could ask specific questions about testimony. On appeal the court held that was error but harmless.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
1. Wheeler/Batson challenge to peremptory strikes of two African‑American prospective jurors	Prosecutor proffered race‑neutral reasons (juror demeanor, expressed inability to convict based on appearance, proximity to crime, family experiences with criminal charges and harassment of police, ER nurse exposure to injuries)	Strikes were pretextual and racially motivated	Denial of Wheeler/Batson motion affirmed; court reasonably credited prosecutor’s race‑neutral explanations and gave deference to trial court credibility findings.
2. Sufficiency of evidence for attempted murder (intent to kill)	Evidence (multiple stab wounds to vulnerable areas, choking, statements like “fittin’ to die bleeding,” leaving victim) supports specific intent to kill	Stabbings were unplanned, frenzied, defensive, small knife used — insufficient proof of intent to kill	Conviction for attempted murder supported by substantial evidence; intent may be inferred from circumstances and defendant’s conduct.
3. Jury request for transcripts/readback during deliberations	Court’s denial and failure to remind jurors they could request readback was proper because transcripts need not be provided	Jury’s transcript request implicitly sought readback; court should have informed jurors of readback option under §1138/CALCRIM	Court erred in construing request narrowly and not reminding jurors of readback right, but error was harmless under Watson standard given implausibility of defense and whole‑record review.
4. Clerical correction and assessment imposition	People: minute order should be corrected (jury found not true on one GBIdesignation) and fees/assessments must be imposed per count	Defendant: agreed to clerical correction; did not dispute additional per‑count assessments	Court ordered nunc pro tunc correction of minute order (not‑true finding) and modification to impose $30 and $40 assessments for each of the three convictions; judgment affirmed as modified.

Key Cases Cited

People v. Wheeler, 22 Cal.3d 258 (establishes California three‑step inquiry for group‑bias in peremptory strikes)
Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (prohibits race‑based peremptory challenges under the U.S. Constitution)
People v. Lenix, 44 Cal.4th 602 (describes deference to trial court credibility findings in Batson/Wheeler review)
People v. Cox, 30 Cal.4th 916 (discussion of §1138/readback duty)
People v. Smith, 4 Cal.5th 1134 (cautions against wholesale rejection where prosecutor offers a "laundry list" of reasons)
People v. Frye, 18 Cal.4th 894 (prejudice standard for readback errors under state law)
People v. Ainsworth, 45 Cal.3d 984 (Watson prejudice standard applied to readback/§1138 errors)