By Ramneet Singh and Ivan Villegas
WOODLAND, CA – It took a jury here in Yolo County Superior Court Wednesday not even a half hour after lunch—they deliberated about an hour before lunch—to announce they had found a man guilty on all counts related to driving under the influence of alcohol.
The misdemeanor criminal trial started earlier in the week and the defense raised serious doubts about the accused’s guilt and whether he was driving under the influence at all.
However, the jury disagreed and came back with guilty verdicts on driving under the influence, and driving with an alcohol level of .15, nearly twice the legal limit, and enhancements.
The sentencing is set for Nov. 17.
UC Davis Police Officer Grande was the first witness and was questioned first by Deputy District Attorney Jing Ko, explaining he found a man sleeping behind the wheel of a parked vehicle in a fire lane and partially blocking the road.
Grande explained that once he woke the suspect up, he could smell alcohol and asked the suspect to take a sobriety test, noting, “I explained the instructions at least 10 times.”
DDA Ko presented video evidence to the jury from Officer Grande’s body camera, showing Officer Grande repeatedly asking why the suspect was there and instructing the suspect to show an ID.
The suspect, confirmed by Officer Grande as the accused appearing in court, claimed he was there to pick up his wife in the video footage, but could not remember where it was she worked.
The accused, appearing to admit his guilt about his sobriety, responded “No, you’re not [wrong],” after Officer Grande said, “I believe you’re under the influence of alcohol or drugs, am I wrong?”
The suspect could also be heard in another video confessing that he had six shots of an alcoholic drink at 12 p.m. that day.
DDA Ko then continued with questions and Officer Grande revealed he had found a bottle of Vitaminwater with alcohol in the vehicle and, as part of the follow up investigation, attempted to determine how much the suspect had consumed by comparing the Vitaminwater bottle with a new one.
Deputy Public Defender Sarah MacDonald then turned to questions about the bottle found in the suspect’s vehicle, suggesting the officer never knew if the bottle was full originally. The officer admitted that.
Officer Grande said he had not received a report of a possible DUI driver headed to Davis.
DPD MacDonald also got the officer to admit there were drug stores, liquor stores or restaurants nearby, within walking distance, that the accused could have frequented, rather than driving.
And Officer Grande then confirmed that he did not actually know where the accused drank the alcohol nor did he ask where.
The officer also admitted he didn’t search the area for any bottles of the alcoholic drink, and that he wouldn’t have noticed them on the grass but maybe on the sidewalk.
UC Davis Police Sergeant Randy Fenn said the suspect’s behavior did not deteriorate over time but that “he was pretty much the same throughout the whole time.”
The officers admitted they had not received any reports of an erratic or possible drunk driver from the North Highlands area, where the accused had previously stated they were coming from, headed to Davis.
The DPD added, “And I want to clarify, when you arrived on scene, the car was turned off?” to which the sergeant responded, “Yes.”
UC Davis Police Officer Maria Rodriguez, Senior Criminalist Jyoti Mosqueda Malik, and Criminalist Supervisor Elaine Pulido testified in the afternoon, with Rodriguez testifying the accused “appeared to be under the influence, intoxicated, slurred speech” when he was in a patrol car.
The court declared Malik an expert witness at the request of Ko. A significant portion of her testimony concerned hypotheticals.
Initially, Malik answered questions concerning alcohol absorption, elimination, and effects of alcohol. Ko asked if drinking could make someone “sleepy” and Malik responded that “it depends.”
Malik explained the variables required for calculations and described absorption and elimination via graph. The court took a break to allow Malik to calculate answers based on hypotheticals given by Ko.
Malik required “a drinking history, I needed a stop time when the subject drank their last drink, and then I needed a blood alcohol result.” She also needed to know the gender and weight.
Ko’s variables involved a 3:05 p.m. blood draw time, the BAC was 0.39, and the subject stopped drinking at 12:32 p.m. She noted that the person “drank six ounces of Crown Royal” before they stopped, which Malik stated is “40 percent alcohol.”
Malik affirmed that the accused fell asleep in a parked car, indicating that he drank, he could not safely drive a vehicle.
At various points of testimony, Judge David Rosenberg asked for clarification or instructed the attorneys to move on from their questions. 
