What is the test for determining whether there is sufficient evidence to support the specific intent prong of a finding of criminal intent?
California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Escobarcarrasco, H035991 (Cal. App. 2011):
Routinely, we draw inferences about intent from the predictable results of action. "We cannot look into people's minds directly to see their purposes. We can discover mental state only from how people act and what they say." (People v. Margarejo (2008) 162 Cal.App.4th 102, 110.)
People v. Ramon (2009) 175 Cal.App.4th 843 (Ramon ), analyzed the sufficiency of the evidence on the specific intent prong of gang enhancement findings and found it wanting. Officers stopped the defendant, a conceded gang member, while he was driving a stolen vehicle within his gang's territory with a fellow gang member in the passenger seat. Officers found a loaded, unregistered firearm under the driver's seat. (Id. at pp. 846-848.) The People charged the defendant with receiving a stolen vehicle, possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of a firearm while an active gang member, and carrying a loaded firearm in public for which he was not a registered owner, as well as corresponding gang enhancements. (Id. at p. 848.)
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