Man Held to Answer on Felony Criminal Threats

By Tiffany Yeh

At the conclusion of the preliminary hearing for Armando Ahumada on February 5, 2016, the defendant was held to answer for felony criminal threats, per Penal Code section 422. He is alleged to have made criminal threats against his mother. Deputy Public Defender Joseph Gocke had called for a no-holding order on the felony charge – and had called for misdemeanor conduct, at most, for his client. Judge David Reed found there was sufficient evidence for a section 422 felony, and the defendant will be held to answer for that charge.

During the preliminary hearing, Deputy District Attorney Rachel Resneck brought forth three witnesses to testify: the defendant’s mother, his father, and Woodland Police Officer Darryl Moore.

Mr. Ahumada’s mother testified that he lives with her and his father at their Woodland home. He is the youngest of their children. She describes her son as behaving badly since October of 2015.

“I think he’s using drugs… usually my son is very quiet, doesn’t say much,” she testified.

On January 19, 2016, a Tuesday, the defendant’s mother went to the Nugget store in Woodland to buy groceries and only had a credit card with her. She came back to their house. Ahumada asked her for money, and she told him that she didn’t have money on her. He started shouting and “using bad language” with her.

She described her son as screaming a lot that day. The defendant pulled at her purse, for her to give him money. Her son allegedly used both hands and grabbed her or her shirt. Her shirt was not ripped or torn. The defendant’s mother had her husband make a phone call to one of their adult children, “L”, to call the police. This was because she and her husband are not fluent in English and speak Spanish primarily.

L spoke on the phone to the police, translating her mother’s words, but was not there during the event on January 19.

The defendant’s mother told the police that her son had kicked the locked door so hard that she had to open the door.

She described her son as telling her to “die!” and saying, “Aren’t you scared to die? Die! Die!” She described him as “always using bad language.”

After the conversation and those words, she said her blood pressure was rising. The argument lasted for about an hour, according to her estimate. She said her husband, Ahumada’s dad, was “present during the whole time,” referring to during the argument, so the defendant wouldn’t jump out the window.

Using a hypothetical, she described that, five minutes after the police took her son away after the argument, she was scared and “I had high blood pressure, had to take a pill.” In addition, the prosecution asked if she had any health conditions or scars from medical procedures related to her health and she replied that recently, around October 2015, she had some medical procedure and still has scars from that (but these do not have anything to do with her son).

The prosecution may have asked that question to frame the defendant’s mother as more vulnerable in terms of health. She expressed that she wants a restraining order if her son is “going to be like that,” with the “that” referring to behavior influenced by drugs.

The defendant’s mother was scared because her son said that to her, but it was because of the drugs. To the question of whether she thought her son was going to hurt her or kill her, she replied, “Of course one gets scared.”

She testified that, a couple days before January 19, on a Saturday, her son said to her, “Bitch, if you don’t give me my money I’m going to kill you.”

But she described not believing what he said because “he was drugged.” On that Saturday, the police arrested then released him.

When questioned by Mr. Gocke, she portrayed the defendant as an “exemplary son” with two kids. Even when the prosecution questioned her, she would often add comments praising her son; it was clear that she loves him. “He’s very quiet and is a thoughtful young man,” she said at one point, also describing him in a positive way many other times.

“He shouts a lot when doing drugs,” she stated, and also mentioned that he was shouting that evening of January 19.

Her son had been sharing a room with her until October 2015, which is when she said that “he was changing.”

The police have been to her house twice regarding the defendant, and a couple other times for her other children.

She has been angry that he seems to be changing, which she attributes to his drug habit, and she kicked him out of her room in October. However, she stated that if he does not do drugs anymore, he is welcome back in her house. Ahumada has a newborn baby, and the witness said her son loves his children very much, one of whom is a five-year-old daughter.

The next witness was the defendant’s father. His account was that on January 19, 2016, he was in his own room of the house watching TV with the door closed when the police showed up. He heard noises over the sound of the TV, and those voices belonged to his wife and his son.

From what he heard, “Armando was asking her for money, insulting her and using bad language.” He described his son as using the words “bitch” and “stupid” in general. But that day, he said that he did not hear the defendant threaten his mother. “I was in the room with the door shut.”

When asked if he told the police that Ahumada shook her and pushed her, he stated that he did not tell the police that.

He testified, “I opened the door, Armando’s mother picked up her purse, put it into my room, as if to hide the purse. When the police showed up, Armando went into the bathroom and then got into mom’s bedroom as if to hide. His mother called a daughter to call the police to come over.”

The defendant’s father is still with his wife, although they have separate bedrooms. He corroborated the part from his wife’s testimony about the police not taking Ahumada away from their house the first time, instead releasing him, which was a couple days before January 19, 2016.

He described the conflicts between his wife and his son as regularly being about the issue of money. He “would ask for money every day.” Ahumada was always using bad language, “just bad words, bad language, tone, to insult her; he (Armando) would get angry.” Ahumada and his mother were in her room, while the father was in his own room.

When the defendant came back to the house after the first time the police arrested him (and released him), they (meaning the father and mother) did not call the police.

The third witness for the preliminary examination was Woodland Police Officer Darryl Moore. He reported being at the Ahumada house on prior occasions. Around 6:20pm on January 19, 2016, he received a statement from Armando’s mother through L. L, as stated above, is one of Armando’s mom’s adult children. L translated what her mother said, in response to the police officer’s questions. Officer Moore is not fluent in Spanish, and the defendant’s father and mother are not fluent in English. The officer was on a cell phone taking the statement, and the conversation took approximately 15 to 20 minutes. He described the defendant’s mother, during his exchange with L, as “upset still.”

In the statement, Ahumada’s mother expressed that her son had threatened her to obtain money in the past. The prior Saturday, Ahumada had told her that “it’s about time for you to die.” On that Tuesday night, he was “kicking the door so hard, asking for money,” and “with both hands by shirt or jacket shook and pushed” her.

Officer Moore also described the mother as looking scared and fearful.

The statement said Ahumada’s father heard the commotion and saw the defendant push and shake his mother. The mother went to the bedroom afterward.

When Officer Moore arrived at the house, he had seen the defendant in the bathroom, appearing to be talking to himself – there was no one else in the bathroom at the time. He described the living room as in “disarray,” with stuff looking “turned over, out of place.” The police officer alleged that there “may have been a knife involved,” but the “knife couldn’t be seen.”

The defendant’s mother’s clothes did not appear to be torn or ripped.

The officer clarified that Ahumada’s sister, the one translating their mother’s words, was not physically present at the scene. Officer Moore did not perform an under-the-influence evaluation/test for either drugs or alcohol that night.

Officer Moore stated that he does not know whether, on the Saturday before January 19, the police were present.

At the end of the preliminary exam, Mr. Gocke asked the judge for a no-holding order for the felony charge of criminal threat. He brought up several points, including that the defendant had used insulting language, but not threatening language, toward his mother. Also, there was a translator, who was not physically present, who was translating the words of the alleged victim of a threat, the defendant’s mother. “Are you scared to die? To die?” is not enough for threats, the defense asserted. There was no sustained fear. The defendant was not actually taken into custody on the Saturday, which was a few days before January 19. The elements of a 422 charge are not satisfied, according to the defense, and Gocke asked for an order of no holding for the allegations. At most, he said, it should be a misdemeanor conduct charge, because it is a familial affair, there is no long-term fear and the defendant has been abusing drugs.

The prosecution argued that, on both Saturday, January 16, and Tuesday, January 19, the defendant’s mother was scared and there was no problem with the reliability of the translation of the statement.

Judge David Reed ruled that there was sufficient evidence for Penal Code section 422, a charge for felony criminal threats. The request to reduce to misdemeanor criminal threats was denied. The defendant will be arraigned on February 19, 2016.

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