4DCA Division 1 Oral Argument - 2026/09/15 - Sep 15, 2026

argument

4DCA Division 1 Oral Argument - 2026/09/15

California Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division One 4h 12m 7 chapters transcribed 4 days ago official recording ↗

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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

What procedural instructions are given to the attorneys at the start of the hearing?

Unknown 1:45

Good morning, welcome to the critical field. Meeting

Matthew Levinson 1:47

according to started this morning. When you come up to argue, please make sure you adjust the podium using the switch

Daniel Hilton 1:52

here on the right side. So the microphone is pointing to your chin. You don't have the justices on the bench, won't be able to hear you. And it'll stop the mid-argument. Uh apologies, uh table is to my right here. If you get to use the restroom, then we

Unknown 2:04

come back through security screen and you come inside the courtroom. Any questions for me this morning? Appreciate it. Yeah.

Chris Lockwood 2:44

Mm. Yeah.

Molly Chan Greco 3:02

По малу приклад сукаса.

Unknown 3:07

Molly Chan Greco 3:07

I was very not accountable.

Unknown 3:09

Very good on. Solid meeting. Oh, it's not. I have a TV. We're still used to seeing Teresa there and I love it. We find. Io. But Everybody's going on. You know, originally.

Unknown 7:38

For the people of the state of California, Fourth Republic District Division One is now in session of the reading of the final presiding. It isn't good. Yeah. All right, good morning. Uh with me on this first panel are Justice Buchanan to my right, Justice Pellady. To my left we do have a panel change uh after the first two cases. But keep in mind on all of the cases we're very familiar with your uh uh briefs, so just highlight those issues you think are most significant. Like looks like we're starting with people versus Figaroa. So please state your appearance and let us know if you wish to reserve time to respond.

Carl Fabin 8:20

Uh good morning, Your Honors Carl Fabin, on behalf of the appellant. I would like to reserve um Three minutes.

Unknown 8:27

Okay. We may proceed.

Carl Fabin 8:30

Thank you. So um Two issues um raised and the first one uh Which obviously carries greater significance to the Um Mr. Figueroa is the issue of the uh second degree versus voluntary manslaughter. And It's a of course a difficult argument to be make to make that the um the evidence is legally insufficient uh for second degree, but I think in this case the facts are there. Um we have uh the people's burden beyond a reasonable doubt under Beltran and Rios to prove that there wasn't that uh malice wasn't negated by the facts in the record. And we've got the most clearest evidence you could have. We have a video that shows that within something like forty-five seconds, um, the decedent attacks uh appellant's brother also strikes appellant.

Carl Fabin 9:25

Unknown 9:26

well is there a video of the decedent attacking The brother? I thought that was around the corner when the video was not

Carl Fabin 9:33

Correct. Yes.

Unknown 9:34

Okay.

Carl Fabin 9:35

Yeah, it that wasn't very uh artful way to say that, but um we know that the brother had Uh a bloodied face. And that was and that was we saw before they go around the corner, um, the decedent and the brother Carlos are engaged in an altercation and Carlos is still

Unknown 9:57

seems fairly minor when you're looking at on the video that portion, right? Before they go around the corner, there's n no there's nothing terribly significant that happens in terms of the confrontation.

Carl Fabin 10:08

Well in in terms of the provocation, I agree. We have uh Aguirre being aggressive and Carlos throwing his hands up. I think what's relevant for that is that it it Clearly support works it provides evidence to support the inference that when when they went around a corner out of view and they come back and Carlos's face is bloody, that is because it was the aggression by Aguirre, supported by the fact that Appellant is now engaged in a conflict with Aguirri. So I think it is relevant uh that beforehand they have this uh

Unknown 10:42

Sure, but I mean without your argument about what happened around the corner. I mean there's just some kind of exchange between the participants. Your argument centers around what happened outside of you of the video.

Carl Fabin 10:58

Yeah, that's true. And the

Unknown 11:00

only

Carl Fabin 11:00

evidence is

Unknown 11:00

the

Carl Fabin 11:01

Bloody face. Yeah, that's the Which seems like pretty good evidence to me. I I think in most case,

Unknown 11:08

some kind of confrontation, but the urgency of this I mean This is the question that we didn't see that happen and when we do see the next part of the video Uh it's it's pretty striking if

Carl Fabin 11:22

it happens. It's so so immediately after they come back around the corner, it's on and and it all happens in forty five seconds and so