People v. Pham
California Court of Appeal
192 Cal. App. 4th 552, 121 Cal. Rptr. 3d 458 (2011)
- Written by Arlyn Katen, JD
Facts
Anh-Tuan Dao Pham (defendant) admitted to police that during a drive-by shooting, he repeatedly shot a gun at a crowd standing in front of a house, injuring two people. Pham claimed that he intended to shoot at two Black teenagers who threw a rock during an altercation with Pham that dented Pham’s mother’s van. Neither of the two teenagers was present in the group that Pham shot at. Ballistics evidence also linked Pham’s gun to a homicide of a Black teenager that occurred an hour before Pham shot at the group, but Pham claimed he had no knowledge of that shooting. At trial, Pham testified that he lied to police about shooting into the crowd; instead, his friend actually committed the drive-by shooting while Pham drove the car. The jury convicted Pham of second-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, and discharging a firearm at an inhabited dwelling. Pham appealed, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support the attempted-murder convictions, and that the jury must have unlawfully applied the doctrine of transferred intent to his case. The government (plaintiff) contended that the doctrine of concurrent intent instead applied to Pham’s actions.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Robie, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
