-Caveat Lector-

Filed 8/26/99


CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION SIX
THE PEOPLE,
Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

ANTONIO LOPEZ,
Defendant and Appellant.
2d Crim. No. B127093
(Super. Ct. No. F275542)
(San Luis Obispo County)



Defendant Antonio Lopez was convicted and imprisoned
for making terrorist threats. (Pen. Code, § 422.) 1 He had said
to his father's girlfriend, among other things, "I'm going to get
my friends out here to kill you."

We hold that for purposes of determining whether Lopez
is a mentally disordered offender (MDO), his conviction of
section 422 involved a threat of immediate force or violence
likely to produce substantial physical harm, as required by
section 2962, subdivision (e)(2)(Q).

Lopez appeals a judgment committing him to the
California Department of Mental Health after a jury determined
him to be an MDO. We affirm.


FACTS

According to a probation officer's report, in 1995
Lopez threatened his father's girlfriend, Betty, during a family
argument. Lopez stated that he wanted to get a gun to shoot her
"between the eyes" and that he had friends on parole who could
kill her. Doctor Silva-Palacios recounted Lopez's threat, as set
forth in an undescribed document: "My father should have put the
gun between your eyes and blown your head off. You're a snitch.
I'm going to get my friends out here to kill you."
The threats frightened and intimidated Betty. She left
Lopez's presence and summoned police officers. Lopez physically
resisted arrest and was subdued by the officers. He had been
using methamphetamine for "about a week" when he threatened
Betty.

On May 3, 1995, Lopez pleaded guilty to making a
terrorist threat. (§ 422.) The Riverside County Superior Court
sentenced him to a prison term of one year and four months.
On August 28, 1998, the Board of Prison Terms
determined that Lopez was an MDO pursuant to the criteria of
section 2962. As a parole condition, he was required to accept
treatment from the Department of Mental Health. Lopez requested
a jury trial to contest the MDO determination. (§ 2966, subd.
(b).) 2

At trial Doctor David Finnell, a psychiatrist at
Atascadero State Hospital, testified that he interviewed Lopez
and reviewed his prison, medical, and psychiatric records.
Finnell opined that Lopez is a paranoid schizophrenic who suffers
from auditory and command hallucinations, ideas of reference (the
television spoke about him), and internal preoccupation. Lopez
informed Finnell that voices commanded him to kill or maim
himself. He also admitted to abuse of drugs, including cocaine,
methamphetamine, PCP, and LSD. Finnell opined that Lopez met the
MDO criteria of section 2962.

Doctor Victor Silva-Palacios, a clinical psychologi st
at Atascadero State Hospital, had treated Lopez for three months.
Silva-Palacios opined that Lopez suffers from paranoid
schizophrenia, an illness characterized by suspiciousness,
hallucinations, confused thinking, poor impulse control, and lack
of insight. Lopez admitted to Silva-Palacios that he had
mutilated himself on 11 occasions. Lopez was also involved in
threats to or assaults upon correctional officers. Silva-Palacios
opined that Lopez met the criteria of section 2962,
relying upon his assaultive behavior while confined, substance
abuse, failure to take anti-psychotic medication when released
from confinement, and the nature of his mental illness. Silva-Palacios
also considered Lopez's recent parole violation, which
involved masturbating in front of a grammar school, in forming
his opinion.

Doctor Jeffrey Moreno, a psychologist in private
practice, interviewed Lopez and reviewed his prison, medical, and
psychiatric records several weeks before the Board of Prison
Terms hearing and determination. Moreno opined that Lopez is a
paranoid schizophrenic who suffers from command hallucinations,
delusions, suicide ideation, and poor impulse control. Moreno
believed that Lopez presents a substantial danger of physical
harm to others because of his criminal history, assaultive and
threatening behavior in prison, substance abuse, and lack of
impulse control. Moreno opined that Lopez meets the criteria of
section 2962.

Lopez testified and admitted that he suffers from a
mental disorder, characterized by hallucinations. He stated:
"Sometimes the voices tell me to hurt other people, but I never
did hurt anyone." In response to the prosecutor's question, "Is
that all you told [Betty], that you were going to shoot her?",
Lopez stated: "That's exactly what I told her."
The jury found that Lopez was an MDO pursuant to
section 2962. It necessarily found that the circumstances of his
committing offense involved use of "force or violence" pursuant
to section 2962, subdivision (e)(2)(P). The trial court
committed Lopez to the Department of Mental Health for treatment.

Subsequent to the trial and during the appeal in this
case, the Legislature amended section 2962 to add subdivision
(e)(2)(Q). That subdivision provides that a committing offense
includes a crime "in which the perpetrator expressly or impliedly
threatened another with the use of force or violence likely to
produce substantial physical harm in such a manner that a
reasonable person would believe and expect that the force or
violence would be used." 3

On appeal Lopez contends the committing offense does
not involve a threatened use of immediate force or violence
likely to produce substantial physical harm.

DISCUSSION

Lopez argues that section 2962, subdivision (e)(2)(Q),
requires a threat of immediate force or violence and not a threat
of future violence, which is protected by the First Amendment.
(Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) 395 U.S. 444, 448-449 [23 L.Ed. 430,
434] [advocacy of force or violence must be directed to inciting
or producing immediate lawless action].) He claims that his
threats were protected by federal and state constitutional
guaranties of free speech. Lopez points out that subdivision
(e)(2) includes specified committing offenses that involve a fear
of "immediate and unlawful bodily injury" on the victim or
another person. (Subds. (e)(2)(G)[sodomy], (H)[oral copulation],
(K)[penetration by a foreign object].)

Lopez asserts his threat to Betty concerned only future
violence--"My father should have put the gun between your eyes
and blown your head off." He also threatened to solicit friends
to kill her. These threats, he claims, do not reasonably imply
imminent danger of substantial physical harm to a reasonable
person and were intended only to frighten the victim.
The terrorist threat statute requires a threat to be
"so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to
convey to the person threatened a gravity of purpose and an
immediate prospect of execution of the threat." (§ 422.) The
statute does not require an immediate ability to carry out the
threat. ( In re David L. (1991) 234 Cal.App.3d 1655, 1660.)
Section 422 is constitutional.
 ( People v. Fisher (1993) 12Cal.App.4th 1556, 1559-1560.)
It does not reach "a substantialamount of constitutionally protected
conduct." ( In re David L., supra, 234 Cal.App.3d 1655, 1661.)
 A threat that the speakerdoes not intend to implement is not speech
 protected by the FirstAmendment. ( People v. Fisher, supra, 12
Cal.App.4th 1556, 1559-1660.)

The immediacy element of L opez's threat was adjudicated
by his 1995 guilty plea and conviction. Immediacy is a necessary
element of section 422, which requires an "immediate" threat that
conveys "an immediate prospect of execution of the threat."
(§ 422, 1st par.) A guilty plea admits every element of the
charged offense and is a conclusive admission of guilt. ( People
v. Westbrook (1996) 43 Cal.App.4th 220, 223; People v. Gonzalez
(1993) 13 Cal.App.4th 707, 713.) Lopez may not now relitigate
the sufficiency of evidence to establish this element of the
offense. ( People v. Gonzalez, supra, 13 Cal.App.4th at pp. 707,
713.)

Moreover, sufficient evidence supports the finding that
Lopez expressly threatened Betty with an immediate threat of
force or violence likely to produce substantial risk of physical
harm. (§ 2962, subd. (e)(2)(Q).) Although Lopez refers to a
threat quoted by Doctor Silva-Palacios, Doctor Finnell testified
the threat was that Lopez "wanted to go get a gun so he could
shoot" Betty. Significantly, in response to the prosecutor's
question, "Is that all you told [Betty], that you were going to
shoot her?", Lopez confirmed: "That's exactly what I told her."

A reasonable person would believe that Lopez, a paranoid
schizophrenic with a history of assaultive behavior who had used
methamphetamine for a week, would use force or violence against
the victim. ( People v. Mendoza (1997) 59 Cal.App.4th 1333, 1340-
1341 [whether threat is unequivocal, unconditional, immediate and
specific may depend on surrounding circumstances and the parties'
history]; People v. Martinez (1997) 53 Cal.App.4th 1212, 1222.)

The judgment is affirmed.

CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION .
GILBERT, Acting P.J.

We concur:
YEGAN, J.
COFFEE, J.

Robert T. Picquet, Judge
Superior Court County of San Luis Obispo
______________________________
Kent Douglas Baker, under appointment by the Court of
Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, David P. Druliner,
Chief Assistant Attorney General, Carol Wendelin Pollack, Senior
Assistant Attorney General, Linda C. Johnson, Supervising Deputy
Attorney General, David A. Wildman, Deputy Attorney General, for
Plaintiff and Respondent.

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