## Facts

- A shopper leaving a Riverside K-Mart carried a purse on her shoulder while holding her five-year-old daughter’s hand; she was about eight months pregnant.
- From behind, the assailant shoved or struck her right shoulder, causing her to slightly lose balance, and simultaneously pulled the purse off her shoulder.
- The victim screamed, chased the assailant, saw him enter the passenger side of a white Chevrolet Nova, and reported the license plate and description to police.
- Police stopped a matching car within minutes; the defendant was a passenger, and officers recovered the victim’s purse and property in the vehicle.
- At trial, the prosecution introduced evidence of the victim’s pregnancy and physical condition to show the effect of the shove and the degree of force used.
- The defendant testified he did not push the victim and claimed the purse was handed to him by another occupant; the jury rejected this account.
- The jury convicted the defendant of robbery; he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession of a hypodermic needle/syringe.
- In a court trial on priors, the court found two serious-felony priors and one prior prison-term allegation true and imposed an aggregate 16-year prison sentence.

## Issues

1. Whether substantial evidence supported the robbery element of “force or fear” where the taking involved a brief shove from behind and a purse-snatch.
2. Whether admitting evidence that the victim was pregnant (and related argument) was irrelevant or unduly prejudicial.
3. Whether the prosecutor committed reversible misconduct by telling the jury a force instruction was requested by the defense, and whether the claim was forfeited by lack of objection.
4. Whether the sentencing court improperly used the same prior convictions both to impose enhancements and to select the upper term.

## Decision

- Affirmed the robbery conviction, holding the shove applied to the victim’s person and facilitated the taking, constituting sufficient force under Penal Code § 211.
- Affirmed admission of pregnancy evidence as relevant to evaluating the force used on this victim; any prejudice did not outweigh probative value.
- Rejected the prosecutorial-misconduct claim as forfeited for failure to object and request an admonition; alternatively found no prejudice.
- Affirmed the sentence, finding no impermissible dual use because the court relied on additional aggravating considerations beyond the bare fact of the priors.

## Legal Principles

- Robbery requires a taking from the person or immediate presence “accomplished by means of force or fear”; proof of either force or fear is sufficient.
- The amount of force is not measured by severity; it is enough if the force is sufficient to overcome the victim’s resistance, including where physical force is applied to the victim’s body to facilitate the taking.
- A “sudden snatching” without additional force on the person generally supports theft rather than robbery; added physical force that assists the taking supports robbery.
- A victim’s physical condition (including pregnancy) may be considered in assessing whether the defendant’s conduct constituted sufficient force in the circumstances.
- Claims of prosecutorial misconduct generally require a timely objection and request for a curative admonition to preserve appellate review.
- Sentencing may not double-count the same fact for both an enhancement and an aggravating factor, but a court may rely on other aggravating circumstances (including the pattern and seriousness of criminal history and performance on supervision) to justify an upper term.

## Conclusion

The court upheld a robbery conviction where the defendant shoved the victim to enable a purse taking, ruled that evidence of the victim’s pregnancy was relevant to the force inquiry, found no reversible misconduct absent a timely objection, and affirmed the upper term and enhancements because the sentencing court relied on aggravating factors beyond the mere existence of the prior convictions.


People v. Mungia, 234 Cal. App. 3d 1703, 286 Cal. Rptr. 394 (Ct. App. 1991)