Escape

Penal Code 4532 After booking

At the time of his arrest in 1991, section 4532, subdivision (a), provided that, “Every prisoner arrested and booked for, charged with, or convicted of a misdemeanor ... who thereafter escapes or attempts to escape from [the] county or city jail, prison, industrial farm, or industrial road camp or from the custody of the officer or person in charge of him ” is guilty of a felony. (former § 4532, subd. (a), as amended by Stats.1984, ch. 1432, § 7, p. 5025, italics added.) When a suspect flees from custody before being charged, convicted, or booked for the offense for which he was arrested, he is not subject to prosecution for violating section 4532. (Wood v. Superior Court (1975) 46 Cal.App.3d 564, 566, 120 Cal.Rptr. 214 (Wood ).) (People v. Cruz (2008) 44 Cal.4th 636, 676.)

Definition of booking

Rather, the term “to book” is defined in section 7, item 21, as “the recordation of an arrest in official police records, and the taking by the police of fingerprints and photographs of the person arrested, or any of these acts following an arrest.” (Italics added.) Defendant's arrest clearly was recorded in official police records prior to his being transported from the Burney substation toward Redding; hence that fact itself establishes that he was technically “booked” on the section 647(f) charge within the meaning of section 7, subdivision (21), and the escape statute (§ 4532).

Shasta County Sheriff's Sergeant Bradd McDannold testified, in connection with the section 1118.1 motion for a directed verdict on this special circumstance allegation, that a “probable cause declaration” is normally filled out and placed in the arrestee's “permanent jacket” for inclusion in the sheriff's records, and that Deputy Perrigo followed that procedure in defendant's case. Additionally, the Burney substation maintains an official “daily log” recording the activities of all of its officers, which is kept by the records supervisor and is an official record of the Shasta County Sheriff's Department. The daily log for the date and time of defendant's arrest recorded all pertinent information surrounding his arrest. We therefore find that the “probable cause declaration” and the “daily log” memorializing the details of defendant's arrest constituted “recordation of [his] arrest in official police records” within the meaning of the definition of “book[ed]” found in section 7, subdivision (21). Additionally, Sergeant McDannold testified that the reason defendant was not ***165 fingerprinted or photographed upon being brought into the substation on *678 the morning of October 21 was that his fingerprints and photograph were already on file with the department as a result of his earlier arrest in July of that same year by the same agency in connection with the prowling/public intoxication incident. In such instances, all that was required to complete the official booking process at the Burney substation and to authorize transport of defendant to the main jail in Redding was the completion of the “probable cause declaration.” Sergeant McDannold testified further that public intoxication is not a “retainable” offense requiring fingerprinting in the first instance.

We conclude the record establishes that following defendant's valid arrest for a violation of section 647(f), and his transport to the Burney substation, defendant was “booked” on the charge within the statutory definition of that term, and hence the evidence is sufficient to support all the requisite elements of the murder to perfect the escape from lawful custody special-circumstance finding. (People v. Cruz (2008) 44 Cal.4th 636, 677-678.)