What is the test for making a threat under section 422 of the California Criminal Code?

result in death or great bodily injury to another person,' (2) that the defendant made the threat 'with the specific intent that the statement . . . is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out,' (3) that the threatwhich may be 'made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device'was 'on its face and under the circumstances in which it [was] made, . . . 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,' (4) that the threat actually caused the person threatened 'to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her immediate family's safety,' and (5) that the threatened person's fear was 'reasonabl[e]' under the circumstances." (People v. Toledo (2001) 26 Cal.4th 221, 227-228.)

The requirement that a threat under section 422 be "immediate" has been construed to include threats "made to convince the victim to do something 'or else.' " (People v. Melhado (1998) 60 Cal.App.4th 1529, 1538, italics added.) As the Melhado court recognized, "threats often have by their very nature some aspect of conditionality." (Ibid.) Nonetheless, these types of threats fall under section 422 when they involve a "degree of seriousness and imminence which is understood by the victim to be attached to the future prospect of the threat being carried out, should the conditions not be met." (Ibid.)