People v. Johnson CA5, F086571

Tyrone Johnson was charged in Kern County, California, with multiple felonies, including murder, attempted murder, voluntary manslaughter with firearm enhancements, escape, and gang-related offenses, following a violent home invasion in 2017 resulting in the death of a young child and injuries to a mother and her son.
Johnson and a codefendant broke into an apartment, fired a weapon, resulting in the death of a three-year-old and serious injuries to a pregnant woman and her five-year-old son.
Johnson later escaped from custody while awaiting trial, leading to additional charges.
In August 2022, Johnson pled no contest to two counts of attempted murder, escape, and voluntary manslaughter (with admission of gun use and prior strike allegations), while other charges and enhancements were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
He was sentenced to a total of 42 years and eight months in prison, partly after the court granted his Romero motion to strike one prior strike for sentencing.
Johnson sought to appeal on grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel and involuntariness of his plea, alleging he did not receive the sentence he was promised, but the trial record reflected he was informed of and agreed to the imposed sentence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Appropriateness of sentence imposed	Sentence was proper as agreed	Not the sentence promised	Sentence matched plea; court acted properly
Validity of plea (voluntary/knowing)	Plea was knowing and voluntary	Plea not voluntarily made	Plea valid; defendant was informed
Ineffective assistance of counsel	No evidence of ineffective aid	Counsel misled about sentence	No ineffective assistance shown

People v. Wende, 25 Cal.3d 436 (Cal. 1979) (Appellate review standard when counsel finds no meritorious issues)
People v. Kelly, 40 Cal.4th 106 (Cal. 2006) (Appellate obligation to independently review record in Wende appeals)
People v. Sandoval, 41 Cal.4th 825 (Cal. 2007) (Trial court must exercise sentencing discretion individually and fairly)
People v. Mai, 57 Cal.4th 986 (Cal. 2013) (Ineffective assistance of counsel claims standard on direct appeal)