THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. JASON BROADBENT, Defendant and Appellant.
C086848 (Super. Ct. No. CRF156998)
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Yolo)
Filed 4/15/20
CERTIFIED FOR PARTIAL PUBLICATION*
Benjamin Owens, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler and Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Kathleen A. McKenna, Julie A. Hokans and Timothy L. O‘Hair, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
After denying defendant‘s Romero2 motion, the court sentenced defendant to a total term of 53 years eight months in prison.
On appeal, defendant contends: (1) his 2001 conviction may not be used as a prior strike or to enhance his sentence under
I. BACKGROUND
In July 2015, an undercover officer was assigned to purchase fully automatic weapons and narcotics from defendant. Because the facts pertaining to the drug purchases are not relevant to the issues raised by defendant on appeal, we omit them from our recitation of the facts.
On July 28, 2015, the officer texted defendant asking to purchase fully automatic rifles. Defendant said he could only get one and agreed to meet later that night. When they met, defendant handed the officer a short-barreled AR-15 fully automatic rifle in exchange for $1,500. A Magpul PMAG 40-round magazine was included with the rifle.
The next day, defendant sent the officer a text message with a picture of a short-barreled AR-15 rifle and letting the officer know defendant had another one for sale. They agreed to meet at the same location. Once there, the officer gave defendant a bag, and defendant returned it with a short-barreled AR-15 rifle inside. Again, the officer paid $1,500 for the rifle and a Magpul PMAG 40-round magazine was included with it.
On July 31, defendant texted the officer a picture of several guns. The officer responded that he was interested in buying “the Intratec TEC-9 and a .44 mag[num].” They met on August 4, and defendant gave the officer the firearms in exchange for cash. The TEC-9 had a magazine that held 32 rounds.
On August 18, defendant sent pictures of several pistols to the officer. They met the next day, and defendant handed the officer a fully automatic rifle that he referred to as his personal gun, two other short-barreled assault rifles, and two pistols. Each rifle had a 40-round magazine. The officer gave defendant $5,600.
II. DISCUSSION
A. Constitutionality of Section 32310
“In 1994, Congress enacted the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (‘Crime Control Act‘), which proscribed, among other things, the possession of ‘large capacity ammunition feeding devices‘—also defined as any magazine capable of accepting more than [10] rounds of ammunition. [Citations.] Beginning in 2000, California criminalized the manufacture, sale, purchase, transfer, and receipt of large-capacity magazines within the state, but did not specifically criminalize the possession of large-capacity magazines, which was covered at the time by federal law.” (Fyock v. City of Sunnyvale (9th Cir. 2015) 779 F.3d 991, 994; see former
In 2016, both the Legislature and the People passed amendments to
The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) 554 U.S. 570 (Heller), the United States Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual‘s right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense. The right, however, is not unlimited and is “not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.” (Id. at p. 626.) Two years after Heller, the court held that the Fourteenth Amendment‘s due process clause makes the Second Amendment fully applicable to the states. (McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) 561 U.S. 742, 750, 791 (McDonald).)
After Heller, the federal appellate courts developed a two-step approach for assessing Second Amendment challenges. (Gould v. Morgan (1st Cir. 2018) 907 F.3d 659, 668 [collecting cases]; see also U.S. v. Chovan (9th Cir. 2013) 735 F.3d 1127, 1136.) Under this approach, courts first ask “whether the challenged law burdens conduct protected by the Second Amendment.” (U.S. v. Chovan, supra, at p. 1136.) If it does, we “apply an appropriate level of scrutiny.” (Ibid.) “Neither Heller nor McDonald discussed the applicable standard of review . . . .” (People v. Ellison (2011) 196 Cal.App.4th 1342, 1347; see Heller, supra, 554 U.S. at pp. 628-629 [“Under any of the standards of scrutiny that we have applied to enumerated constitutional rights, banning from the home ‘the most preferred firearm in the nation to “keep” and use for protection of one‘s home and family,’ [citation], would fail constitutional muster,” fn. omitted].)
We assume without deciding that large-capacity magazines are entitled to Second Amendment protection, and turn to the appropriate level of scrutiny. (See Worman v. Healey (1st Cir. 2019) 922 F.3d 26, 36 (Worman) [rejecting challenge to Massachusetts law proscribing sale, transfer, and possession of certain semiautomatic assault weapons and large-capacity magazines]; Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, Inc. v. Attorney General New Jersey (3d Cir. 2018) 910 F.3d 106, 117 [rejecting challenge to New Jersey law prohibiting possession of magazine capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition].)
“Under the intermediate scrutiny test, the statute must serve an important governmental interest and there should be a reasonable fit between the regulation and the governmental objective.” (People v. Mitchell (2012) 209 Cal.App.4th 1364, 1374; accord U.S. v. Chovan, supra, 735 F.3d at p. 1139.) “[W]e review the legislative history of the enactment as well as studies in the record or cited in pertinent case law.” (Jackson v. City & County of San Francisco (9th Cir. 2014) 746 F.3d 953, 969.)
As to defendant‘s specific arguments based on Duncan, first, the lack of exceptions to
Secondly, we are not persuaded by defendant‘s assertion that
Likewise, when enacting its legislation banning the possession of large-capacity magazines in 2016, our Legislature observed there had been at least 50 mass shootings involving large-capacity magazines since 1980, including three in 2015, and that such magazines “allow a shooter to rapidly fire without reloading.” (Sen. Com. On Public Safety, Analysis of Sen. Bill No. 1446 (2015-2016 Reg. Sess.) p. 5.) The Legislature reasonably determined that restricting large-capacity magazines within California would
B. Prior Strike
In 2001, defendant pled no contest to a charge that he committed animal cruelty and personally used a firearm in the commission of that offense by shooting a dog. (Former
1. Estrada
Defendant argues Senate Bill No. 1391 (2017-2018 Reg. Sess.) (
We first review the relevant statutory background. ” ‘Historically, a child could be tried in criminal court only after a judicial determination, before jeopardy attached, that he or she was unfit to be dealt with under juvenile court law. Since 1975 the procedural requirements for fitness hearings have been established by [Welfare and Institutions Code] section 707.’ [Citation.] The general rule used to be that ‘any individual less than 18 years of age who violates the criminal law comes within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which may adjudge such an individual a ward of the court.’ ” (People v. Superior Court (Lara) (2018) 4 Cal.5th 299, 305 (Lara).) “Indeed, for decades only those minors who were at least 16 years of age at the time of the offense
At the March 7, 2000, Primary Election, voters approved Proposition 21, which “revised the juvenile court law to broaden the circumstances in which minors 14 years of age and older [could] be prosecuted in the criminal division of the superior court, rather than in juvenile court. [
In 2016, “Proposition 57 changed the procedure again, and largely returned California to the historical rule. ‘Among other provisions, Proposition 57 amended the Welfare and Institutions Code so as to eliminate direct filing by prosecutors. Certain categories of minors . . . can still be tried in criminal court, but only after a juvenile court judge conducts a transfer hearing to consider various factors such as the minor‘s maturity, degree of criminal sophistication, prior delinquent history, and whether the minor can be rehabilitated.” (Lara, supra, 4 Cal.5th at p. 305.) As relevant to this proceeding, individuals charged with personal use of a firearm under
In 2018, the Legislature enacted the law at issue here, Senate Bill No. 1391, which all but eliminates prosecutors’ ability to seek transfer hearings for individuals who were 14 and 15 at the time of their offense, “effectively raising the minimum age a child can be tried as an adult from 14 to 16.” (B.M. v. Superior Court (2019) 40 Cal.App.5th 742, 746.)5
“When a defendant is convicted of a felony, and it is pleaded and proved that he has committed one or more prior felonies defined as ‘violent’ or ‘serious,’ sentencing proceeds under the Three Strikes law ‘[n]otwithstanding any other law[.]’ (
Defendant argues Senate Bill No. 1391 should also prevent the use of his 2001 conviction as a strike under Estrada. In Estrada, supra, 63 Cal.2d 740, our Supreme Court addressed the applicability of a criminal statute that mitigated the punishment for a crime after the prohibited act was committed but before final judgment was entered. (Id. at p. 742.)
People v. Buycks (2018) 5 Cal.5th 857 illustrates the limits of defendant‘s argument. In Buycks, our Supreme Court addressed the effect of Proposition 47, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, on felony-based enhancements. (Buycks, supra, at p. 870.) “Proposition 47 reclassified as misdemeanors certain offenses that previously were felonies or ‘wobblers.’ It also added []section 1170.18, which permits those previously convicted of felony offenses that Proposition 47 reduced to misdemeanors to petition to have such felony convictions resentenced or redesignated as misdemeanors.
People v. Flores (1979) 92 Cal.App.3d 461, relied upon by defendant, is also distinguishable for this reason. In Flores, the defendant challenged the trial court‘s imposition of a one-year enhancement under
