THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. EDGAR ALEJANDRO FARFAN, Defendant and Appellant.
B309786
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION TWO
Filed 11/19/21
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION; (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. TA136699)
Edward H. Schulman, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Idan Ivri and Rene Judkiewicz, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Appellant was convicted in 2016 of the first degree murder of Kamell Heno (
In January 2019, appellant filed a petition for recall and resentencing under
Appellant did not appeal the superior court‘s order, but filed a second petition for
As a preliminary matter, we reject respondent‘s contention that the second
Turning to the merits of the appeal, we conclude that because appellant filed a facially sufficient
FACTUAL BACKGROUND2
Kamell Heno was employed as a delivery driver for Cartons to Go, a company that bought and sold cigarettes. On December 4, 2014, Heno was scheduled to deliver cigarettes worth $217,000 to Cartons to Go in LaVerne. That morning, driving a large white box truck, Heno picked up the cigarettes from Giant Wholesale in Sunland and Costco in Burbank, but he never arrived in LaVerne.
Around 3:30 that afternoon, Heno‘s truck was discovered parked on the 10200 block of South Grand Avenue in the city of Los Angeles. Only about 10 percent of the cigarettes Heno had collected that morning remained in the truck‘s cargo area. Heno was found on the floor of the truck with a red stained cloth covering his head. His face was wrapped in duct tape, which covered his eyes and mouth. He had two projectile head wounds from a BB gun in addition to multiple abrasions, lacerations, and bruises on his head, neck, and upper extremities. Heno was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy indicated the cause of death to be asphyxiation.
Prior to December 4, appellant, his brother Josue Farfan (Josue), and Josue‘s wife, Jennifer Medina, agreed to rob a delivery truck of its cargo of cigarettes. In accordance with the plan, on the morning of December 4, appellant drove Medina and Josue in his SUV to Cigar Cartel, where they parked and waited until the white box truck driven by Heno pulled out. Appellant
The truck pulled over, and Heno got out. Appellant exited the SUV carrying a BB gun and shoved Heno into the passenger side of the truck. Josue got into the truck and the brothers drove away with Heno while Medina followed in the SUV. Eventually, the truck exited the freeway, drove into a neighborhood and parked. Appellant, Josue, and Medina filled the SUV with cigarettes from the truck and drove away, leaving Heno in the cab of his truck.
DISCUSSION
I. Appellant‘s Second Petition for Relief Under Section 1170.95 Is Not Procedurally Barred as a Successive Petition
Respondent contends that the
As California courts have grappled with the interpretation and application of
Appellant‘s 2019 petition was facially sufficient and thus triggered the requirement that a request for appointment of counsel be honored before the superior court may consider the record of conviction to determine whether the appellant made a prima facie showing of eligibility for relief. (Lewis, supra, 11 Cal.5th at p. 957.) Appellant‘s subsequent petition was also facially sufficient and should also have prompted the appointment of counsel. Furthermore, appellant‘s 2020 petition cited three appellate decisions issued after the superior court‘s summary denial of the 2019 petition: People v. York (2020) 54 Cal.App.5th 250, review granted Nov. 18, 2020, S264954 (York); People v. Smith (2020) 49 Cal.App.5th 85, review granted July 22, 2020, S262835 (Smith); and People v. Torres (2020) 46 Cal.App.5th 1168, review granted June 24, 2020, S262011
Respondent asserts that “successive
Application of collateral estoppel is not automatic, but is subject to public policy considerations. (Lucido v. Superior Court (1990) 51 Cal.3d 335, 342-343.) As our Supreme Court has explained, “[T]he public policies underlying collateral estoppel—preservation of the integrity of the judicial system, promotion of judicial economy, and protection of litigants from harassment by vexatious litigation—strongly influence whether its application in a particular circumstance would be fair to the parties and constitutes sound judicial poliсy.” (Id. at p. 343.) In this case, none of these public policy considerations favors application of collateral estoppel to bar appellant‘s 2020 petition. (See Lewis, supra, 11 Cal.5th at p. 967 [“Appointing counsel to assist a petitioner in navigating these complex theories, upon the filing of a facially sufficient petition, promotes the reliability of
Respondent also analogizes to the general rule in hаbeas corpus procedure that a “court will not consider repeated applications for habeas corpus presenting claims previously rejected” (In re Clark (1993) 5 Cal.4th 750, 767) to argue that appellant‘s petition is barred. But the general rule does not apply in habeas proceedings when there has been a retroactive change in the law affecting the petitioner. (In re Martinez (2017) 3 Cal.5th 1216, 1222.) As our Supreme Court explains, a change is retroactive when it “is substantive rather than procedural (i.e., it alters the range of conduct or the class of persons that the law punishes, or it modifies the elements of the offense) or when a judicial decision undertakes to vindicate the original meaning of the statute.” (Ibid.)
Under this standard, not only are the changes to the law effected by Senate Bill No. 1437 themselves retroactive, but judicial interpretations of
II. Because the Jury Found the Robbery-murder Special Circumstance True, Appellant Is Ineligible for Relief Under Section 1170.95 as a Matter of Law
A. Applicable legal principals
The Legislature enacted Senate Bill No. 1437 to “amend the felony murder rule and the natural and probable consequences doctrine, as it relates to murder, to ensure that murder liability is not imposed on a person who is not the actual killer, did not act with the intent to kill, or was not a major participant in the underlying felony who acted with reckless indifference to human life.” (Stats. 2018, ch. 1015, § 1, subd. (f); Gentile, supra, 10 Cal.5th at p. 842; People v. Martinez (2019) 31 Cal.App.5th 719, 723 (Martinez).)
Prior to the enactment of Senate Bill No. 1437, “a defendant who intended to commit a specified felony could be
In order to ensure that a person‘s sentence is commensurate with his or her criminal culpability (Lewis, supra, 11 Cal.5th at p. 971), the Legislature substantively amended
When a petition for resentencing under
After the superior court‘s summary denial of the 2020 petition in this case, our Supreme Court resolved a split of authority in the appellate courts, holding that the petitioner is entitled to the appointment of counsel, if requested, upon the filing of a facially sufficient petition, that is, one that makes the necessary averments, without regard to his or her eligibility for relief. (Lewis, supra, 11 Cal.5th at p. 957.) Lewis further held that
“The record of conviction will necessarily inform the trial court‘s prima faсie inquiry under
B. The superior court erred in failing to appoint counsel, but the error was harmless in light of the jury‘s true finding on the robbery-murder spеcial circumstance allegation
Appellant‘s 2020 petition for resentencing met the requirements for facial sufficiency and he requested counsel. Lewis therefore dictates our conclusion that the superior court erred in its summary denial of appellant‘s petition without first appointing counsel and accepting briefing from the parties.
Nevertheless, we conclude the error was harmless.
By adding
Here, appellant‘s jury was instructed pursuant to CALCRIM No. 703 that if it found appellant was not the actual killer, it could not find the robbery-murder special circumstance true unless it was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant intended to kill or he was a major participant in the crime, and, when he participated in the crime, he acted with reckless indifference to human life. The jury was further instructed that “[a] person acts with reckless indifference to human life when he or she knowingly engages in criminal aсtivity that he or she knows involves a grave risk of death.”
In order to obtain relief from his or her felony murder conviction under
As noted above, appellate courts are split on the question of whether a pre-Banks and Clark special circumstance finding makes a petitioner ineligible for
The issue resolved in all of these cases and pending before our Supreme Court in Strong is whether a special circumstance finding made before Banks and Clark precludes
Thus, even though appellant‘s jury was not instructed with the Banks and Clark factors, this case falls outside the split of authority to be resolved by our Supreme Court in Strong. The jury‘s robbery-murder special circumstance finding constitutes a valid finding beyond a reasonable doubt that appellant had the intent to kill or was a major participant in the robbery who acted with reckless disregard for human life, and that finding makes appellant ineligible for relief under
Because the jury‘s felony-murder special circumstance finding precludes relief under
C. Appellant is not entitled to relief under section 1170.95 based on the natural and probable consequences instructions given in connection with the uncharged conspiracy to commit robbery
Appellant contends the instructions given allowed the jury to convict appellant of first degree felony murder as an aider and abettor under two alternative theories: “traditional” felony murder and felony murder based on appеllant‘s participation in an uncharged conspiracy to commit robbery. With regard to the latter theory, the jury was instructed that if death was a natural and probable consequence of the conspiracy‘s target offense of
Appellant‘s argument might have merit were it not for the jury‘s true finding on the felony-murder special circumstance in this case. While it is true (contrary to the superior court‘s conclusion) that apрellant‘s jury was instructed on an alternate uncharged conspiracy theory which incorporated natural and probable consequences principles, the jury‘s special circumstance finding demonstrates that appellant‘s murder conviction was not predicated on any theory of derivative liability. Indeed, as set forth above, viewing the jury‘s true finding on the felony-murder special circumstance in light of CALCRIM No. 703 establishes that the jury found, beyond a reasonable doubt, that if appellant
The superior court correctly determined that appellant is ineligible for
DISPOSITION
The superior court‘s order denying relief under
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION.
LUI, P. J.
We concur:
CHAVEZ, J.
HOFFSTADT, J.
