THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. PETER DAVID HERNANDEZ, Defendant and Appellant.
No. H043551
Sixth Dist.
Mar. 28, 2017
Carla Castillo, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Plaintiff and Appellant.
Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Jeffrey M. Laurence, Assistant Attorney General, Catherine A. Rivlin and Gregg E. Zywicke, Deputy Attorneys General, for Defendant and Respondent.
OPINION
BAMATTRE-MANOUKIAN, J.—
I. INTRODUCTION
Defendant Peter David Hernandez appeals after the trial court denied his Proposition 47 petition for resentencing (
We conclude that defendant was not disqualified from resentencing under
II. BACKGROUND
In 1997, defendant was convicted of second degree robbery (
For the robbery, defendant was sentenced to an indeterminate term of 25 years to life pursuant to the Three Strikes law. The term for his conviction of petty theft with a prior was stayed pursuant to
On November 4, 2014, the electorate passed Proposition 47, which went into effect the next day. (See People v. Rivera (2015) 233 Cal.App.4th 1085, 1089 [183 Cal.Rptr.3d 362] (Rivera).) Proposition 47 reclassified certain drug- and theft-related offenses as misdemeanors, except where the defendant has one or more disqualifying prior convictions, which include the “super strike” offenses listed in
Petty theft with a prior was one of the offenses affected by Proposition 47. “For most persons, the crime of petty theft with a prior . . . is eliminated.” (People v. Diaz (2015) 238 Cal.App.4th 1323, 1330 [190 Cal.Rptr.3d 479].) However, as amended,
Proposition 47 also added
On September 25, 2015, defendant filed a petition for resentencing pursuant to
The District Attorney filed opposition to defendant‘s resentencing petition, arguing that defendant‘s robbery conviction precluded him from obtaining Proposition 47 relief for his conviction of petty theft with a prior. The District Attorney argued that the robbery conviction was a “prior conviction[]” within the meaning of
The trial court denied defendant‘s petition for resentencing in a written order filed on April 28, 2016. The trial court determined, based on the plain language of
III. DISCUSSION
Defendant argues, as he did in the trial court, that his conviction of petty theft with a prior was eligible for resentencing under
Proposition 36 “also created a ’ “post-conviction release proceeding” ’ whereby a Three Strikes prisoner who is serving an ‘indeterminate life sentence’ for a crime that was not a serious or violent felony—and who is not otherwise disqualified—may have his or her sentence recalled and be resentenced as a second strike offender . . . .” (Chubbuck, supra, 231 Cal.App.4th at p. 741.) Again, one disqualifying factor is that the defendant has a prior conviction for an offense listed in
The issue here is whether an offense itself must be punishable by an indeterminate life term in order to qualify as an “offense punishable in California by life imprisonment or death” under
Defendant contends the phrase “[a]ny serious and/or violent felony offense punishable in California by life imprisonment or death” (
The Attorney General contends the phrase “[a]ny serious and/or violent felony offense punishable in California by life imprisonment or death” (
In determining the meaning of the phrase “[a]ny serious and/or violent felony offense punishable in California by life imprisonment or death” (
We begin with the ordinary meaning of the phrase “offense punishable in California by life imprisonment” as used in
We also find it significant that
Our construction of
Our construction of the phrase “offense punishable in California by life imprisonment or death” (
The California Supreme Court has also similarly construed
The rationale of Turner and Thomas lends further support to our conclusion that the phrase “offense punishable in California by life imprisonment or death” (
The Attorney General contends that a particular conviction falls within
The Williams case relied on the distinction between a penalty provision and an enhancement recognized in two California Supreme cases: People v. Montes (2003) 31 Cal.4th 350 [2 Cal.Rptr.3d 621, 73 P.3d 489] (Montes) and People v. Jones (2009) 47 Cal.4th 566 [98 Cal.Rptr.3d 546, 213 P.3d 997] (Jones), both of which also involved issues arising under the gang enhancement statute. Montes held that
Williams, Montes, and Jones all involved the criminal street gang statute, which provides for different punishment depending on the defendant‘s conduct and other circumstances. None of those cases considered the meaning of the phrase “offense punishable in California by life imprisonment or death” as used in
The Attorney General also contends that the issue in this case is moot, pointing out that if defendant‘s petition is granted, it will not provide him with any “material benefit” because his sentence for petty theft with a prior was stayed pursuant to
In sum, defendant was not disqualified from resentencing under
IV. DISPOSITION
The order denying defendant‘s Penal Code section 1170.18 petition is reversed. The case is remanded to the superior court for a determination of whether resentencing defendant “would pose an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety.” (
Elia, Acting P. J., and Mihara, J., concurred.
