Christian Calderon v. Kevin Hixon

CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedSeptember 27, 2024
Docket2:24-cv-08206
StatusUnknown

This text of Christian Calderon v. Kevin Hixon (Christian Calderon v. Kevin Hixon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Christian Calderon v. Kevin Hixon, (C.D. Cal. 2024).

Opinion

1 2

6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 WESTERN DIVISION 11 CHRISTIAN CALDERON, ) No. 2:24-cv-08206-DMG-JDE ) 12 Petitioner, ) ) ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE WHY 13 v. ) ) THE PETITION SHOULD NOT BE 14 KEVIN HIXON, Warden, ) ) DISMISSED ) 15 Respondent. ) ) 16

17 I. 18 INTRODUCTION 19 On September 3, 2024,1 Christian Calderon (“Petitioner”), a state prisoner 20 proceeding pro se and seeking to proceed in forma pauperis, constructively filed 21 a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus by a Person in State Custody under 28 22 U.S.C. § 2254, challenging his 2017 conviction. Dkt. 1 (“Petition” or “Pet.”). 23

24 1 Under the mailbox rule, “a legal document is deemed filed on the date a petitioner 25 delivers it to the prison authorities for filing by mail.” Lott v. Mueller, 304 F.3d 918, 921 (9th Cir. 2002). In the absence of evidence to the contrary, courts have treated a 26 petition as delivered to prison authorities on the date the petition is signed. See 27 Roberts v. Marshall, 627 F.3d 768, 770 n.1 (9th Cir. 2010). Here, the undersigned affords Petitioner the benefit of the mailbox rule and deems the Petition “filed” on 28 September 3, 2024, the date corresponding to the signature date of the Petition. 1 The Court reviewed the Petition under Rule 4 of the Rules Governing 2 Section 2254 Cases in the United States District Courts (“Habeas Rules”) and 3 finds it appears to suffer from several defects, rendering it subject to dismissal. 4 II. 5 PROCEDURAL HISTORY 6 In 2016, a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury found Petitioner 7 guilty of first degree murder, four counts of assault with a semiautomatic 8 firearm, and one count of shooting at an occupied vehicle. The jury also found 9 true sentence enhancement allegations. Pet. at 2 (CM/ECF pagination); 10 People v. Cordero, 2018 WL 2011609, at *2 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 30, 2018) (as 11 modified).2 On January 4, 2017, the trial court sentenced Petitioner to 89 years 12 to life in state prison. Pet. at 2. 13 Petitioner appealed the judgment of conviction to the California Court of 14 Appeal. Pet. at 2. In an unpublished decision dated April 30, 2018, and as 15 modified on May 21, 2018, the court of appeal vacated all enhancements 16 imposed and remanded the matter to afford the trial court an opportunity to 17 correct certain enhancements and to reconsider the firearm enhancements. The 18 judgment was affirmed in all other respects. Cordero, 2018 WL 2011609, at *9; 19 Appellate Courts Case Information (“Appellate Courts”) at 20 https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.gov. Petitioner’s Petition for Review was 21 denied on August 22, 2018. Pet. at 3; Appellate Courts. Petitioner did not file a 22 petition for writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court. Pet. at 5. 23

24 2 Pursuant to Rule 201 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Court takes judicial 25 notice of relevant state court records available electronically. See Holder v. Holder, 305 F.3d 854, 866 (9th Cir. 2002) (taking judicial notice of opinion and briefs filed in 26 another proceeding); United States ex rel. Robinson Rancheria Citizens Council v. 27 Borneo, Inc., 971 F.2d 244, 248 (9th Cir. 1992) (courts “may take notice of proceedings in other courts, both within and without the federal judicial system, if 28 those proceedings have a direct relation to matters at issue” (citation omitted)). 1 On January 23, 2019, Petitioner filed a federal habeas petition in this 2 Court, challenging the same 2017 conviction. See Calderon v. Robertson, Case 3 No. 2:19-cv-00498-DMG-JEM (C.D. Cal.), Dkt. 1. That petition was 4 ultimately dismissed without prejudice on September 9, 2019 for failure to 5 prosecute and comply with court orders. Id., Dkt. 19, 22-23. 6 Meanwhile, Petitioner was resentenced. Petitioner contends that his 7 “resentencing proceedings became denied” “[a]round May of 2022.” Pet. at 8. 8 It is unclear whether Petitioner is referring to the resentencing hearing 9 following the remittitur or a separate hearing regarding a petition for 10 resentencing under Cal. Penal Code § 11790.95. The superior court’s online 11 docket does not reflect any hearings in May 2022. See Los Angeles County 12 Superior Court (“Superior Court”) at https://www.lacourt.org. Based on the 13 superior court’s online docket, at the latest, all resentencing proceedings 14 concluded by June 16, 2022. Id. Following resentencing, Petitioner did not file 15 an appeal. Pet. at 8. 16 Thereafter, Petitioner collaterally challenged his conviction by 17 constructively filing a habeas petition in the Los Angeles County Superior 18 Court on or about July 23, 2023. Pet. at 25-33. That petition was denied on 19 September 20, 2023. Id. at 56-57. Next, petitioner constructively filed a habeas 20 petition in the California Court of Appeal on or about October 11, 2023. Id. at 21 59-65. The appellate court issued a summary denial on November 8, 2023. Id. 22 at 67. Petitioner then constructively filed a habeas petition in the California 23 Supreme Court on or about November 22, 2023, which was denied on April 24 10, 2024. Id. at 14-23, 68. Additionally, Petitioner filed one or more petitions 25 for resentencing pursuant to Cal. Penal Code § 1170.95 in the Los Angeles 26 County Superior Court. See Superior Courts. 27 / / / 28 / / / 1 III. 2 PETITIONER’S CLAIM 3 Petitioner raises a single ground for relief, asserting: “Does Petitioner 4 have a federal due process/state created liberty interest claim -to remand in 5 light of recent state high court case decisions, concerning insufficiency of 6 evidence regarding malice aforethought element[?]” Pet. at 6. Petitioner 7 contends that over a year after his resentencing proceedings concluded, the 8 California Supreme Court “began deciding a range of cases specifically 9 addressing the h[ei]ghten[ed] standard of culpability to find an actual killer 10 guilty of ‘First Degree Murder,’” citing People v. Schuller, 15 Cal. 5th 237 11 (2023); In re Lopez, 14 Cal. 5th 562 (2023); and In re Ferrell, 14 Cal. 5th 593 12 (2023). Id. at 8. Petitioner asserts: 13 First, in Lopez, supra, the primary point conceded was the 14 understanding that the “gang-murder special circumstance” did not 15 “establish the elements of first degree premeditated murder under 16 either a direct perpetrator or an aiding and abetting theory” (14 17 Cal.5th at p. 586). While, in-addition, in Ferrell, supra, the State’s 18 High Court denounced any findings of fact that would establish 19 that Penal Code § 12022.53(d) would encompass “the definition of 20 implied malice” (14 Cal.5th at pp. 603-605). While, also in 21 Schuller, supra, the Attorney General or prosecutions role is to 22 prove the absence of any affirmative defenses that would negate an 23 element of malice from a charge crime (15 Cal.5th at pp. 259-261). 24 Id. He argues these cases addressed “the very same Penal Code §§ 188, & 189 25 that Legislators amended with AB1437/775, regarding the changes to the 26 imposition of malice afterthought,” creating “changes that warrant Petitioner 27 to seek it’s liberty interest in the application of proving that Petitioner had 28 harbored the degree of malice to find [him] guilty to First Degree Murder.” Id. 1 at 9.

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Christian Calderon v. Kevin Hixon, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/christian-calderon-v-kevin-hixon-cacd-2024.