People v. Aramburo CA4/2

California Court of Appeal·Decided December 26, 2023·No. E079469·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 12/26/23 P. v. Aramburo CA4/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION TWO

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, E079469 v. (Super. Ct. No. FWV025155) CARLOS ARAMBURO, OPINION Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of San Bernardino County. Jon D. Ferguson, Judge. Affirmed.

Raymond M. DiGuiseppe, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Assistant Attorney General, Arlene A. Amann, and Susan E. Miller, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Carlos Aramburo appeals the trial court’s denial of his motion for resentencing

1

under Penal Code section 1172.6. We affirm.

II.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Carlos Yuman owned a used car dealership located in El Monte, in Los Angeles County. On April 22, 2002, Yuman was meeting with two customers, Allen and

Kathleen Salas, in an office at the dealership. Juan Mingucha, an employee, was waiting

2

outside. Defendants [Aramburo and Jorge D. Ituarte ] approached the office, pushed

Mingucha into the office, and entered. Aramburo pulled a semiautomatic gun from his waistband, cocked it, and pointed it at Mingucha. While Ituarte rummaged through a desk and knocked things over, Aramburo demanded money from the Salases and told Ituarte to get Yuman’s wallet, which he did. Yuman and the Salases each turned over money to [Aramburo and Ituarte]. Aramburo demanded money from Mingucha, but he had no money. [Aramburo and Ituarte] also took two briefcases from the office and a watch from Yuman.

Two days later, [Aramburo and Ituarte] approached Maria Ester Espinoza DeMoreno and Enrique Orosco in the parking lot of a Smart & Final store in Ontario, in

1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code.

2 Ituarte is not a party to this appeal.

San Bernardino County. DeMoreno and Orosco were placing groceries into their Dodge Durango. Aramburo demanded the keys to the Durango. When Orosco did not turn over the keys immediately, Aramburo pulled a semiautomatic gun from his waistband and told Orosco, ‘I’m going to shoot you.’ DeMoreno gave the keys to Aramburo, who passed them to Ituarte. Ituarte got into the driver’s seat and began to drive away. Aramburo caught up with Ituarte in the parking lot and got into the passenger seat. Ituarte then drove away. The incident was promptly reported to a 911 operator.

Shortly afterward, Ontario Police Officer James Trousas, who was driving in a marked police car, spotted the Durango and a chase ensued. Ituarte drove the Durango through a red light onto a freeway, where he reached speeds up to 100 miles per hour while swerving through traffic. Leaving the freeway, he entered an intersection against a red light and collided with a red pickup truck [about 2 minutes and 45 seconds after the pursuit began]. Lindy Garcia, a passenger in the truck, died approximately 17 hours later as a result of injuries from the collision.

Aramburo was apprehended and taken into custody at the scene of the collision.

Ituarte ran from the scene but was apprehended a short distance away by a police officer. While handcuffed, Ituarte resisted efforts by officers to place him in a police car.

During a search of the Durango, police found a semiautomatic gun and some of DeMoreno’s jewelry in the seat of the car. Prior to defendants’ taking of the Durango, the jewelry had been inside two bags in the glove compartment. Other jewelry belonging to DeMoreno, which had been in the car, was found in each of the defendants’ pockets.

Yuman’s watch and a traffic citation that had been in one of Yuman’s briefcases were also found on Aramburo after his arrest. Aramburo admitted the carjacking, possession of the gun, taking the jewelry, stealing the traffic citation, and being in the Durango.

A jury convicted Aramburo of murder (§ 187, subd. (a)), carjacking (§ 215, subd.

(a)), robbery (§ 211), two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm (§ 245, subd. (b)), making a criminal threat (§ 422), and evading a police officer causing death (Veh. Code, § 2800.3). Aramburo was sentenced to 25 years to life, plus 37 years and 10 months, and we affirmed his convictions and sentence in 2006.

In 2019, Aramburo petitioned for resentencing under section 1170.95, which is now section 1172.6. The trial court denied the petition on the ground that Senate Bill No. 1437, which enacted section 1170.95, was unconstitutional. (People v. Aramburo (June 30, 2020, E073366) [nonpub. opn.].) We reversed and remanded with directions to consider the petition on the merits. (Ibid.)

On remand, the trial court issued an order to show cause and set the matter for an evidentiary hearing. After holding the hearing, the trial court denied the petition, finding that defendant was a major participant who had acted with reckless indifference for human life during the commission of the offenses.

III.

DISCUSSION

Aramburo contends the trial court erroneously denied his petition because (1) he played a “limited and attenuated role” in the car chase and resulting accident, and (2) the court failed to consider his youth in determining whether he acted with reckless indifference to human life. We conclude the trial court properly found that Aramburo was not entitled to resentencing relief under section 1172.6, even considering his youth.

A. Governing Law Effective January 1, 2019, the Legislature passed 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.’” (People v. Gentile (2020) 10 Cal.5th 830, 846-847 (Gentile); see Stats. 2018, ch. 1015, § 1, subd. (f).) The Legislature accomplished this by amending sections 188 and 189.

Senate Bill No. 1437 amended section 189 so that “[d]efendants who were neither actual killers nor acted with the intent to kill can be held liable for murder only if they were ‘major participant[s] in the underlying felony and acted with reckless indifference to human life[.]’” (People v. Strong (2022) 13 Cal.5th 698, 708 (Strong), citing § 189, subd. (e)(3).) The Legislature amended section 188 to provide that, when the felony- murder rule does not apply, a principal in the crime of murder can only be convicted

where he acted “with malice aforethought,” and “[m]alice shall not be imputed to a person based solely on his or her participation in a crime.” (§ 188, subd. (a)(3); see Gentile, supra, 10 Cal.5th at pp. 842-843.)

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