People v. Collins CA1/2

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 21, 2026
DocketA170301
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Collins CA1/2 (People v. Collins CA1/2) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Collins CA1/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

Filed 1/21/26 P. v. Collins CA1/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A170301 v. NYTHELL RAY COLLINS, (Contra Costa County Super. Ct. No. 05000013508) Defendant and Appellant.

Nythell Ray Collins appeals from a postconviction order denying his petition for resentencing under Penal Code1 section 1172.75. Collins contends he is entitled to a full resentencing because his judgment of conviction included a finding for a now-invalid one-year sentence enhancement for serving a prior prison term—section 667.5, subdivision (b) (section 667.5(b)). He asserts the “best” reading of the “ambiguous” transcript of the original sentencing hearing is that the court “imposed” the now-invalid enhancement and struck only its punishment, thus, resentencing is required. We disagree and conclude the court did not impose the enhancement within the meaning of section 1172.75, subdivision (a) and instead struck the enhancement in its entirety, therefore, a full resentencing

1 Further undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

1 is not required.2 We correspondingly affirm the denial of Collins’s petition for resentencing but, in view of the conceded error in the abstract of judgment, direct the issuance of an amended abstract that omits the enhancement consistent with the trial court’s striking order. BACKGROUND During an argument on the street in 1999, Collins fired multiple rounds from a nine-millimeter handgun; a number of which penetrated a nearby house and killed its occupant with a single gunshot wound to the chest.3 In 2002, a jury convicted Collins of second degree murder (§ 187; count 1) and possession of a firearm by a felon (§ 12021, subd. (a)(1); count 2) and found true enhancements for personal use of a firearm and personal and intentional discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury (§§ 187, 12022.5, subd. (a)(1); 12022.53, subds. (b), (c), (d)), a prior qualifying “strike” conviction (§§ 667, 1170.12), a prior serious felony conviction (§ 667, subd. (a)(1)), and a prior prison term (§ 667.5(b)).

2 The question in this case was left open by the Supreme Court in

People v. Rhodius (2025) 17 Cal.5th 1050, 1066, footnote 2 (Rhodius) and, as is discussed below, is factually distinguishable from the issue to be decided in People v. Espino (2024) 104 Cal.App.5th 188, 194 (Espino), review granted October 23, 2024, S286987, which hinges on the “imposition” of a stricken prison prior enhancement’s punishment. Pending briefing before the Supreme Court is limited to the following issue: “Is a defendant entitled to resentencing under Penal Code section 1172.75 when the judgment in the defendant’s criminal case includes a prior-prison-term enhancement that was imposed but for which punishment was stricken?” (Espino, S286987, Supreme Ct. Mins., July 30, 2025.) 3 We take these facts from our opinion in Collins’s direct appeal (People

v. Collins (June 3, 2004, A099989) [nonpub. opn.] (Collins I)), of which we take judicial notice. (People v. Vizcarra (2015) 236 Cal.App.4th 422, 426, fn. 1.)

2 On June 28, 2002, the trial court “sentenced Collins to 30 years to life on the second degree murder conviction[] and imposed a consecutive sentence of 25 years to life on the section 12022.53, subdivision (d) enhancement. The court imposed a four-year term for the conviction of possession of a firearm, to run concurrently and a five-year sentence enhancement for the prior serious felony conviction, to run consecutively.” (Collins I, supra, A099989.) As to the one-year prison prior enhancement, the sentencing court stated: “The court is likewise going to strike the 667.5(b) prison prior. So the net result is a sentence of 30 years to life on the charge, 25 years to life consecutive on the firearm enhancement.” (Ibid.) Despite the court’s verbal order to strike the prison prior enhancement, the abstract of judgment issued on July 2, 2002, lists the section 667.5(b) enhancement with an “S,” which, according to the form’s direction, means “stayed” rather than “stricken.”4 Approximately one year later, on July 15, 2003, the abstract of judgment was amended to correct the allocated custody credits, but no change was made to the “S” listed with the prison prior enhancement.5 This court affirmed Collins’s judgment of conviction for second degree murder in 2004 in Collins I.

4 For enhancements “found to be true FOR PRIOR CONVICTIONS OR

PRISON TERMS,” the form abstract of judgment directs: “List all enhancements horizontally. Enter time imposed for each or ‘S’ for stayed. DO NOT LIST enhancements stricken under PC 1385.” 5 No minute order, reporter’s transcript, motion, or other document is

included in the record on appeal that might explain what spurred the abstract’s amendment, which included no changes other than the custody credit correction.

3 After the January 2019 enactment of section 1170.95,6 Collins again appealed, this time from a postjudgment order summarily denying his 2019 petition for resentencing. Collins argued, and the Attorney General agreed, “that because the court engaged in improper factfinding without conducting the evidentiary hearing required by section 1170.95, its ruling must be reversed . . . .” (People v. Collins (Sept. 24, 2021, A158256) [nonpub. opn.] (Collins II).) We agreed and granted the requested relief, reversing the trial court’s denial and remanding for resentencing with directions to issue an order to show cause and conduct an evidentiary hearing. (Ibid.) After said hearing, the trial court denied Collins’s petition for resentencing under section 1170.95.7 (Collins II, supra, A158256.) Effective January 2022, the Legislature enacted section 1172.75, declaring with limited exception not relevant here, “Any sentence enhancement that was imposed prior to January 1, 2020, pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 667.5 . . . is legally invalid.” (§ 1172.75, subd. (a).) On December 11, 2023, Collins filed a motion for recall of his

6 Former section 1170.95 provides in part: “A person convicted of felony murder or murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine or other theory under which malice is imputed to a person based solely on that person’s participation in a crime . . . may file a petition with the court that sentenced the petitioner to have the petitioner’s murder . . . conviction vacated and to be resentenced on any remaining counts when all of the following conditions apply . . . .” Former section 1170.95 was renumbered as section 1172.6 without change in the text, effective June 30, 2022. (Stats. 2022, ch. 58, § 10.) 7 On our own motion, we take judicial notice of the April 29, 2022,

minute order, in which the trial court took the section 1170.95 petition under submission, as well as the trial court’s June 16, 2022 order of denial. (People v. Vizcarra, supra, 236 Cal.App.4th at p. 426, fn. 1.) The court’s June 16 denial is not at issue on appeal.

4 sentence and full resentencing, requesting the striking of his “legally invalid” one-year prison prior. After a contested hearing held the following day, December 12, the hearing court denied Collins’s request for a full resentencing under section 1172.75, pointing to the trial court’s statement at the original sentencing that it was “going to strike the 667.5(b) prison prior.”8 The hearing court explained that section 1172.75 “unambiguously state[s] that . . .

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People v. Collins CA1/2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-collins-ca12-calctapp-2026.