People v. Kahn CA3

California Court of Appeal·Decided July 1, 2025·No. C101308M·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 6/26/25 P. v. Kahn CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Sacramento) ----

THE PEOPLE, C101308

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 96F07764)

v. MODIFICATION OF OPINION AND DENIAL OF MUSTAQ ALI KAHN, PETITION FOR REHEARING; GRANT Defendant and Appellant. REQUEST FOR JUDICIAL NOTICE

[NO CHANGE IN JUDGMENT]

THE COURT: Respondent filed a petition for rehearing and a request for judicial notice with this court. It is hereby ordered that the petition for rehearing is denied and the request for judicial notice is granted.

1 It is also ordered that the opinion filed herein on June 16, 2025, be modified as follows:

1. On page 2 in the first sentence of the first full paragraph under the heading FACTS and PROCEEDINGS, remove the words “which is the only source of the facts in the record on appeal.” That sentence will now read: The following facts are taken from the probation report.

2. Add footnote No. 1 after the aforementioned sentence on page 2 that reads “The following facts are taken from the probation report.” The footnote will read: 1. The Attorney General was unable to locate a copy of this court’s

opinion on defendant’s direct appeal. (People v. Kahn (Feb. 19, 1999, C027590) [nonpub. opn.].) He requested that we take judicial notice of that opinion, but we were also unable to locate a copy. After we issued the opinion in this case, the Attorney General filed a request for judicial notice of the prior opinion, which he had located. We grant that request. (Evid. Code, §§ 452, subd. (d); 459, subd. (a).) He also filed a concurrent petition for rehearing, the merits of which we will address in the Discussion, post.

3. On page 3 near the end of the paragraph under the heading Procedural History, delete footnote No. 2.

4. On page 9 after the first full paragraph under the heading IV Analysis, add the following two paragraphs: In his petition for rehearing, the Attorney General argues that our prior opinion on defendant’s direct appeal (of which we have taken judicial notice) demonstrates that defendant was the sole perpetrator of the murder,

2 and therefore the actual killer. Relying on People v. Guilford (2014) 228 Cal.App.4th 651, the Attorney General argues that the prior opinion may be used to establish the facts surrounding the offense for purposes of determining defendant’s eligibility for a Franklin hearing. Guilford observed that under the three strikes law generally, a trial court may look at the whole record--including a prior appellate opinion--to determine whether the facts of the case met the definition of a strike, and it concluded that the trial court properly considered the prior opinion to determine whether the defendant had intended to inflict great bodily injury, rendering him ineligible for relief under the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012. (Guilford, at pp. 659-660.) Guilford added that to the extent the prior opinion constituted hearsay, reliable hearsay was sufficient to revoke probation or parole, proceedings that were analogous to those at issue in that case. (Ibid.) We decline to determine in the first instance that defendant is necessarily ineligible for a Franklin hearing based only on the prior opinion, without the benefit the remainder of the record of conviction. As our Supreme Court has recently cautioned, while appellate opinions are generally considered to be part of the record of conviction, “the probative value of an appellate opinion is case-specific, and ‘it is certainly correct that an appellate opinion might not supply all answers.’ ” (People v. Lewis (2021) 11 Cal.5th 952, 972.) On remand, the trial court will have the opportunity to review the prior opinion and the rest of the record of conviction to determine whether defendant is eligible for a Franklin hearing.

This modification does not change the judgment.

3 FOR THE COURT:

/s/ Hull, Acting P. J.

/s/ Robie, J.

/s/ Duarte, J.

4 Filed 6/2/25 P. v. Kahn CA3 (unmodified opinion) NOT TO BE PUBLISHED 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 THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Sacramento) ----

v.

MUSTAQ ALI KAHN,

Defendant and Appellant.

Defendant Mustaq Ali Kahn appeals the trial court’s denial of his petition for an evidence preserving proceeding pursuant to People v. Franklin (2016) 63 Cal.4th 261. The trial court denied defendant’s motion following our Supreme Court’s decision in People v. Hardin (2024) 15 Cal.5th 834 (Hardin II). Defendant contends an exception to the holding of Hardin II was stated in People v. Briscoe (2024) 105 Cal.App.5th 479 (Briscoe), which was decided after the court’s denial of his motion, and he asks us to reverse the court’s order in light of Briscoe. We agree and reverse the court’s order. We

1 remand with directions to allow defendant the opportunity to demonstrate his eligibility for a Franklin hearing. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS Factual Background The following facts are taken from the probation report, which is the only source of the facts in the record on appeal. “On September 27, 1996, the 24 year old victim did not appear at his job or contact his employer. When his brother, also his roommate, returned home that evening he found the victim’s vehicle was gone from its parking spot at their apartment complex. Earlier in the day, the victim’s family had become alarmed and telephoned the victim’s brother when the victim had been reported absent from work. The victim’s brother called the police to file a missing person’s report. “When officers arrived, the victim’s brother and officers began checking the apartment for the victim’s personal belongings. The victim’s brother opened a closet door in the victim’s bedroom where he saw a blanket spread out on the floor. When he pulled the blanket back, the victim’s brother found the nude body of the victim, face down with his hands tied behind his back with a necktie. Another necktie was tightly wrapped around the victim’s neck . . . . The victim’s ankles were tied together with a long-sleeved T-shirt. “On September 27, 1996, the defendant was stopped by the San Leandro Police Department for a vehicle code violation. The defendant, who had no driver’s license, was recognized as being wanted for the charges of kidnap, assault with intent to commit rape, false imprisonment and sexual battery . . . . He was transported to the Hayward Jail, where he was found to be in possession of the victim’s VISA and Master Card charge cards. A check with the credit card companies revealed they had not been reported stolen at that time. The defendant indicated ‘a friend let me use those’ . . . . The vehicle the defendant was driving, which he stated a friend had given him to use, was subsequently discovered to be the victim’s.

2 “On September 28, 1996, the defendant was transported to the Sacramento County Jail where, during an initial interview, he stated he had met a ‘black fellow’ at the 7[-]Eleven and that subject had taken him to Fairfield, gotten out of the car and left the car with the defendant. The defendant stated he had found the victim’s credit cards in the car and put them in his pocket. Eventually, the defendant admitted to the offense.

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