People v. Lee CA3

California Court of Appeal·Decided June 14, 2021·No. C091424·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 6/14/21 P. v. Lee CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, C091424

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 99F02485)

v.

KOU LEE,

Defendant and Appellant.

Defendant Kou Lee appeals the trial court’s denial of his petition for resentencing under Penal Code section 1170.95.1 He contends the trial court erred in (1) finding him ineligible for relief based upon a premature finding that the jury would have convicted him of second degree murder even if not presented with the natural and probable consequences theory of liability, and (2) considering the record of conviction as part of

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

1 the section 1170.95, subdivision (c) inquiry. The People agree with defendant’s first argument, and we concur with the parties that the trial court erred in failing to issue an order to show cause where the record of conviction did not establish defendant’s ineligibility for relief as a matter of law. Accordingly, we will reverse and remand with directions for the trial court to issue an order to show cause. BACKGROUND A. The underlying conviction For expediency, we will incorporate relevant information from the unpublished opinion in defendant’s prior appeal, People v. Lee (Aug. 31, 2005, C043992) [nonpub. opn.] (Lee I): “On December 9, 1998, Yeng was driving a car with his wife, Ann, sitting in the front passenger seat, and [defendant] sitting behind Ann in the back seat. Tong was also sitting in the backseat, behind Yeng. Statements by defendants after the shooting indicated they knew Tong had a gun with him. “At one point as they were driving, [defendant] told Yeng to back up because he saw a person who had ‘jumped’ him. Yeng stopped the car and backed up, and [defendant] told Ann to roll down her window and pull her seat forward. Jin Dao Lee (the victim), a member of a street gang called Junior Rascal Boys (JRB), was standing on the porch of the house where they had stopped. Several months earlier, the victim had participated in an attack on [defendant], Tong and Tong’s brother, Fue, which left [defendant] with a five-inch scar on his arm. “[Defendant] yelled ‘something about JRB’ out of the window at the victim. While [defendant] was yelling, several gunshots were fired from the backseat of the car, fatally wounding the victim. Ann believed Tong fired the shots. [¶] The four drove off, eventually arriving at Tong’s residence. Ann told a detective that, on the way to Tong’s residence, Tong, [defendant] and Yeng laughed about the shooting. “Two days after the shooting, a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol containing Tong’s fingerprints was recovered from the garage at his residence. A criminalist concluded that

2 spent cartridges recovered from the scene of the shooting had been fired from the recovered pistol.” (Lee I, supra, C043992.) Defendant and two codefendants were tried before a jury that found defendant guilty of second degree murder (§ 187, subd. (a)), discharging a firearm at a residence (§ 246), one count of maliciously discharging a firearm at a person who was not an occupant of a motor vehicle from a motor vehicle (§ 12034, subd. (c)), and one count of maliciously discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle (§ 12034, subd. (d)). (Lee I, supra, C043992.) The jury also found true numerous enhancements, including that defendant was a principal in the offense and at least one principal used a firearm (§ 12022.53, subds. (b), (c), (d) & (e)(1)) and that defendant committed the offense for the benefit of a criminal street gang (§ 186.22, subd. (b)(1)). (Lee I, C043992.) The jury found not true the allegation that defendant was armed with a firearm. Having found defendant guilty of second degree murder, the jury did not reach the allegation against defendant2 that “[t]he murder was intentional and perpetrated by means of discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle, intentionally at another person or persons outside the vehicle with the intent to inflict death.” (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(21).) We upheld defendant’s convictions on appeal, but reversed for lack of evidence of the firearm use and criminal street gang enhancements. (Lee I, supra, C043992.) Defendant’s ultimate sentence after appeal was 15 years to life. B. The section 1170.95 petition On January 18, 2019, defendant filed a form petition for resentencing pursuant to section 1170.95 alleging he had been convicted of second degree murder following a jury trial on either a felony murder or a natural and probable consequences theory and could not now be convicted thereof because of changes made to sections 188 and 189

2 This allegation was found true against at least one of defendant’s codefendants. (Lee I, supra, C043992.)

3 eliminating aider and abettor liability. On March 1, 2019, the court issued orders appointing counsel, setting a briefing schedule, and inviting the parties to address the constitutionality of Senate Bill No. 1437 (2017-2018 Reg. Sess.) (Senate Bill 1437), which added section 1170.95 to the Penal Code and amended sections 188 and 189. Thereafter, the People moved to dismiss the petition, arguing that (1) Senate Bill 1437 was unconstitutional, and (2) defendant failed to make a prima facie showing of eligibility for relief. Defendant opposed the People’s dismissal motion and filed a merits brief attaching a page of the clerk’s transcript from defendant’s trial as an exhibit. On January 2, 2020, the trial court denied defendant’s petition without issuing an order to show cause or holding an evidentiary hearing. The court’s written ruling discussed the charges, jury instructions, jury findings, and appellate history. It then stated: “It appears that . . . the jury found defendant . . . guilty of second degree murder based on either an implied malice aforethought theory, or on the natural and probable consequences doctrine. The jury necessarily rejected an express malice theory when it acquitted defendant . . . of first degree murder, as in doing so it necessarily rejected the drive-by theory of first degree murder (first degree murder perpetrated by means of discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle intentionally at another person outside of the vehicle when the perpetrator specifically intended to inflict death) that was based on direct aider and abettor liability, which required that defendant . . . share the intent of the actual killer, the intent to inflict death.” Thereafter, the court discussed the facts as described in our previous appellate opinion and concluded that “[i]t appears to the court beyond a reasonable doubt that had the jury been instructed only on the malice aforethought theory of second degree murder, and not the natural and probable consequences doctrine, that defendant . . . still would have been convicted of second degree murder. Defendant . . . saw the victim, wanted the car stopped and backed up to where the victim was, wanted the window rolled down and the seat moved forward, and laughed after the shooting happened. Clearly, he intended

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