People v. Pena CA4/1 CA4/1

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 30, 2021
DocketD076480
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Pena CA4/1 CA4/1 (People v. Pena CA4/1 CA4/1) 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. Pena CA4/1 CA4/1, (Cal. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

Filed 3/30/21 P. v. Pena CA4/1 CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

THE PEOPLE, D076480

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. No. SCD277208)

LARRY PENA,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Charles G. Rogers, Judge. Affirmed as modified. Kenneth J. Vandevelde, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Arlene A. Sevidal, Andrew S. Mestman and Elizabeth M. Kuchar, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. I. INTRODUCTION Defendant Larry Pena committed multiple theft-related offenses at stores in the San Diego area. After having charged Pena with two felonies

and three misdemeanors,1 the People amended the charging document to charge Pena with a single felony and three misdemeanors; on that same date, Pena entered a plea of guilty to all of the charges. Pena admitted that he committed the offenses while out on bail in another case, and further admitted that he had suffered four prison priors. According to the record, Pena’s “plea to the sheet” was in exchange for the trial court’s commitment that the court would resentence him in a separate case, combining the sentence for that case with the sentence for Pena’s current offenses, and that the court would impose an overall sentence not to exceed seven years four months, split between no more than five years in custody and two years four months on mandatory supervision. The court sentenced Pena to seven years four months, and imposed a single one-year prison prior enhancement for one of Pena’s prison priors, and struck the other three prison priors. After Pena was sentenced and while an appeal was pending, Senate

Bill No. 136 became effective; the legislation amended Penal Code2 section 667.5, subdivision (b) to eliminate the one-year enhancement for nonsexually violent prison priors.

1 In the first charging document filed in this case, the People charged Pena with a single felony and a single misdemeanor; approximately two months later, the complaint was amended to charge Pena with two felonies and three misdemeanors. 2 Further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated. 2 On appeal, Pena contends that the one-year prison prior enhancement that the court imposed pursuant to section 667.5, subdivision (b) must be stricken, because his prison prior was for a nonsexually violent offense, which no longer qualifies for the prison prior enhancement. Pena also challenges several conditions of his mandatory supervision under People v. Lent (1975) 15 Cal.3d 481 (Lent), and on constitutional vagueness and overbreadth grounds. The People concede that the one-year prison prior term imposed must be stricken, and we agree. We further conclude that Pena’s arguments regarding the conditions of his mandatory supervision are without merit. We therefore strike the section 667.5 subdivision (b) enhancement from Pena’s sentence and affirm the judgment as modified. II. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Factual background3 On April 30, 2018, while Pena was out of custody on bail on a grand theft case from Riverside County (case No. SWF1800214), Pena entered the Home Depot store located on Sports Arena Boulevard in San Diego. Pena placed an air compressor, which was valued at less than $950, inside his cart, and left the store without paying for the air compressor. Pena loaded the air compressor into his vehicle. While driving through the parking lot, Pena stopped next to a customer’s pickup truck, which had several tools in the bed of the truck. Pena got out of his vehicle and took $1,838 worth of tools, including cordless drills and cordless hammers, from the truck bed.

3 Because Pena pled guilty to the offenses, we take the factual background from the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing and the facts admitted by Pena during his guilty pleas. 3 Just over two months later, on July 8, 2018, Pena entered a Dixieline Lumber store located on Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach. Pena took a $300 Sawzall power tool and ran out of the store without paying for the item. Once outside of the store, Pena got into the rear passenger seat of a silver sedan that had been parked in front of the store. Pena fled the scene in the silver sedan. Approximately thirty minutes later, Pena entered another Dixieline Lumber store. Pena grabbed two $380 Dewalt grinder tool kits and walked toward the front doors of the store, where he knelt down behind a display near the checkout counter. While Pena was crouched down, a silver Chrysler sedan pulled up to the front of the store. An unknown man got out of the sedan, opened both passenger side doors and began to walk toward the store. Pena motioned toward the man while still in a crouched position. Just as the man entered the store, Pena ran out of the store, still holding both grinder tool kits, and got into the silver sedan, which was being driven by an unidentified woman. He fled the scene in the silver sedan. B. Procedural background On June 11, 2019, the San Diego County District Attorney filed an amended information charging Pena with grand theft of personal property (§ 487, subd. (a), count 1), and three counts of misdemeanor shoplifting (§ 459.5, counts 2, 3 & 4). The amended information alleged that Pena committed count 1 while he was out on bail in a Riverside County case (§ 12022.1, subd. (b)), and further alleged that Pena had suffered four prison

priors (§ 667.5, subd. (b)).4 As described by both parties, on the same day that the District Attorney amended the information, Pena entered into a “negotiated plea

4 The parties agree that Pena’s four prison priors were for nonsexually violent offenses. 4 agreement” with the trial court, rather than with the prosecutor. Pena pled guilty to all charges and admitted all of the allegations in exchange for certain sentencing commitments from the court––i.e., that the court would resentence Pena on the two grand theft convictions in his Riverside County case (case No. SWF1800214) by combining them with the counts in the current case, pursuant to California Rules of Court, rule 4.452(a), such that the overall sentence would not exceed seven years four months, to be split between no more than five years in custody and two years four months on mandatory supervision, and Pena would receive all of the custody credits that he had accrued in both cases. The trial court imposed the maximum sentence contemplated by the plea agreement––i.e., seven years four months, split between five years in custody and two years four months of mandatory supervision with several terms and conditions. In reaching this sentence, the court imposed the upper term of three years on the first grand theft count and one-third the middle term of eight months on the second grand theft count in the Riverside County case. With respect to the San Diego County case, the court imposed a consecutive sentence of one-third the middle term of eight months for the grand theft count, plus two years for the out-on-bail enhancement and one year for one prison prior enhancement. The court struck Pena’s three remaining prison prior enhancements in the interest of justice (§ 1385), and sentenced Pena to credit for time served on the misdemeanor shoplifting counts.

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Bluebook (online)
People v. Pena CA4/1 CA4/1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-pena-ca41-ca41-calctapp-2021.