People v. Peraza CA3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 7, 2022
DocketC092159
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Peraza CA3 (People v. Peraza CA3) 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. Peraza CA3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

Filed 2/7/22 P. v. Peraza CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 (San Joaquin) ----

THE PEOPLE, C092159

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. Nos. STK-CR-FE-1998-0008639, v. SF074536B)

JOHNNIE RAY PERAZA,

Defendant and Appellant.

Defendant Johnnie Ray Peraza appeals the trial court’s denial of his second petition for resentencing under Penal Code section 1170.95, enacted as part of Senate Bill No. 1437 (2017-2018 Reg. Sess.) (Stats. 2018, ch. 1015) (Senate Bill 1437).1 He contends: (1) the summary denial of his first petition did not bar him from filing a

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

1 second petition, and (2) the trial court erred by summarily denying his petition without appointing counsel or holding an evidentiary hearing. The People argue defendant was collaterally estopped from filing the second petition and the trial court correctly determined he was ineligible for relief, as a matter of law. Defendant also contends that in resentencing on remand from an earlier appeal, the trial court imposed an unauthorized sentence and failed to update his custody credits. We accept the People’s concession that the matter must be remanded for resentencing based on an unauthorized sentence and to update defendant’s custody credits. We will affirm the order denying the section 1170.95 petition and remand the matter to the trial court to correct the unauthorized sentence regarding minimum parole eligibility and to update defendant’s custody credits. BACKGROUND A Murder convictions A summary of the relevant facts and procedural background are taken from our prior appellate opinion. (People v. Peraza (Feb. 4, 2005, C037039) [nonpub. portion].)2 Early one morning, after going to Ronny Giminez’s apartment and shooting at him, defendant and his codefendant Elisio Valdez went to Andrea Mestas’s apartment and asked to use the telephone, but Mestas said, “No, Elisio, no.” Valdez then shot Mestas twice in the chest at close range, killing her. Mestas was pregnant with a 16-to- 17-week-old fetus, which also died as a result of Mestas’s death. Valdez and defendant then returned to Giminez’s apartment and fired several gunshots into the apartment as they drove by. Approximately an hour and a half later, defendant went to his girlfriend N.D.’s apartment, forced his way in, and held her and her children hostage at gunpoint.

2 On the court’s own motion, we take judicial notice of our opinion in case No. C037039. (Evid. Code, §§ 452, subd. (d), 459, subd. (a).)

2 The prosecutor argued that defendant and Valdez had gone to Mestas’s apartment to kill her boyfriend, D.O., on orders from their gang. The prosecutor also presented evidence the gang considered Mestas a “rat” and a “snitch.” Mestas’s daughter, who was in the home, testified Valdez was the shooter. A witness testified defendant had later indicated that he was the shooter. In any event, Mestas was shot with defendant’s gun. A jury found defendant and Valdez guilty of various crimes, including the murders of Mestas and her fetus (§ 187), premeditated attempted murder of Giminez (§§ 664, 187), as well as aggravated assault (§ 245, subd. (a)(2)) and false imprisonment (§ 236) of N.D. The jury also found true a multiple-murder special-circumstance allegation (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)). The trial court sentenced defendant to multiple life sentences, plus a determinate term of 14 years in prison. Defendant appealed, raising a number of claims, including, as relevant here, two claims of instructional error. Defendant claimed the court misinstructed the jury with CALJIC No. 3.02, by not including a target offense in its natural and probable consequences instruction, and with CALJIC No. 8.80.1, by including language about reckless indifference to human life. Under CALJIC No. 3.02, the court instructed the jury that it could find defendant guilty of the two murders and specific other offenses if it found he aided and abetted in the commission of another offense (i.e., a target crime) and the charged crimes were a “natural and probable consequence of the commission of the target crime.” But, the court did not identify any target crimes for the jury, which we concluded was error. In finding this error was not prejudicial, we relied on the fact that no one argued a natural and probable consequences theory to the jury. We also rejected defendant’s claim the jury could have relied on any of the other crimes charged against him or uncharged crimes, because defendant did not provide any meaningful analysis of how the jury could have misapplied the instruction. Specifically, defendant did not explain how the jury could have used any of the charged offenses as potential target offenses as they occurred after

3 the murder, and defendant did not identify an uncharged target offense or any evidence he aided and abetted any such uncharged offense. The court also instructed the jury with CALJIC No. 8.80.1 as to the special- circumstance allegation. That instruction stated: “If you find that a defendant was not the actual killer of a human being or if you are unable to decide whether the defendant was the actual killer or an aider and abettor, you cannot find the special circumstance to be true as to that defendant unless you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that such defendant with the intent to kill aided and abetted or assisted any actor in the commission of the murder in the first degree.” 3 The clerk’s transcript included two versions of the instruction; one erroneously included additional language allowing a conviction if the jury found defendant acted “with reckless indifference to human life and as a major participant.” This is bracketed language included in the instruction when a felony- murder special circumstance is alleged under section 190.2, subdivision (a)(17) (CALJIC No. 8.80.1), a circumstance not alleged in this case. We concluded the jury was not, in fact, instructed with the inapplicable portion of the instruction, but only with the correct portion. The correct instruction as given required that to find the special-circumstance allegation true, the jury had to find defendant was either the actual killer or aided and abetted the crime with the intent to kill. Accordingly, we concluded defendant had not established instructional error. The correct instruction was given, and it required the jury to find defendant was the actual killer or aided and abetted or assisted the actual killer with intent to kill. We affirmed the convictions and directed the trial court to modify the sentence.

3 Our record on appeal does not include the instructions as given. This statement is taken from the trial court’s order. No one disputes the accuracy of this text.

4 B. First 1170.95 petition In January 2019, defendant filed a section 1170.95 petition for resentencing. Defendant checked various boxes on the form petition alleging that a “complaint, information, or indictment was filed against [him] that allowed the prosecution to proceed under a theory of felony murder or murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine[;]” that “[a]t trial [he] was convicted of 1st . . . degree murder pursuant to the felony murder rule or the natural and probable consequences doctrine[;]” and that he “could not now be convicted of 1st . . . degree murder because of changes made to [sections] 188 and 189, effective January 1, 2019.” Defendant’s form petition also checked boxes alleging he was “convicted of 1st . . .

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People v. Peraza CA3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-peraza-ca3-calctapp-2022.