People v. Russell CA3

California Court of Appeal·Decided June 9, 2021·No. C089035·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 6/9/21 P. v. Russell CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, C089035

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 06F03704)

v.

DANIEL RUSSELL,

Defendant and Appellant.

Defendant Daniel Russell was sentenced to life without parole (LWOP) for crimes committed as a minor. We remanded the case for resentencing in accordance with the guiding principles of Miller v. Alabama (2012) 567 U.S. 460 [183 L.Ed.2d 407] (Miller) and People v. Gutierrez (2014) 58 Cal.4th 1354 (Gutierrez). (People v. Pearson (Sept. 25, 2014, C063484) [nonpub. opn.] (Pearson).) In Gutierrez, the California Supreme Court held that the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Miller, “requires a trial court, in exercising its sentencing discretion, to consider the ‘distinctive attributes of youth’ and how those attributes ‘diminish the penological justifications for imposing

1 the harshest sentences on juvenile offenders’ before imposing life without parole on a juvenile offender.” (Gutierrez, supra, 58 Cal.4th at p. 1361, quoting Miller, supra, 567 U.S. at p. 472.) At the hearing on the remittitur on December 7, 2018, the trial court determined that Russell was not entitled to a resentencing hearing, because Penal Code section 3051, subdivision (b)(4), effective January 1, 2018 (Stats. 2017, ch. 684, § 1.5), provided that juvenile offenders sentenced to LWOP were eligible for a parole hearing after 25 years of incarceration.1 Russell contends his right to resentencing was not made moot by section 3051, subdivision (b)(4), because the trial court had originally assumed that LWOP was the presumptive sentence for Russell’s crimes and thus did not exercise “informed discretion” in imposing that sentence. We disagree. We remanded the case for the trial court to exercise its sentencing discretion informed by the guiding principles of Miller and Gutierrez, which require the court to consider “ ‘distinctive attributes of youth’ ” in imposing an LWOP sentence. As a result of section 3051, subdivision (b)(4), Russell was not subject to an LWOP sentence at the time of the hearing on the remittitur and the guidance of Miller and Gutierrez was not applicable. Russell further contends that even if his claim to an exercise of discretion consistent with Miller and Gutierrez is moot, the trial court was required to obey the remittitur and resentence him. Russell misreads the scope of the remittitur. We directed the trial court to resentence Russell in accordance with the requirements of Miller and Gutierrez for imposing LWOP sentences on juvenile offenders. Since, by operation of law, the trial court could not impose an LWOP sentence, the court did not disobey the remittitur in failing to apply Miller and Gutierrez principles.

1 All undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

2 However, Russell correctly contends that the trial court erred in declining to order a transfer hearing under Proposition 57, which requires a juvenile court judge to conduct a “transfer hearing” before a minor can be tried in criminal court. The Attorney General concedes this point. (People v. Delgado (2018) 27 Cal.App.5th 1092, 1095.)

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS We incorporate by reference the statement of facts from our opinion in Pearson, supra, C063484. In sum, Russell and Calvin Pearson targeted and savagely beat to death a partially blind and deaf 90-year-old woman in her home and robbed her of jewelry and money. The jury convicted Russell of first degree murder, first degree residential burglary, and first degree residential robbery with special circumstances. The trial court sentenced Russell to life in prison without the possibility of parole for first degree murder with special circumstances and stayed his sentence on the other counts. Russell appealed. We held that the record documented that the trial court erroneously believed there was a presumptive sentence of life without parole under section 190.5 for first degree murder with special circumstances committed by a defendant 16 years or older but under 18.2 Russell was 16 at the time of the crimes. In Gutierrez, the California Supreme Court rejected the presumption in favor of LWOP, and

2 Section 190.5, subdivision (b), provides: “The penalty for a defendant found guilty of murder in the first degree, in any case in which one or more special circumstances enumerated in Section 190.2 or 190.25 has been found to be true under Section 190.4, who was 16 years of age or older and under the age of 18 years at the time of the commission of the crime, shall be confinement in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole or, at the discretion of the court, 25 years to life.”

In Gutierrez, the California Supreme Court overruled People v. Guinn (1994) 28 Cal.App.4th 1130, which held that LWOP was the presumptive sentence under section 190.5 for 16- or 17-year-old offenders who committed murder with special circumstances. (Guinn, supra, at pp. 1141-1142, disapproved in Gutierrez, supra, 58 Cal.4th at p. 1387.)

3 as we said in Pearson, required us “to read section 190.5 as giving the trial court discretion, unfettered by any presumption, in deciding whether to impose a life without parole sentence.” (Pearson, supra, C063484 [at p. 36].) We rejected the Attorney General’s argument that Miller did not apply because section 1170, subdivision (d)(2), gave Russell the opportunity to petition the sentencing court for recall and resentencing after serving at least 15 years of his sentence. This same argument was made and rejected in Gutierrez. (Gutierrez, supra, 58 Cal.4th at pp. 1384- 1386.) We noted that the court in Gutierrez explained that nothing in Miller or its predecessor jurisprudence indicated that an opportunity to recall a sentence in 15 to 24 years did not “ ‘somehow make more reliable or justifiable the imposition of [an LWOP] sentence and its underlying judgment of the offender’s incorrigibility “at the outset.” [Citation.]’ ” (Pearson, supra, C063484 [at pp. 37-38], quoting Gutierrez, supra, 58 Cal.4th at p. 1386.) We concluded that the trial court “did not, as the Supreme Court mandated in Miller, ‘take into account how children are different, and how those differences counsel against irrevocably sentencing them to a lifetime in prison.’ ” (Pearson, supra, C063484 [at p. 38], quoting Miller, supra, 567 U.S. at p. 480.) Nor did we know the extent to which the trial court was influenced by an erroneous presumption in determining Russell’s culpability. While we did not fault the trial court for following pre-Gutierrez law, we concluded that the court was not aware of the full scope of its discretion under section 190.5 as guided by Miller, and Russell was entitled to a sentencing decision made in the exercise of “ ‘informed discretion.’ ” (Pearson, supra, C063484 [at p. 38], quoting Gutierrez, supra, 58 Cal.4th at pp. 1390.) We held that “we are compelled to remand this matter for resentencing in accordance with the guiding principles set forth in Gutierrez.” (Pearson, supra, C063484 [at p. 39].) The disposition stated: “We remand for resentencing in accordance with the principles expressed herein. In all other respects, the judgments are affirmed.” (Id. [at p. 44].)

4 In the meantime, Senate Bill No. 260 (2013-2014 Reg. Sess.), which became effective January 1, 2014, added section 3051 creating a youth offender parole process. (Stats. 2013, ch.

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