People v. Stringer CA4/1

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 26, 2023
DocketD079595
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Stringer CA4/1 (People v. Stringer 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. Stringer CA4/1, (Cal. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

Filed 4/26/23 P. v. Stringer CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, D079595

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. No. SCD266418)

IRA ALEXANDER STRINGER,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Frederick Maguire, Judge. Affirmed with instructions. Steven Schorr, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Assistant Attorney General, Melissa Mandel and Tami Falkenstein Hennick, Deputy Attorneys General for Plaintiff and Respondent. I INTRODUCTION Ira Alexander Stringer committed several armed kidnappings, carjackings, and assaults against multiple victims including a 16-year old minor and a 79-year old woman. A jury found Stringer guilty of numerous kidnapping, carjacking, assault, robbery, and firearm-related offenses and he admitted two prior strike convictions within the meaning of the Three Strikes

law (Pen. Code, §§ 667, subds. (b)–(i), 1170.12).1 Thereafter, the trial court sentenced him to prison for an aggregate term of life without the possibility of parole, plus 87 years to life. In a prior appeal, we reversed two of Stringer’s aggravated kidnapping convictions due to instructional error and two of his simple kidnapping convictions, which were lesser included offenses of his other crimes. (People v. Stringer (2019) 41 Cal.App.5th 974, 981–988 (Stringer).) We affirmed the remainder of the judgment and remanded the matter for the People to decide whether to retry Stringer on the aggravated kidnapping counts. (Id. at pp. 988–993.) The People elected not to retry the counts at issue, so the matter proceeded directly to resentencing. At resentencing, the trial court denied a defense motion to strike the two prior strikes under section 1385. Then, it resentenced Stringer to prison for an aggregate term of 75 years to life, plus 42 years. Stringer appeals the judgment following resentencing and argues the court abused its discretion by denying his motion to strike the prior strikes. According to Stringer, the court erred because it gave insufficient consideration to the remoteness of his prior strikes, as well as his background, character, and prospects. He also contends the abstract of

1 Further undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code. 2 judgment contains a clerical error because the court imposed a concurrent sentence for count 6 (one of the surviving aggravated kidnapping convictions); however, both the “concurrent” and “consecutive” boxes for count 6 are checked on the abstract of judgment. Further, the parties submitted supplemental briefs identifying additional clerical errors in the abstract of judgment and the minute order from the resentencing hearing. The People correctly assert that the abstract of judgment does not accurately reflect that the trial court imposed five-year prior serious felony sentencing enhancements for count 5 and count 6. On a related note, Stringer properly acknowledges that the minute order for the resentencing proceeding inaccurately states that the trial court struck the five-year prior serious felony sentencing enhancement for count 6. We reject Stringer’s claim that the trial court erred when it denied his motion to strike the prior strikes. However, we agree with the parties that the abstract of judgment and the minute order for the resentencing proceeding contain multiple clerical errors in need of correction. Therefore, we affirm the judgment, and we instruct the trial court: (1) to amend the abstract of judgment to accurately reflect that the sentence for count 6 runs concurrent to the sentence for count 5; (2) to amend the abstract of judgment to accurately reflect that the court imposed prior serious felony sentencing enhancements for count 5 and count 6; and (3) to amend the minute order from the resentencing proceeding to accurately reflect that the court did not strike the prior serious felony sentencing enhancement for count 6; rather, it imposed the prior serious felony sentencing enhancement for count 6 and ran the entire sentence for count 6 concurrent with the sentence for count 5.

3 II BACKGROUND 1. Factual Background The following factual background is taken from this court’s prior opinion in Stringer, supra, 41 Cal.App.5th 974. “On December 23, 2015, Stringer approached an adult baseball coach giving a batting lesson to a 16-year-old student at a baseball cage and pulled out a firearm. He held the coach and the student at gunpoint and directed them to the coach’s nearby vehicle. Stringer sat in the backseat and ordered the coach into the driver’s seat and the student into the passenger seat. The coach implored Stringer to take their cell phones, their money, and the vehicle, and not to hurt them. Stringer replied, ‘Well, when this is over I’ll get your ID and I’ll take the cash.’ Stringer then threatened he would kill his captives if they did ‘anything stupid,’ and ordered the coach to drive.

“Stringer instructed the coach to drive east towards a remote area of the county and the coach complied. During the drive, Stringer pulled a hood over his head and put a bandana over the lower half of his face. He appeared frantic, as though he were running away from someone, and told the victims he was affiliated with the Hell’s Angels gang, had been in a gun fight, and ‘just needed to get away.’ He repeatedly told the victims not to do ‘anything stupid’ or he would kill them. He also asked them for their names and identification cards so he would know where to find them if they ‘got him in trouble.’

“Stringer informed the victims he intended to leave them at a friend’s house and take their money, their cell phones, and the vehicle. However, as they drove further into the remote region of the county, the coach grew fearful that Stringer intended to kill them. Therefore, he abruptly veered the still-moving vehicle into a mound of dirt, lunged into the backseat, and grabbed Stringer’s wrist to try to wrest control of the firearm from him. Stringer fired three shots during the struggle, but none of them struck the vehicle’s occupants. The coach eventually pried the firearm away from Stringer.

4 “Two passing vehicles stopped at the scene of the crash, picked up the victims, and drove them to safety. Stringer approached a third vehicle, which was occupied by a 79-year-old driver. Stringer had blood on him and claimed he needed medical assistance. Therefore, the driver permitted him to enter her vehicle. After entering the vehicle, however, Stringer implied he had a firearm, ordered the driver to ‘get [him] off this hill,’ and threatened her not to ‘do anything stupid like the last guy.’ After driving for some distance, the vehicle reached a busy intersection and the driver escaped to safety by opening her door and rolling out of the vehicle. Stringer took the vehicle, which he later abandoned, and returned to the area where the kidnapping began.

“Three days later, Stringer entered a convenience store elsewhere in San Diego County, pointed a shotgun at the store clerk, and demanded gasoline for his vehicle. The clerk authorized and pumped $20 worth of gasoline for Stringer, who drove away without paying. Police arrested Stringer that evening after a high-speed pursuit and standoff.

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Bluebook (online)
People v. Stringer CA4/1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-stringer-ca41-calctapp-2023.