People v. Tholmer CA3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 27, 2023
DocketC095767
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Tholmer CA3 (People v. Tholmer 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. Tholmer CA3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

Filed 9/27/23 P. v. Tholmer CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, C095767

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 12F07076)

v.

TYRIE ALLEN THOLMER,

Defendant and Appellant.

In 2010, defendant Tyrie Allen Tholmer was convicted of assault with a firearm, a crime he committed at age 15. In 2015, a jury found defendant guilty of first degree murder and the trial court imposed a second strike sentence under the Three Strikes law, with his 2010 conviction qualifying as his first strike. In 2020, we remanded for a new juvenile transfer hearing and possible resentencing based on a change in the law. The trial court resentenced defendant in 2022, and in doing so, declined to strike defendant’s prior strike.

1 Defendant appeals, arguing the trial court was required to strike his 2010 strike conviction following the enactment of Senate Bill No. 1391 (2017-2018 Reg. Sess.) (Senate Bill 1391) (Stats. 2018, ch. 1012, § 1), which largely eliminated the statutory authority to transfer to adult criminal court a minor who was 14 or 15 years old at the time of his or her strike offense. Alternatively, defendant contends the trial court failed to make the finding required under the newly amended Penal Code section 1385, subdivision (c)1 before striking the strike. We disagree and affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND In 2015, a jury found defendant guilty of first degree murder and possession of a firearm by a felon after defendant, unprovoked, shot and killed a wheelchair-bound man with cerebral palsy. (People v. Tholmer (Oct. 25, 2019, C080979) [nonpub. opn.] (Tholmer).) The jury further found that defendant intentionally and personally discharged a firearm causing death, and that he committed the crime in association with a criminal street gang. The trial court found true that defendant had suffered a 2010 prior strike conviction for an assault with a firearm he committed at age 15. The trial court sentenced defendant to an aggregate term of 75 years to life in prison, plus a determinate term of 16 years in prison. Defendant’s sentence was comprised of 25 years to life for murder, three years for possession of a firearm, both doubled because of the strike prior, plus 25 years to life for the firearm enhancement and 10 years for the gang enhancement. In 2019, we conditionally reversed defendant’s convictions in accordance with Proposition 57 (the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016 (Proposition 57)), ordered that the 10-year sentence for the gang enhancement be stricken, and transferred the matter back to juvenile court for a transfer hearing. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 707.) On September 1, 2021, the matter was returned to the jurisdiction of the criminal court.

1 Undesignated section references are to the Penal Code.

2 At a February 9, 2022 resentencing hearing in the trial court, defendant moved to strike his firearm enhancement, and also moved to strike his prior strike. As to the latter, he argued that the prior strike should be stricken as an impermissible enhancement under the then-newly amended section 1385, subdivision (c). The trial court disagreed, finding that the Three Strikes law was an alternative sentencing scheme, not an enhancement, and thus not subject to section 1385, subdivision (c). The court further stated that even if it could consider striking the strike, it would not do so because “the minor at the time of the offense, now the [defendant here], used a firearm, and he was previously on parole/probation for the possession of a firearm.” The trial court then stayed the 25-year- to-life term for the firearm enhancement in light of defendant’s already lengthy prison term, and because defendant was under the age of 18 at the time of his offense. It therefore reduced defendant’s term to 50 years to life in prison, plus six years. After the trial court pronounced defendant’s sentence, defense counsel stated he wanted to “put something on the record.” He argued that under Welfare and Institutions Code section 707, as amended by Senate Bill 1391, defendant’s 2010 conviction no longer qualified as a strike. This is because, he explained, defendant was 15 at the time of the offense, and a 15 year old can no longer be tried in criminal court following Senate Bill 1391. Thus, he asserted that under the current state of the law, defendant’s prior strike would no longer be viable. The trial court noted it had already issued its ruling, yet defendant now sought to raise an entirely new argument as to why it should strike the strike. Defense counsel clarified that he was not making this argument, because the trial court had stated that it would not choose to exercise its discretion to strike the strike under Romero,2 so that “takes care of the issue.” Rather, he said he was “simply making

2 People v. Superior Court (Romero) (1996) 13 Cal.4th 497.

3 a record” that defendant was age 15 at the time of the strike, and “the Appellate Court can do with it what it will.” DISCUSSION Defendant contends that the trial court erred by qualifying his 2010 conviction as a prior strike in light of Senate Bill 1391, which eliminated prosecutorial authority to transfer minors to criminal court who were 14 or 15 years old at the time of their offense. He concedes that defendant’s 2010 judgment is final, but argues that Senate Bill 1391, as an ameliorative statute, still operates to prevent that conviction from being used as a strike in his current, nonfinal case, and that the Legislature intended this result. Defendant further asserts that equal protection principles prohibit us from subjecting defendants with qualifying pre-Senate Bill 1391 felony convictions to Three Strikes sentencing, while exempting those who cannot now be charged as adults under Senate Bill 1391. We disagree with these contentions. I Forfeiture We initially address the issue of forfeiture. Defendant concedes that he did not seek to strike his strike pursuant to Senate Bill 1391 in the trial court, but argues his appeal is regardless cognizable because he seeks to correct an unauthorized sentence. The People agree, as do we, that defendant’s challenge to his unauthorized sentence is not forfeited and may be raised on appeal. “As a general rule, a criminal defendant who fails to object at trial to a purportedly erroneous ruling forfeits the right to challenge that ruling on appeal. [Citation.]” (People v. Anderson (2020) 9 Cal.5th 946, 961.) However, an exception arises where a sentence is unauthorized, and applies “when the trial court has imposed a sentence that ‘could not lawfully be imposed under any circumstance in the particular case.’ ” (Id. at p. 962.) As

4 defendant contests the trial court’s legal authority to impose his sentence using his 2010 conviction as a strike, we may properly consider the merits of his appeal.3 II Senate Bill 1391 A. Legal background California’s laws regarding whether a minor may be tried in adult criminal court have evolved over time. Historically, only those minors at least 16 years of age at the time of their offense could be tried in criminal court, and then only after a judicial determination that the minor was unfit to be dealt with under the juvenile court law. (People v. Superior Court (K.L.) (2019) 36 Cal.App.5th 529, 536-537.) In 1994, however, the Legislature lowered the age at which minors could be tried in criminal court from age 16 to age 14 for certain enumerated serious or violent felonies. (B.M. v.

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People v. Tholmer CA3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-tholmer-ca3-calctapp-2023.