People v. Williams

199 Cal. Rptr. 3d 755, 245 Cal. App. 4th 458, 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 170
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal, 2nd District
DecidedMarch 3, 2016
DocketB264110
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 199 Cal. Rptr. 3d 755 (People v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal, 2nd District primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Williams, 199 Cal. Rptr. 3d 755, 245 Cal. App. 4th 458, 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 170 (Cal. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

HOFFSTADT, J.

*463The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, enacted by the voters as Proposition 47 in the November 2014 election, downgrades several felonies and wobblers to misdemeanors and permits persons convicted of those felonies and wobblers to have them redesignated as misdemeanors. (Pen.Code, § 1170.18.)1 As relevant here, section 667.5, subdivision (b), requires a court to increase any sentence of imprisonment *757for a felony by one extra year for each of a defendant's prior felony convictions that resulted in a separate term of imprisonment. This case deals with the interaction of these two provisions: When a defendant's sentence for felony no. 2 is enhanced under section 667.5, subdivision (b), for defendant's service of a term of imprisonment on felony no. 1, and when the defendant later has felony no. 1 redesignated as a misdemeanor under Proposition 47, does that redesignation operate retroactively and thereby entitle the defendant to be resentenced on felony no. 2 to eliminate the section 667.5, subdivision (b) enhancement? We conclude that it does not, and accordingly affirm the trial court's order declining to resentence in this case.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In September 2013, the People charged Jaimee J. Williams (defendant) and a codefendant with eight crimes, including felony grand theft involving property worth more than $950. (§ 487, subd. (a).)2 The People further alleged that defendant's 2008 conviction for felony burglary (§ 459) was a "strike" under our state's "Three Strikes" law (§ 1170.12, subds. (a)-(d), § 667, subds. (b)-(j)),3 and that defendant had served prior prison terms within the meaning of section 667.5, subdivision (b), for that 2008 conviction as well as for a 2010 Orange County conviction for felony petty theft with a prior (§ 666). Later that month, defendant entered a no contest plea to the felony grand theft count, admitted that her felony burglary conviction constituted a "strike," and admitted that she had served prison terms for her convictions of felony burglary and petty theft with a prior. That same day, the trial court imposed a prison sentence of four years and eight months-32 months for the grand theft conviction (that is, the low-end sentence of 16 months, doubled as a second strike sentence), plus one year for each of the two prior prison sentences. The remaining counts and allegations against her were dismissed.

*464In March 2015, defendant filed a petition in Orange County Superior Court requesting, under Proposition 47, that her felony petty theft with a prior conviction be reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor. Her petition was granted.

In April 2015, defendant filed a motion seeking to be resentenced in the felony grand theft case on the ground that the redesignation of the petty theft with a prior conviction as a misdemeanor meant it was no longer a prior prison term for a felony under section 667.5, subdivision (b); thus, she argued, she was entitled to have her felony grand theft sentence reduced by a year.

The trial court denied the motion. The court reasoned that "the focus of [section] 667.5(b)[ ] is not on the underlying criminal conduct that resulted in the felony conviction, but on the status of [the] defendant as a recidivist, a repeat offender, showing a pattern of ongoing criminal conduct, despite a prison term." Due to this focus, the redesignation of defendant's petty theft with a prior conviction from a felony to a misdemeanor did not "unravel[ ] the underlying [section] 667.5(b) punishment,"

*758and thus provided no occasion for resentencing.

Defendant timely appeals.

DISCUSSION

Proposition 47 redesignates as misdemeanors "certain drug- and theft-related offenses" that were charged as felonies or charged as "wobblers" (that is, offenses that are punishable as a felony until a court reduces them to a misdemeanor) and ultimately sentenced as felonies.4 (People v. Lynall (2015) 233 Cal.App.4th 1102, 1108, 183 Cal.Rptr.3d 129 (Lynall ); § 1170.18 ; see also § 17 [defining "wobbler" offenses].) Proposition 47 operates prospectively: Since it has taken effect on November 5, 2014 (Cal. Const., art. II, § 10, subd. (a)), the People are required, as to any eligible defendant, to charge any of the redesignated offenses as misdemeanors. (§ 1170.18, subd. (i) [limiting redesignation to defendants without prior convictions of crimes enumerated in section 667, subdivision (e)(2)(C)(iv) and crimes requiring sex registration].) Proposition 47 also operates retroactively by creating two mechanisms for the court that originally imposed a felony sentence on an eligible defendant to redesignate any conviction for an offense downgraded by the Proposition. (§ 1170.18, subds. (a), (b), (f), (g) ; see also, *465People v. Valenzuela (2016) 244 Cal.App.4th 692, 198 Cal.Rptr.3d 276, 2016 Cal.App.LEXIS 76, 23-26 (Valenzuela ) [specifying that Proposition 47 applications must be filed in the trial court]; People v. Marks (2015) 243 Cal.App.4th 331, 334-335, 196 Cal.Rptr.3d 415 [specifying where Proposition 47 petition must be filed].) But does Proposition 47 further require a court to resentence a defendant on crimes not affected by Proposition 47 because the sentence for those crimes was enhanced based on a prior conviction that is affected by the Proposition?

This is the question presented here.5 Our resolution of this question turns on two issues: (1) does the text of Proposition 47, the purpose of Proposition 47, the canons of statutory construction, or the text or purpose of section 667.5, subdivision (b) require resentencing in this context?; and (2) do the principles of equal protection otherwise compel it? The first presents a question of statutory interpretation, and the second a question of constitutional law; we review both types of questions de novo. (Raef v. Appellate Division (2015) 240 Cal.App.4th 1112, 1120, 193 Cal.Rptr.3d 159.) These standards of review dovetail neatly with the general rule that the "retroactive application of [a] statute [is reviewed] de novo." (In re Marriage of Fellows

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Bluebook (online)
199 Cal. Rptr. 3d 755, 245 Cal. App. 4th 458, 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 170, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-williams-calctapp2d-2016.