People v. Contreras CA2/3
- Proceeding
- appeal from an order
- Trial court
- Superior Court of Los Angeles County · No. TA068469
- Trial judge
- Sean D. Coen
- Outcome
- reversed — Reversed with direction.
- Area
- criminal
- Panel
- Lee S. Edmon (author)
Analysis
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Opinion
Filed 11/12/24 P. v. Contreras CA2/3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION THREE
THE PEOPLE, B335850
Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. TA068469) v.
MARCOS CONTRERAS,
Defendant and Appellant.
APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Sean D. Coen, Judge. Reversed with direction. Sydney Banach, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Assistant Attorney General, Noah P. Hill and Steven E. Mercer, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗ In 2007, Marcos Contreras was sentenced to 75 years to life plus a life term for murder and multiple counts of attempted murder. (Pen. Code,1 §§ 664, 187, subd. (a).) Contreras committed those crimes when he was 17 years old. In August 2023, Contreras petitioned for recall and resentencing under section 1170, subdivision (d). Under that section, a defendant who was under 18 years old when committing a crime for which the defendant was sentenced to life without parole may petition the sentencing court for recall and resentencing after having been incarcerated for at least 15 years. (§ 1170, subd. (d)(1)(A).) The trial court denied the petition based on its finding that Contreras was 18 years old when he committed his crimes and therefore section 1170, subdivision (d), was inapplicable to him. Contreras appealed, contending remand was proper because he was 17 years old when he committed his crimes. The People filed a respondent’s brief conceding that remand was proper because the trial court miscalculated Contreras’s age. Based on that concession, Contreras moved this court to have the matter immediately submitted without oral argument, and the People did not oppose the motion. Accordingly, on October 16, 2024, we issued an order deeming the matter submitted and acknowledging the parties’ waiver of oral argument. We now reverse the trial court’s order denying Contreras’s section 1170, subdivision (d), petition. Because Contreras was 17 years old when he committed his crimes, the trial court erred by finding him ineligible for relief solely based on a miscalculation of 1 All further undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.
2 Contreras’s age. We express no opinion on what the outcome should be on remand. DISPOSITION The order denying Marcos Contreras’s Penal Code section 1170, subdivision (d), petition is reversed with the direction to the trial court to reconsider the petition. NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS EDMON, P. J. We concur:
EGERTON, J. BERSHON, J.* * Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court, assigned by the Chief Justice pursuant to article VI, section 6 of the California Constitution.