People v. Juarez CA2/1

Filed 10/17/24 P. v. Juarez CA2/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 ONE

THE PEOPLE, B335287

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BA261257) v.

RIGOBERTO JUAREZ,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Ronald S. Coen, Judge. Reversed. Olivia Meme, 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 2005, a jury convicted Rigoberto Juarez of first degree murder (Pen. Code,1 § 187, subd. (a)), conspiracy to commit murder (§ 182, subd. (a)(1)), and three counts of attempted premeditated murder (§§ 187, subd. (a), 664), all committed when he was 17 years old. The jury further found Juarez personally used a firearm in the commission of the offenses (§ 12022.53, subds. (b), (c), (d)) and committed them for the benefit of a criminal street gang (§ 186.22, subd. (b)(1)). The court sentenced Juarez to 70 years to life in prison. In 2023, Juarez filed a petition for recall and resentencing pursuant to section 1170, subdivision (d) (section 1170(d)). That statute permits “a defendant who was under 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the offense for which the defendant was sentenced to imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole” (LWOP) and who “has been incarcerated for at least 15 years, . . . [to] submit to the sentencing court a petition for recall and resentencing.” (§ 1170(d)(1)(A).)2 Juarez’s resentencing petition asserted he had served more than 15 years of a sentence functionally equivalent to LWOP and met three of the four criteria under section 1170(d)(2) for resentencing: he did not have any prior juvenile adjudications for felony crimes with a significant potential for personal harm to victims (§ 1170(d)(2)(B)); he committed the offenses at issue with an