People v. Gutierrez CA4/1

Filed 3/19/25 P. v. Gutierrez CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, D083521

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. No. SCE418656)

MIGUEL ANGELO GUTIERREZ,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Herbert J. Exarhos, Judge. Affirmed. Jared G. Coleman, under the 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, Steve Oetting and Evan Stele, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. In 2023, a jury convicted Miguel Angelo Gutierrez of one count of possession of child pornography as a repeat offender. The jury hung on one felony charge alleging Gutierrez had failed to register as a sex offender.

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During trial, Gutierrez stipulated to a prior strike allegation under the Three Strikes law. (Pen. Code,1 §§ 667, subds. (b)–(i), 1170.12.) Based on a plea agreement disposing of the remaining count, the trial court dismissed the felony failure to register, and Gutierrez pled guilty to one count of failure to register as a sex offender in violation of section 290.018, subdivision (g), a misdemeanor. Gutierrez also moved to dismiss his strike under section 1385, but the court refused to do so and sentenced Gutierrez to eight years in state prison. On appeal, Gutierrez contends that the trial court erred in failing to dismiss the strike. We conclude that the court’s ruling was not an abuse of discretion. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Beginning in 2004, Gutierrez was required to register as a sex offender under section 290 due to a 2002 conviction for lewd acts on a child under age 14 (§ 288a, subd. (a)). Under section 290, Gutierrez was obligated to register his address in the California sex-offender registry. In June 2023, Gutierrez registered as a transient with the El Cajon Police Department. In July 2023, an officer of the El Cajon Police Department conducted a compliance check on Gutierrez’s residence based on information Gutierrez may be living with a friend in an apartment. The officer believed Gutierrez was not telling the truth about his residence. Due to Gutierrez’s failure to disclose the apartment’s address, the officer arrested Gutierrez for violating his sex offender registration requirement. In a search incident to arrest, a phone was located in Gutierrez’s left pocket. A search warrant was executed for the phone and sexually suggestive images of minors were found in the phone’s trash folder.