People v. Hix CA2/2

Filed 4/22/25 P. v. Hix CA2/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 TWO

THE PEOPLE, B337857

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. MA034875) v.

JOSEPH ALAN HIX,

Defendant and Appellant.

THE COURT:

Joseph Alan Hix (Defendant) appeals the order of the superior court summarily denying his petition for resentencing under Penal Code section 1172.6.1 We appointed counsel to represent Defendant on

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

The petition is not in the record. In issuing its initial order on the petition, the trial court described it as having been made pursuant to section 1170.95. Effective June 30, 2022, section 1170.95 was renumbered to section 1172.6, with no change in text. (Stats. 2022,

appeal. After reviewing the entire record on appeal, counsel filed a brief raising no issues and requesting that we proceed in accordance with the framework established in People v. Delgadillo (2022) 14 Cal.5th 216, 221 (Delgadillo) for postconviction appeals in which counsel has found no arguable merit. Under that framework, we gave notice to Defendant of his right to file a supplemental letter or brief within 30 days, barring which his appeal could be dismissed. He filed a letter in response; we now dispose of his appeal by this written opinion. (Id. at p. 232.) We draw the factual background from this court’s unpublished decision in Defendant’s direct appeal from his conviction (People v. Hix (Feb. 3, 2009, B203884) [nonpub. opn.] (Hix I)). It appears to be accurate based on our review of the record on appeal, which includes the information, first degree murder verdict, the transcript of a conditional examination of Alphonse Lupien (who died before trial), transcripts of trial testimony of Munish Gaur and a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department detective, the parties’ closing arguments, and the jury instructions. Defendant was convicted by a jury on two counts relating to two separate violent attacks he committed about two months apart in 2005. The first, for which Defendant was convicted of attempted murder, occurred in early August. Defendant encountered two McDonald’s employees, Joshua Quintana and his coworker, on break in the restaurant’s parking lot. “At 10 feet away, [Defendant] yelled, ‘What did you say to me?’ Quintana, who had never seen [Defendant] before, turned around and said ‘Nothing,’ and turned back to [his coworker]. After Quintana resumed his conversation with [his coworker], [Defendant] walked up to Quintana and stabbed him in the neck with a pen a quarter of an inch away from his Adam’s apple.