California Court of Appeal Apr 23, 2025 No. E082986Unpublished
Filed 4/23/25 P. v. Noriega CA4/2
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION TWO
THE PEOPLE,
Plaintiff and Respondent, E082986
v. (Super.Ct.No. RIF127423)
PETER PAUL NORIEGA, OPINION
Defendant and Appellant.
APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. John D. Molloy, Judge.
Affirmed.
Jared G. Coleman, under 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, James M. Toohey and Arlene A. Sevidal,
Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
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Defendant and appellant Peter Paul Noriega appeals from the trial court’s order
finding him ineligible for recall of his sentence and resentencing under Penal Code
section 1172.75.1 Defendant premised his eligibility on a one-year penalty enhancement
term for a prior prison conviction (§ 667.5, subd. (b)) that was imposed, but stayed, at his
(Christianson); People v. Rhodius (2023) 97 Cal.App.5th 38 (Rhodius), review granted
February 21, 2024, S283169; and People v. Renteria (2023) 96 Cal.App.5th 1276
(Renteria).
DISCUSSION
Defendant contends he is entitled to recall of his sentence and resentencing under
section 1172.75 despite the stay on the enhancement term for his prison prior. The stay
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has never been lifted. We conclude the trial court did not err in finding defendant
ineligible for resentencing under the statute.
At the time of defendant’s conviction and sentencing, “section 667.5,
subdivision (b) required trial courts to impose a one-year sentence enhancement for each
true finding on an allegation the defendant had served a separate prior prison term and
had not remained free of custody for at least five years.” (People v. Jennings (2019)
42 Cal.App.5th 664, 681.) Subsequently, section 1172.75 now provides, with an
exception that is not applicable here: “Any sentence enhancement that was imposed prior
to January 1, 2020, pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 667.5 . . . is legally invalid.”
(§ 1172.75, subd. (a), italics added.2) Disagreement over what constitutes “imposed”
within the meaning of the statute still divides appellate panels, as we note briefly post.
Section 1172.75 further provides, as pertinent here, for recall and resentencing on
conditional terms, namely: “If” the superior court in which the defendant was sentenced
“determines that the [defendant’s] current judgment includes an enhancement described
in subdivision (a).” (§ 1172.75, subd. (c), italics added; see id., subd. (b) [specifying
sentencing court as recall and resentencing venue].) Additionally, the statute specifies
that for defendants eligible for recall and resentencing, their resentencing “shall result
in,” “as a result of the elimination of the repealed enhancement,” “a lesser sentence than
the one originally imposed . . . , unless the court finds by clear and convincing evidence
2 The exception specifies that only prior prison enhancements “for a prior conviction for a sexually violent offense” remain valid. (§ 1172.75, subd. (a).)
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that imposing a lesser sentence would endanger public safety.” (§ 1172.75, subd. (d)(1),
italics added.3)
We conclude defendant is ineligible for resentencing under section 1172.75
because his prison prior enhancement terms have remained stayed since his original
sentencing. Simply put, we agree with Rhodius, supra, 97 Cal.App.5th 38 that the critical
term “imposed” in subdivision (a) of section 1172.75 “must be interpreted as shorthand
for ‘impose[d] and execute[d].’ ” (Rhodius, at p. 43; see People v. Gonzalez (2008)
43 Cal.4th 1118, 1125 [recognizing “the word ‘impose[d]’ ” refers “often” to
“enhancements that are ‘imposed and then executed’ ”].) Rhodius reached this conclusion
to make sense of codified language the Legislature chose in enacting the statute but,
similarly, uncodified provisions equally chosen in the statute’s preamble require the same
conclusion.
Of particular note in the statute’s codified provisions, Rhodius examined the
requirement in section 1172.75, subdivision (d)(1), that resentencing must result in “a
lesser sentence than the one originally imposed as a result of the elimination of the
repealed enhancement.” (Rhodius, supra, 97 Cal.App.5th at p. 43, some italics omitted.)
Reasoning that “[t]he only way for the repealed enhancement to have increased the length
3 This subdivision, without our italics, quotation marks, and ellipses inserted for clarity, provides in full: “Resentencing pursuant to this section shall result in a lesser sentence than the one originally imposed as a result of the elimination of the repealed enhancement, unless the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that imposing a lesser sentence would endanger public safety. Resentencing pursuant to this section shall not result in a longer sentence than the one originally imposed.” (§ 1172.75, subd. (d)(1).)
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of a sentence is for the enhancement to have been imposed and executed,” Rhodius
concluded that applying section 1172.75 to a stayed prior prison term would require a
resentencing court to “arbitrarily lower” the defendant’s sentence in a way unrelated to
the enhancement in order to comply with the statute’s “lesser sentence” requirement.
(Rhodius, at p. 44.) Because the Legislature presumably must not have intended arbitrary
sentence reductions to meet this requirement, Rhodius held section 1172.75 must be
interpreted to apply only to prior prison enhancement terms that were imposed and
executed. (Rhodius, at p. 44.)
Similarly, in the uncodified preamble to the statute, the Legislature stated its intent
expressly in a way incompatible with relief based on stayed prison priors: “it is the intent
of the Legislature to retroactively apply [new limitations on prior prison term
enhancements] to all persons currently serving a term of incarceration in jail or prison
for these repealed sentence enhancements.” (Stats. 2021, ch. 728, § 1, italics added.) A
defendant who had his or her punishment on a prior prison enhancement stayed at
sentencing is not serving a term of incarceration in jail or prison for that enhancement, so
the Legislature manifestly did not intend to provide retroactive relief to those defendants.
Other appellate panels—one before Rhodius and the others relying on
Christianson after Rhodius was decided—have held that section 1172.75 applies to prior
prison term enhancements that were imposed but stayed. (See People v. Renteria, supra,
96 Cal.App.5th 1276; see also Christianson, supra, 97 Cal.App.5th 300; Saldana, supra,
97 Cal.App.5th 1270; People v. Mayberry (2024) 102 Cal.App.5th 665 (Mayberry),
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review granted Aug. 14, 2024, S285853.) All of these decisions since and including
Rhodius remain under review, as the high court considers the issue.
In brief, Christianson, Saldana, and Mayberry disagreed with Rhodius because
they viewed striking a stayed enhancement upon resentencing as resulting in a “lesser”
sentence in compliance with section 1172.75, subdivision (d)(1). As Christianson
explained, this view is grounded in a stayed enhancement’s “potential for an increased
sentence” because “the trial court retains the ability to lift the stay and impose the term
under certain circumstance[s], such as if an alternately imposed term is invalidated.”
(Christianson, supra, 97 Cal.App.5th at p. 312.) Under this interpretation, striking a
stayed enhancement reduces the defendant’s sentence because it eliminates the risk that
the enhancement will be executed in the future. (Ibid.; see also Saldana, at p. 1278;
Mayberry, at pp. 674-675 [“Imposed-but-stayed prior prison term enhancements carry the
possibility of execution,” and striking them “eliminates their impact”].)
We do not agree with this rationale. It does not account for the uncodified
preamble to section 1172.75 stating the Legislature’s contrary intent. Likewise, the
statute’s codified language requiring a lesser sentence is better reconciled with an actual
reduction in “time served” as the enactment’s goal, as reflected throughout
section 1172.75’s legislative history. (See Rhodius, supra, 97 Cal.App.5th at pp. 46-48
[identifying numerous such instances].) Rhodius summarized that history as follows:
“The findings, costs, and ramifications of Senate Bill 136 and Senate Bill 483 cited
during the legislative sessions presuppose inmates who are serving additional time as a
result of the sentencing enhancement under section 667.5(b). The references to financial
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and familial burdens do not logically follow if a defendant is not actually serving
additional time as the result of an imposed and executed sentence associated with a
section 667.5(b) prior. As such, to interpret the statute to include enhancements that were
imposed and stayed would be contrary to the legislative intent and the plain language of
the statute.” (Rhodius, at pp. 48-49; see also id. at p. 47 [the foregoing history reflects “a
clear presupposition by the Legislature of an imposed and executed sentence”].)
For all of these reasons, the trial court did not err in finding defendant ineligible
for recall of his sentence and resentencing under section 1172.75.
DISPOSITION
The trial court’s order is affirmed.
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
MILLER J.
We concur:
RAMIREZ P. J.
McKINSTER J.
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AI Brief
AI-generated · verify before citing
Holding. The court held that a defendant is ineligible for resentencing under Penal Code section 1172.75 if their prior prison term enhancement was imposed but stayed, as the statute only applies to enhancements that were imposed and executed.
Issues
Whether a stayed Penal Code section 667.5, subdivision (b) enhancement constitutes an 'imposed' enhancement under Penal Code section 1172.75.
Disposition. Affirmed
Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion
“the critical term “imposed” in subdivision (a) of section 1172.75 “must be interpreted as shorthand for ‘impose[d] and execute[d].’ ””
“A defendant who had his or her punishment on a prior prison enhancement stayed at sentencing is not serving a term of incarceration in jail or prison for that enhancement”
“the trial court did not err in finding defendant ineligible for resentencing under the statute.”