People v. Aguirre CA2/7

Filed 5/13/25 P. v. Aguirre CA2/7 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 SEVEN

THE PEOPLE, B337366

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. KA033695) v.

TRINIA AGUIRRE,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Jacqueline Lewis, Judge. Affirmed. Nancy L. Tetreault, 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, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Noah P. Hill, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, and Nima Razfar, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

In 1996 Trinia Aguirre, who was 21 years old at the time, and her boyfriend killed four people and injured several others during a home invasion robbery. Aguirre had a knife, her boyfriend had a gun. In 1998 a jury convicted Aguirre on four counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and four counts of first degree robbery. The trial court found true multiple-murder special circumstance, firearm, and weapon allegations. The trial court sentenced Aguirre to life in prison without the possibility of parole on one of the murder convictions and a concurrent term of life without the possibility of parole on each of the other three murder convictions, a concurrent term of seven years on each of the attempted murder convictions, and a concurrent term of four years on each of the robbery convictions (plus one year on each conviction for personally using the knife). In March 2023 Aguirre filed a petition under People v. Franklin (2016) 63 Cal.4th 261 (Franklin) to preserve youth- related mitigating evidence for a future youth offender parole hearing under Penal Code section 3051.1 The superior court denied the petition, ruling Aguirre was ineligible for a Franklin hearing because she was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for a controlling offense she committed after she was 18 years old, and section 3051, subdivision (h), excludes youthful offenders like Aguirre. The court also ruled excluding youthful homicide offenders sentenced to life without the possibility of parole “from eligibility for [a] hearing to preserve evidence of youth-related mitigating factors does not violate equal protection.” Aguirre timely appealed.