People v. Morales CA4/1

Filed 5/29/25 P. v. Morales CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, D084603

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. No. JCF003762)

MARLON ALBERTO MORALES,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Imperial County, Poli Flores, Jr., Judge. Affirmed. John L. Staley, 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, Christopher P. Beesley and Evan Stele, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Marlon Alberto Morales appeals the judgment sentencing him to an additional prison term after a jury found him guilty of assault with a deadly

weapon and possession of a weapon while he was serving a prison term for a prior conviction. He contends the trial court erred by imposing and executing a concurrent term on the conviction of possession of a weapon while confined in prison instead of imposing and staying execution of the term. We disagree and affirm the judgment. BACKGROUND While Morales was serving a prison sentence for murder, he and another prisoner weaved quickly through a group of prisoners who were returning from the dining hall to their housing unit. When Morales and the other prisoner reached a third prisoner, Moises Anthony Salais, they repeatedly stabbed him with sharp metal objects until prison guards arrived and stopped the attack. Salais sustained puncture wounds to his head, right shoulder, chest, and back. The People charged Morales with assault with a deadly weapon while confined in prison (Pen. Code, § 4501, subd. (a); subsequent section references are to this code) and possession of a weapon while confined in prison (§ 4502, subd. (a)). They alleged Morales’s prior murder conviction constituted a strike for purposes of the “Three Strikes” law. (§§ 667, subds. (b)–(i), 1170.12.) A jury found Morales guilty of both charges. After the jury returned its verdicts, the court held a trial on the prior conviction allegation and found it true. At the sentencing hearing, the court imposed an aggregate prison term of eight years to be served consecutively to the term Morales was already serving for murder. The court imposed the middle term of four years on the conviction of assault with a deadly weapon while confined in prison (§ 4501, subd. (a)), and doubled that term to eight years based on the prior strike