P.v. Fregoso CA4/1

Filed 7/22/25 P.v. Fregoso CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, D086000, D086001, D086002

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. Nos. RIF10004623, RIF1100623, SWF10001920) RANDY DAVID FREGOSO,

Defendant and Appellant.

CONSOLIDATED APPEALS from an order of the Superior Court of Riverside County, Walter H. Kubelun, Judge. Reversed and remanded with instructions. John F. Schuck, 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, Eric A. Swenson and Christine Y. Friedman, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. Randy David Fregoso appeals the denial of his request for compassionate release under Penal Code section 1172.2. Relying on In re

Brissette (2025) 112 Cal.App.5th 147, Fregoso argues the denial order is void because Riverside County Superior Court was not authorized to rule on the request. Resolving this matter by memorandum opinion (see generally People v. Garcia (2002) 97 Cal.App.4th 847), we reverse and remand with instructions. I. In 2011, Riverside County Superior Court sentenced Fregoso to a total of 16 years in prison for offenses arising from two different cases, including two counts of willful harm or injury to a child each with a firearm enhancement (Pen. Code, §§ 273a(a), 12022.5(a)) and one count of assault with a deadly weapon (§ 245(a)(1)). In 2019, while incarcerated in Kern County, Fregoso was convicted of an in-prison felony, for which Kern County Superior Court sentenced him to an additional four years in prison. This term for an in-prison felony, known as a Thompson term, would not begin to run until after Fregoso completed the term for his out-of-prison offenses. (See In re Thompson (1985) 172 Cal.App.3d 256, 260.) In 2023, Fregoso was diagnosed with glioma, an incurable cancerous brain tumor. Based on that diagnosis, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation informed the courts in both Riverside and Kern Counties that Fregoso met the clinical criteria for compassionate release under section 1172.2. Kern County Superior Court granted compassionate release and recalled the Thompson term it imposed. The court determined it “ha[d] no authority on the Riverside case whatsoever.”