People v. Walker

Opinion

ELKINGTON, J.

Defendant Robert Lee Walker in Santa Clara County had been granted probation following each of three separate and unrelated felony convictions based on his guilty pleas. He failed to appear in response to a petition to modify each of the probation grants, whereupon each was revoked, and a bench warrant for his arrest was is

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sued. Before his arrest on the warrant, he was convicted of felonies in Monterey County for which he was sentenced to, and confined in, state prison.

While in state prison Walker, correctly following the procedure delineated by Penal Code section 1203.2a, communicated with the Santa Clara County probation officer, as here relevant, as follows: “This is to notify you, in accordance with the provisions of Section 1203.2a of the California Penal Code, of my present imprisonment and to request this Court to impose sentence in the case in which I was released on probation. [H] This is to further notify you that I waive my right to be present at any hearings in the matter, and I further waive my right to be represented by an attorney at any and all stages of these proceedings.”

The superior court upon being informed of the communication, and acceptance of the waivers, sentenced Walker to state prison on each of the three Santa Clara County convictions. The sentences were ordered to run consecutively with each other, and consecutively with the term Walker was then serving in state prison.

The appeal is from the three judgments under which the Santa Clara County sentences were rendered.

Walker states his only appellate contention as follows: “Appellant’s waiver under Penal Code section 1203.2a of the constitutional rights to be present and to have counsel at the sentencing hearing was invalid, because the record does not demonstrate that it was voluntary and intelligent or that it was made with an understanding of the consequences.”

His waivers were made strictly according to the procedure established by section 1203.2a. The attack on that procedure is unsupported by law. “[Sjection 1203.2a affords a constitutionally viable procedure by which a defendant who has accepted probation and then is committed to prison for another offense can obtain prompt final disposition of the case in which probation was granted.”