People v. Armenta CA2/1

Filed 11/24/14 P. v. Armenta CA2/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 ONE

THE PEOPLE, B253576

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. VA097417) v.

CIRILO RUBIO ARMENTA,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Lori Ann Fournier, Judge. Affirmed. Gary Finn for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler and Lance E. Winters, Senior Assistant Attorneys General, James William Bilderback II, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Steven E. Mercer and Tannaz Kouhpainezhad, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. _________________________________

Defendant Cirilo Armenta appeals from the trial court’s denial of his motion pursuant to Penal Code section 1016.51 to withdraw his negotiated plea of nolo contendere to assault with a deadly weapon. Defendant contends he was not advised as required by section 1016.5 because the language of the advisement he was given differed slightly from that set forth in the statute and, as a result, he received no advice regarding the potential immigration consequences of his plea. We affirm because defendant was properly advised of each potential immigration consequence set forth in the statute, and trivial deviations from the statutory language were inconsequential. BACKGROUND 1. Charges and nolo contendere plea Defendant was charged with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon (a knife), and misdemeanor inducing false testimony. On June 20, 2007, he entered into a negotiated plea agreement pursuant to which he pleaded nolo contendere to assault with a deadly weapon in exchange for five years of formal probation on terms including service of 365 days in jail. The court and counsel calculated defendant would have nearly 365 days of presentence credits at the time of the probation and sentencing hearing scheduled for July 5, 2007. Before he entered his plea, defendant completed a “Felony Advisement of Rights, Waiver, and Plea Form” with the assistance of a Spanish-language interpreter, who signed the form’s certification that she translated the form to defendant in Spanish and “The defendant stated that he or she understood the contents on the form, and then initialed and signed the form.” Defendant signed the form and initialed section 12 of the form, which stated, “I understand that if I am not a citizen of the United States, I must expect my plea of guilty or no contest will result in my deportation, exclusion from admission or reentry to the United States, and denial of naturalization and amnesty.”