People v. Samuels CA3

Filed 8/27/15 P. v. Samuels CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (San Joaquin) ----

THE PEOPLE, C076902

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. SF110947A)

v.

MERRILL EUGENE SAMUELS,

Defendant and Appellant.

Defendant Merrill Eugene Samuels challenges the trial court’s order committing him to Patton State Hospital (Patton) for a maximum of three years with credit for 357 days served. The People agree that defendant was entitled to additional credit for time already spent at Patton. The People calculate defendant’s credit at 581 days served at the time of the order at issue, a calculation with which we agree. We will modify the commitment order.

1

BACKGROUND1 Defendant was charged with five counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14 (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a))2 and two counts of oral copulation with a child 10 years old or younger (§ 288.7, subd. (b)). The trial court found defendant incompetent to stand trial and committed him to a state hospital for the maximum term of three years pursuant to section 1370. Defendant was at Patton from October 15, 2009, to November 17, 2010, when he was returned to county jail following a determination that he was competent to stand trial. Criminal proceedings were reinstituted. However, concerns about defendant’s competence resurfaced. In July 2012, a jury determined that defendant was incompetent to stand trial. Pursuant to the jury’s verdict, the trial court committed defendant to a state hospital for the maximum term of three years pursuant to section 1370. Defendant was admitted to Patton for a second time on December 20, 2012.3 He appealed this (second) admission to Patton, claiming the trial court failed to account for the 398 days he had already been held at Patton in setting his maximum term of commitment. We agreed, and modified the judgment to provide that defendant be committed to the state hospital for a maximum term of 697 days (the original three-year term of 1,095 days minus 398 days already served at Patton). We affirmed the judgment as modified, filing our opinion on May 22, 2014. Meanwhile, defendant was returned to San Joaquin County for a contested competency hearing pursuant to section 1372. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court found defendant incompetent within the meaning of section 1368, but found a