People v. Uhuru CA4/1

Filed 3/15/21 P. v. Uhuru CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, D077522

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. No. SCD123050)

KOHEN DIALLO UHURU,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Peter C. Deddeh, Judge. Affirmed. Jared G. Coleman, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, A. Natasha Cortina and Robin Urbanski, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Kohen Diallo Uhuru shot his girlfriend in the head, killing her. He

pled guilty to second degree murder (Pen. Code,1 § 187, subd. (a)) and also admitted that he personally used a firearm in the commission of the offense

(§ 12022.5, subd. (a)(1)).2 The court sentenced Uhuru to prison for 15 years to life for the murder charge and an additional 10 years for the firearm enhancement. Some 19 years later, Uhuru filed a petition for resentencing under section 1170.95, requesting that his murder conviction be vacated based on changes to sections 188 and 189 as amended by Senate Bill No. 1437. The court appointed him counsel, and he subsequently moved (twice) for substitution of counsel. The court denied Uhuru’s requests for substitution of

counsel without holding a Marsden3 hearing and denied his petition for resentencing under section 1170.95 as well. Uhuru appeals, contending we must remand this matter back to the superior court to hold a Marsden hearing. However, even if we were to agree that the court should have held such a hearing, on the record before us, we would conclude the error to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, we affirm the order. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND As Uhuru sets forth in his opening brief, in 1999, he shot his girlfriend in the head, killing her in the presence of her three-year-old daughter.