People v. Jones CA2/8

Filed 4/19/21 P. v. Jones CA2/8 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 EIGHT

THE PEOPLE, B303469

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BA474110) v.

RAVON JONES,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Eleanor J. Hunter, Judge. Affirmed. Christine Dubois, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Zee Rodriguez, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, and Charles J. Sarosy, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. ____________________

Ravon Jones robbed a Subway. He held a box cutter to the necks of two employees to get them to open the cash register. A jury convicted him of two counts of second degree robbery. On appeal, Jones challenges only his five-year prior serious felony enhancement. He asks us to remand the case for a new, unbiased judge to consider striking the enhancement. We affirm. Even though it appears the trial court was mistaken about its discretion to strike the prior serious felony enhancement, the court made clear it would not strike the enhancement even if it could. That ruling ultimately was sound, and remand is unwarranted. We also reject Jones’s claim of bias. Undesignated statutory citations are to the Penal Code. I We sketch the underlying facts and procedural history. A On a September evening in 2018, two men entered a Subway sandwich shop. One of the men wore a blue hoodie, purple gloves, and a fanny pack; he carried a green box cutter. The other wore a black hoodie and gloves and had a gun. The robbers used hoods and sunglasses to cover their faces. They found a store employee and took her cellphone and money. The robber in blue held his box cutter to her neck and ordered her to open the cash register. The robber in black pointed his gun at her back. The employee could not open the register, so the robbers went in search of someone who could. They found a male employee at the back of the store. The robber in blue put the box cutter close to this man’s face and neck. The robbers told him to open the register or they would cut him. This second employee complied.