People v. Garcia CA2/6

Filed 11/24/21 P. v. Garcia CA2/6

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 SIX

THE PEOPLE, 2d Crim. No. B309957 (Super. Ct. No. SB210974) Plaintiff and Respondent, (Santa Barbara County)

v.

IZICK DAVID GARCIA,

Defendant and Appellant.

Izick David Garcia was convicted in 1996 of multiple violent sex offenses, including rape, and was sentenced to a prison term of 94 years to life. Garcia was 17 at the time of the crimes. We affirmed the judgment. (People v. Garcia (July 29, 1997, B104833) [nonpub. opn.] (Garcia I).) The trial court subsequently granted Garcia’s petition for writ of habeas corpus and resentenced him to 50 years to life in state prison. It found that this sentence, unlike his prior sentence, afforded Garcia a meaningful opportunity for a parole hearing during his natural life expectancy. (People v. Garcia (2018) 30 Cal.App.5th 316, 320 (Garcia II).)

On appeal from the resentencing order, Garcia argued he was entitled to a juvenile court transfer hearing. We agreed and noted that if the juvenile court transferred Garcia to adult criminal court, he would have to be resentenced again in light of People v. Contreras (2018) 4 Cal.5th 349 (Contreras). Contreras held that a 50-year-to-life sentence for juveniles convicted of serious sex offenses, i.e., One Strike youthful offenders,1 was the functional equivalent of life without the possibility of parole and therefore unconstitutional. (Id. at pp. 367, 359-360; see Garcia II, supra, 30 Cal.App.4th at pp. 320-321.) On remand, the juvenile court transferred the matter to adult criminal court, which elected to forego resentencing and to instead reimpose the vacated 50-year-to-life sentence. The court explained that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) had instituted a policy making One Strike youthful offenders eligible for a youthful-offender parole hearing (YOPH) after serving 25 years in prison. Under this policy, Garcia became eligible for parole on February 6, 2019, at the age of 41, and initially was scheduled for a YOPH on January 21, 2021, at the age of 44. That hearing was postponed because Garcia was participating in court proceedings. He is now scheduled for a YOPH on April 6, 2022. If, for some reason, that hearing does not go forward, Garcia will be placed on the next available hearing calendar.