People v. Miles CA2/8

Filed 10/24/22 P. v. Miles CA2/8 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, B310095

Plaintiff and Respondent, Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. SA082880 v.

DEBRA LYNN MILES,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Kathryn A. Solorzano, Judge. Reversed. Rudolph J. Alejo, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Amanda V. Lopez and Michael J. Wise, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. ____________________

Debra Lynn Miles filed a petition for resentencing under former Penal Code section 1170.95, now renumbered as section 1172.6. The trial court denied the petition, holding that the jury’s 2014 special circumstance finding precluded Miles from seeking relief under section 1172.6 until she first sought relief through a writ for habeas corpus. After the trial court’s ruling, the Supreme Court decided in People v. Strong (2022) 13 Cal.5th 698 (Strong), that a pre-Banks and Clark special circumstance finding does not make a petitioner ineligible for relief under section 1172.6 as a matter of law, nor must the petitioner seek habeas relief first. We therefore remand to the trial court for further proceedings. Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code. I A jury convicted Miles of first degree murder under a felony-murder theory in November 2014. (§ 187, subd. (a).) The jury also convicted her of burglary, robbery, and conspiracy to commit robbery. (§§ 211, 213, subd. (a)(1)(A), 459, 667.5, subd. (c), 182, subd. (a)(2).) The jury found true special circumstances that the murder occurred in the course of a robbery and a felony and that Miles was the actual killer, aided and abetted the murder with the intent to kill, or aided and abetted the felony that led to the death while acting as a major participant with reckless indifference to human life. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17).) The judge sentenced Miles to life without parole. Miles appealed the judgment. We affirmed. (People v. Miles (May 10, 2017, B269703) [nonpub. opn.].) In December 2018, Miles filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the superior court. She argued her counsel was ineffective because he did not argue she did not show reckless indifference to human