People v. Medina CA3

Filed 12/12/22 P. v. Medina CA3 Opinion following transfer from Supreme Court NOT TO BE PUBLISHED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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 (Sacramento) ----

THE PEOPLE, C091206

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 08F03645)

v. OPINION ON TRANSFER

ANTHONY MEDINA,

Defendant and Appellant.

This case returns to us on transfer with directions from our Supreme Court. As relevant here, in 2011, a jury found defendant Anthony Medina guilty of two counts of first degree murder and attempted robbery. As to one of the murders, the jury found an attempted robbery-murder special circumstance true.

1

Defendant petitioned the trial court for resentencing under what is now Penal Code section 1172.61 based on changes made to the felony-murder rule by Senate Bill No. 1437 (2017-2018 Reg. Sess.) (Senate Bill No. 1437). The trial court denied defendant’s petition, finding the record established defendant was ineligible for resentencing because the jury found the special circumstance true. On appeal, defendant argues the trial court erred in relying on the special circumstance finding to disqualify him from relief. In our original opinion filed on August 16, 2021, we disagreed and affirmed the order. Defendant petitioned for review; the Supreme Court has now directed us to reconsider the matter in light of People v. Strong (2022) 13 Cal.5th 698. Having done so, we agree with the parties that the trial court’s order denying the petition must be reversed and the matter remanded for further proceedings. BACKGROUND We take the basic facts of defendant’s case from our opinion in his original appeal. (People v. Medina (2016) 245 Cal.App.4th 778, 786 (Medina 1).)2 There, we summarized the facts of defendant’s crimes as follows: In the first incident, defendant “was driving down Florin Road, with defendants Brandon Morton and David Whitehead in the backseat, and fired a gun at a black Lexus, hitting its two occupants. [Defendant] was convicted of two counts of attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle. In the second incident, Morton believed he had been ‘shorted’ several grams of