People v. Casillas CA2/6

Filed 8/23/23 P. v. Casillas CA2/6 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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. B324086 (Super. Ct. No. 2014018724.) Plaintiff and Respondent, (Ventura County)

v.

MARCO ANTONIO CASILLAS,

Defendant and Appellant.

Marco Antonio Casillas appeals from an order entered after the trial court’s denial of his motion for resentencing pursuant to Penal Code section 1172.6 (formerly section 1170.95).1 We conclude that the court properly denied Casillas’s motion because, as the actual killer, he is ineligible for relief pursuant to section 1172.6 as a matter of law. (People v. Lewis (2021) 11 Cal.5th 952, 959, 971; People v. Hurtado (2023) 89 Cal.App.5th 887, 893.) We affirm.

1 All statutory references are to the Penal Code.

This appeal concerns the 1997 murder of 16-year-old James Bush, who was stabbed to death by a burglar hiding in Bush’s bedroom. Technological advances in DNA testing permitted the solution of this cold case in 2014. DNA analysis of human feces and palm print identification methods revealed Casillas as the burglar who stabbed Bush to death. In 2017, a jury convicted Casillas of first degree murder and found that he committed the murder while engaged in a residential burglary. (§§ 187, subd. (a), 189, 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(G).) The trial court sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole plus five years for the enhancement pursuant to section 667, subdivision (a). We affirmed the conviction in People v. Casillas (Oct. 28, 2019, B281363) [nonpub. opn.]. Following Casillas’s conviction of first degree murder and burglary special circumstance and later appeal, he brought a motion for resentencing pursuant to section 1172.6. The trial court denied the motion at the prima facie stage, concluding that Casillas, as the actual killer, is ineligible for resentencing as a matter of law. In this appeal we reject Casillas’s arguments that the court engaged in improper factfinding or that the jury may have convicted him of murder without finding that he was the actual killer. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY In 1997, Bush and his mother, Gail Shirley, lived in Ventura. In June 1997, they left their home to visit the Department of Motor Vehicles. When they returned home, they did not notice anything amiss; their doors and windows remained locked. They left the home again for errands. When they returned home shortly thereafter, Bush noticed the screen on his bedroom window had been removed and the