People v. Welcome CA3

Filed 6/13/24 P. v. Welcome CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 (Butte) ----

THE PEOPLE, C098358

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 21CF04634)

v.

ROBERT CARL WELCOME,

Defendant and Appellant.

Following a domestic dispute with his ex-wife that led to a police pursuit, defendant Robert Carl Welcome pled no contest to assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, and recklessly evading a pursuing peace officer. He admitted a prior strike conviction, which the trial court declined to dismiss, and received nine years four months in state prison. On appeal, defendant challenges various financial obligations imposed at sentencing based on People v. Dueñas (2019) 30 Cal.App.5th 1157 (Dueñas), the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against excessive fines, and equal protection. To the extent any

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of these issues are deemed forfeited, defendant argues his counsel was ineffective for failing to raise the objections below. We conclude defendant has forfeited his appellate contentions regarding the challenged fees and fines, and that he cannot establish ineffective assistance of counsel on this record. We therefore affirm. I. BACKGROUND In September 2021, defendant’s ex-wife called Paradise police to report that defendant had assaulted her and was trying to ram her in an orange dump truck after she fled in her car.1 Responding officers saw an orange dump truck chasing another car and attempted to stop it. Defendant was driving the dump truck at an excessive rate of speed, crossed lanes of traffic unsafely, and drove into two ditches and hit a power pole. Defendant refused to stop, and officers eventually terminated the chase for safety reasons. His ex-wife later told the officers that before the chase, defendant had hit her during an argument, causing bruising and swelling on her face and cutting her eye and mouth; he also threatened to kill her. Defendant was subsequently apprehended. In March 2022, defendant was charged in Butte County case No. 21CF04634 with assault with a deadly weapon, a vehicle (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)(1)—count 1),2 criminal threats (§ 422, subd. (a)—count 2), corporal injury of a spouse or cohabitant (§ 273.5, subd. (a)—count 3), false imprisonment by violence (§ 236—count 4), and two counts of fleeing a pursuing peace officer’s motor vehicle while driving recklessly (Veh. Code, § 2800.2, subd. (a)—counts 5 & 6). For counts 1 through 3, it was alleged that defendant had five prior serious felony convictions. (§ 667, subd. (a)(1).) For all counts it was alleged that defendant had five prior violent or serious felony strike convictions