People v. Ruiz CA2/4

INTRODUCTION AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In 2003, a jury convicted defendant and appellant Anthony Ruiz of three counts of willful, deliberate and premeditated attempted murder (Pen. Code,1 §§ 664, 187, subd. (a)) and one count of first degree murder (§ 187, subd. (a)). On the murder count, the jury found true the special circumstance allegation that the murder was intentional and perpetrated by means of discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle, intentionally at another person or persons outside of the vehicle with the intent to inflict death. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(21).)2 The trial court sentenced Ruiz to life without the possibility of parole on the murder count, as well as three consecutive sentences of life with the possibility of parole on the attempted murder counts. In 2022, Ruiz filed a petition for resentencing under former section 1170.95.3 The trial court appointed counsel on Ruiz’s behalf. The prosecution filed an opposition, arguing Ruiz was

All undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code. The jury also found true various allegations that a principal was armed with a firearm during the commission of the offenses, and found gang allegations not…