People v. Luna CA1/5

BACKGROUND

A.

Between October 2020 and March 2021, Luna broke into an unoccupied home in Mendocino County and resided there over the course of a few months. Numerous items from the home were damaged or stolen. Luna subsequently entered a plea of nolo contendere to first degree burglary. He did not agree to any specific term of incarceration in connection with his plea.

Luna’s sentencing memorandum stated that “[a]t the time of the offense, [he] was deeply entrenched in his alcoholism and homeless[ness], which is what first prompted him to seek shelter in the home once the weather turned cold.”

According to his sentencing memorandum, Luna’s childhood was marked by his mother’s alcoholism, which began when he was about nine years old, after his parents separated. Alcoholism was “a fact of life in the household” and Luna “saw that adults cope by drinking.” Luna, “as the eldest child, was essentially left to raise himself[] [and] his three brothers, and to care for his mother while she succumbed to her alcoholism.” His mother died in 2007 of alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver.

In 2011, Luna was seriously injured in a car accident. He was placed in an induced coma and nearly lost…