People v. Mauricio CA2/8

DISCUSSION

Section 1170, subdivision (d)(1)(A), enacted in 2012, and renumbered in 2021, permits a defendant serving an LWOP sentence to file a petition seeking recall and resentencing if the defendant was under the age of 18 at the time of the commission of the offense, has served at least 15 years before petitioning for

Undesignated statutory citations are to the Penal Code. The facts of the offenses are not relevant to this decision. They are set out in People v. Mauricio (May 30, 2013, B224505) [nonpub. opn.].

2 resentencing, and the victim was not a public safety official. (In re Kirchner (2017) 2 Cal.5th 1040, 1049–1050.) In People v. Heard (2022) 83 Cal.App.5th 608, 628–629, the court held that section 1170, subdivision (d)(1) applies to juveniles with “de facto” LWOP sentences. (See also People v. Sorto (2024) 104 Cal.App.5th 435, 444–445 [same]; People v. Bagsby (2024) 106 Cal.App.5th 1040, 1057 [same].) In People v. Contreras (2018) 4 Cal.5th 349, 369, the California Supreme Court held that a sentence of 50 years to life is the functional equivalent of an LWOP term. Here, Mauricio received a sentence of 150 years to life. As he argues and as the People…