People v. Slayton CA5

INTRODUCTION

Defendant Codi John Slayton, who was 19 years old at the time of the offense, pleaded guilty to the second degree murder of 16-year-old Josephine Jimenez (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)),1 and, as part of his plea agreement, stipulated to lifetime sexual- offender registration under section 290. At a sentencing hearing, the trial court imposed the stipulated sentence of 15 years to life and ordered lifetime registration under section 290. Immediately after sentencing, the court conducted a Franklin2 proceeding, and accepted documentary submissions from defendant and the prosecution. Defendant submitted a written psychological assessment conducted by clinical psychologist Timothy Beach, Psy.D., and the prosecution submitted a brief summarizing the law enforcement investigative findings of uncharged acts committed by defendant that had close temporal proximity to Jimenez’s murder. These acts indicated a pattern of sexual exploitation of young girls and women, which the court had previously ruled were admissible at trial under Evidence Code sections 1108 and 1101, subdivision (b), to prove the prosecutor’s theory of the case—that Jimenez’s murder was not an accident, and…