People v. Luna CA2/3

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

1. Luna and Carlos Arciniega attack Leal; Luna stabs Leal in the back 11 times We refer to the factual background from Luna’s trial only “for background purposes and to provide context for the parties’ arguments.” (People v. Flores (2022) 76 Cal.App.5th 974, 978, fn. 2.) We previously granted the Attorney General’s request for judicial notice of the clerk’s and reporter’s transcripts in Luna’s direct appeal from his conviction, People v. Luna (Jan. 26, 2006, B168860) [nonpub. opn.] (Luna I).

References to statutes are to the Penal Code. Effective June 30, 2022, the Legislature renumbered former section 1170.95 to section 1172.6 with no change in text. (Stats. 2022, ch. 58, § 10.)

2 In May 1988, Leal was walking through a park in El Monte in the early morning hours. Two Latino men approached him and demanded his money, his wallet, and his “personal effects.” The men said, “ ‘Give me your money and anything you got. If you don’t, I will kill you.’ ” Leal refused and the men attacked him. One man punched Leal with his fists and the other man stabbed him in the back. Leal lost consciousness. When he came to, he saw that his watch and his…