People v. Stewart CA2/4

INTRODUCTION

In 1999, defendant Karl Franklin Stewart (Stewart) was convicted of special circumstance murder, attempted robbery, and burglary. In 2022, Stewart filed a petition for resentencing under Penal Code section 1170.95 (1172.6).1 The trial court denied Stewart’s petition at the prima facie stage, finding he was ineligible for resentencing as a matter of law because the record of conviction established he was convicted as the actual killer. Stewart appeals the denial of his petition for resentencing, arguing the jury instructions given at his trial do not conclusively foreclose the possibility that he was convicted under a now-invalid theory of felony murder. We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In 1981, Enid Whittlesey (Whittlesey) was murdered in her home. Her body was discovered on her bed with “massive injuries” to her face and throat as well as multiple stab wounds to different areas of her body.2 The police found a footprint on top of a piano beneath an open front window of Whittlesey’s home. The murder remained unsolved for several years. In 1996, a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department ran a fingerprint recovered from the crime scene through the…