People v. Briones CA1/4

I. BACKGROUND

In 2018, Briones was charged with several offenses after he stole thousands of dollars’ worth of cell phones and other products from a T-Mobile store. He pled no contest to grand theft with a prior serious or violent felony conviction, commonly known as a “strike,”2 (§§ 487, subd. (a), 667, subds. (b)– (i)) and unlawful possession of a firearm (§ 29820). In March 2019, the trial court sentenced Briones according to the parties’ stipulation to 16 months in prison for grand theft, doubled to 32 months based on the prior strike, and a concurrent 16 months in prison for unlawful possession of a firearm. The court imposed fines and fees and ordered Briones and a codefendant to pay $1,859 in victim restitution. Later during the sentencing hearing, the court addressed Briones’s motion for the return of property confiscated at the time of his arrest. The prosecutor opposed the motion only as to $1,600 in cash that was among the confiscated items. She urged the court to apply those funds to the restitution order per section 1202.4, subdivision (f). Briones’s counsel responded that he “ha[d]n’t had a chance to review that specific authority,” and Briones “would like for his…