People v. Gallegos CA2/7

INTRODUCTION

This is Rodolfo Gallegos’s third appeal since he was convicted of murder and attempted murder in 2012 after a shooting Gallegos committed in 1991, when he was 16 years old. Immediately after the shooting Gallegos fled to Mexico, where he remained for 18 years until his extradition. Gallegos appealed from his judgment of conviction, and we affirmed, but twice directed the court to resentence him. In our last opinion we directed the juvenile court to hold a transfer hearing under Welfare and Institutions Code section 707.1 The juvenile court held that hearing, found Gallegos was not amenable to rehabilitation in the juvenile court system, and transferred him back to the criminal court.2 Gallegos appeals from that order. While his appeal was pending, the Legislature amended two statutes that affect the exercise and scope of the juvenile court’s jurisdiction over former minors like Gallegos. Those amendments apply retroactively because one of them stated it did, both of them are ameliorative, and Gallegos’s judgment was not yet final when they went into effect. Because in transferring Gallegos’s case to criminal court the juvenile court did not clearly indicate it would…