People v. Zavala CA2/8

INTRODUCTION

A jury convicted Vincent Zavala of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon, and it found true allegations that he personally used a knife and inflicted great bodily injury on the victim. After the court struck one of Zavala’s prior strikes, it sentenced him to 14 years in prison, including the upper term of five years for the robbery conviction, doubled to 10 years under the “Three Strikes” law, plus three years for the great bodily injury enhancement and one year for the personal use of a knife enhancement. On appeal, Zavala argues the court abused its discretion when it sentenced him to an upper term for the robbery conviction because it failed to apply the lower-term presumption under Penal Code section 1170, subdivision (b)(6), based on evidence that he suffered physical trauma as a child. Zavala also asks us to conduct an independent review of the sealed transcript of the trial court’s in camera review of officer personnel records under Pitchess v. Superior Court (1974) 11 Cal.3d 531 (Pitchess). As we explain, Zavala has not shown the court abused its discretion when it imposed the upper, as opposed to the lower, term for his robbery conviction. We also have…