People v. Osuna CA4/2

I.

INTRODUCTION

Defendant and appellant Roberto Tirado Osuna was charged with five felonies for

his involvement with a double-homicide robbery that he committed along with his

codefendants, Lee Johnson and Luis Ordonez Zepeda. In 2011, defendant entered into a

plea agreement, which required him to testify, as needed, in the prosecution of his

codefendants. In exchange for his guilty plea, defendant would receive a significantly

lighter sentence than the one he faced if convicted as charged (25 years instead of

years to life). His codefendants’ cases, however, did not resolve until Zepeda pled guilty

in 2020 and Johnson pled guilty in 2021. During that time, defendant initially

cooperated, but he eventually refused to testify in either codefendants’ trial.

In 2022, defendant moved to withdraw his plea agreement on the ground that the

prosecution had breached it. The court denied the motion, found that defendant had

breached his plea agreement, and sentenced him to an indeterminate term of 73 years,

months to life.

Defendant appeals, arguing that the prosecution violated the terms of the plea

agreement by taking 10 years to prosecute his codefendants and, in…