People v. Jones CA4/2

I. INTRODUCTION

Defendant and appellant David Pierre Jones was convicted of committing three

one-strike offenses (Pen. Code, § 667.61),1 and other crimes, when he was 19 years old in

2018. He was sentenced to 105 years to life for his one strike offenses and

enhancements, plus a determinate term of 32 years four months for his other crimes and

enhancements.

Defendant appealed, arguing that section 3051, subdivision (h) (section 3051(h)) is

facially unconstitutional because it violates the state and federal equal protection rights of

all young adult one strike offenders. In our initial opinion, we concluded that

section 3051(h) is constitutional and affirmed the judgment. The Supreme Court granted

a petition for review and ultimately reached the same conclusion regarding the

constitutionality of section 3051(h) in People v. Williams (2024) 17 Cal.5th 99, 136

(Williams). However, it transferred the cause back to this court with directions to permit

the parties to address defendant’s potential entitlement to the benefit of ameliorative

legislation that became effective while review was pending. We vacated our initial

opinion and permitted the parties to file…