People v. Mai CA6

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. The Offenses3 On April 29, 2002, Mai and his codefendant Nguyen Nguyen stabbed a fellow teenager with knives after announcing their Asian Warrior gang membership.4 About one week later (on the afternoon of May 7, 2002), Mai and Nguyen followed three teenagers as they drove away from a park in San Jose. Mai leaned out of a car (driven by Nguyen) and fired a gun, striking one of the three teens in the head and causing their vehicle to crash. The police investigation revealed that the shooting was the culmination of a series of encounters between two groups of young people over the preceding weeks and that Mai and Nugyen had “volunteered to kill” the deceased victim. The investigation also revealed that Mai fired 13 rounds during the shooting.

2 The Heard court held that “denying juvenile offenders, who were

sentenced to the functional equivalent of life without parole, the opportunity to petition for resentencing [under section 1170(d)(1)] violates the guarantee of equal protection.” (Heard, supra, 83 Cal.App.5th at p. 612.) 3 Because the particulars of Mai’s offenses are not germane to the claim

raised in this appeal, we state the facts…