People v. Esswein CA4/3

FACTS

In August 2008, police were called to the home Esswein shared with her 84-year-old husband Richard Esswein. Police found Esswein in the home, suffering from self-inflicted puncture wounds to her neck and cuts to her wrist. Police discovered Richard in the guest bedroom; he had been stabbed to death. After her conviction for first degree murder was overturned on appeal, Esswein pled guilty in August 2020 to second degree murder. (§ 187, subd. (a).) The trial court sentenced Esswein to 15 years to life in state prison. In March 2023, Esswein was granted expanded medical parole and discharged to a memory care unit at Golden Legacy Care Center (Golden Legacy), a private long-term health care facility with which the CDCR contracts to house ill prisoners. In November 2024, Dr. Joseph Bick, the director of CDCR Health Care Services, sent a letter to the trial court recommending recall of Esswein’s sentence, pursuant to section 1172.2, for the following reasons: Esswein had severe dementia, which put her at significant risk for falling, infections, and aspiration pneumonia; she could not ambulate without assistance; she was incontinent and required assistance with activities of…