People v. Sweitzer CA3

BACKGROUND

Defendant was 19 years old on July 14, 1996, when he drove David Ellis and another individual, C.E., in defendant’s pickup truck. The record does not reveal Ellis’s

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code. Defendant’s petition was filed under former section 1170.95. Effective June 30, 2022, that section was renumbered section 1172.6 without change to the text. (Stats. 2022, ch. 58, § 10.) We will refer to the current statute. 2 Defendant also asserts that the evidence is insufficient to support other theories of liability not relied upon by the trial court in denying his section 1172.6 petition. Because we conclude the evidence supports the findings made by the trial court, we need not address this assertion.

2 age, but he appears to have been a young adult. C.E. was a minor at the time. She was present for much of the crime spree, but her involvement was minimal. Defendant, Ellis, and C.E. drove to Bryan Lutz’s house to collect a small debt, but Lutz did not answer the door. They then drove to Matthew Braden’s house. Braden knew defendant but not Ellis. Defendant told Braden that Ellis wanted to buy a gun that Braden owned, a Tec-9 semiautomatic…