People v. Sheppard CA5

INTRODUCTION

In 1985, a jury convicted defendant Melissa Ann Sheppard of first degree murder (Pen. Code,1 § 187), with the special circumstances the murder was committed during the commission or attempted commission of a robbery and burglary (§ 190.2, former subd. (a)(17)(i), (a)(17)(vii)), and involved the infliction of torture (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(18)). Defendant was sentenced to a term of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP). (People v. Sheppard (Dec. 4, 1987, F006780 [nonpub. opn.] (Sheppard I).) In 2024, defendant filed a motion for a Franklin/Cook2 proceeding under section 1203.01. The trial court summarily denied the motion without prejudice. On appeal, defendant contends her “case must be remanded for resentencing because the trial court erred in denying her motion fo[r] a Franklin hearing in violation of due process of law.” (Capitalization and boldface omitted.) Specifically, she argues that “should [she] prevail in Case No. F088355[3] and the result be a recall of her sentence, she may well no longer have an LWOP sentence, and can have a Franklin hearing.” We concluded in case No. F088355 that “defendant has no right to appeal from the trial court’s order…