People v. Scott CA4/2

INTRODUCTION

In 2022, a jury convicted defendant Thomas Ryan Scott of, among other things,

voluntary manslaughter as a lesser included offense within the crime of murder, and

being a felon in possession of a firearm, finding true the allegation that defendant

personally used a firearm (Pen. Code, § 12022.5, subd. (a))1 in the commission of the

voluntary manslaughter. At the bifurcated court trial on the prior conviction allegations,

defendant admitted a prior 2009 conviction for unlawfully taking a vehicle without

consent and for the benefit of a criminal street gang, which carried with an enhancement

allegation of active participation in a criminal street gang, pursuant to section 186.22,

subdivision (a), rendering the prior conviction a strike, within the meaning of section 667,

subdivisions (a), (c) and (e)(1). After denying defendant’s motion to strike the “Three

Strikes” allegation, defendant was sentenced to 33 years four months in prison.

Defendant appealed.

On appeal, one of defendant’s assignments of error was that he was entitled to a

remand to permit the trial court to reconsider his request to strike his prior serious felony

conviction pursuant to People…