People v. Suarez CA4/1

I. INTRODUCTION

In 1992, a jury convicted Jose Alfredo Suarez of second degree murder and willful, deliberate, and premeditated attempted murder. In 2023, Suarez

filed a petition for resentencing pursuant to Penal Code1 section 1172.6. The trial court denied the petition at the prima facie stage. In his appeal from that order, Suarez argues that the instructions given at his trial allowed the jury to impute the perpetrator’s malice to Suarez in both counts under an aiding and abetting theory. Suarez’s attempted murder conviction was not based on the natural and probable consequences doctrine, making section 1172.6 inapplicable. As for the second degree murder conviction, we have independently reviewed the 1992 trial transcripts that the trial court considered when ruling on the section 1172.6 petition. That record of conviction conclusively establishes that by its second degree murder verdict and a true finding on the personal knife use allegation, the jury determined that Suarez was the actual killer. This precludes Suarez from section 1172.6 relief. We therefore affirm the order denying Suarez’s petition.

II. BACKGROUND

In 1991, Suarez and several other men attacked Juan…