People v. Baltazar CA4/3

INTRODUCTION

In 2015, Ernesto Baltazar was convicted, pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement, of voluntary manslaughter in connection with the shooting death of Hector Bautista. In 2022, Baltazar filed a petition for resentencing pursuant to Penal Code section 1172.6.1 After conducting an evidentiary hearing under section 1172.6, subdivision (d), the trial court denied Baltazar’s resentencing petition on the ground that he had aided and abetted the killing of Bautista with an intent to kill. Baltazar appeals from the order denying his petition for resentencing. He contends substantial evidence does not support the trial court’s findings that he aided and abetted the killing of Bautista or did so with an intent to kill. We conclude substantial evidence supports a finding that at the time Baltazar’s plea was entered, he could have been guilty beyond reasonable doubt of aiding and abetting an express malice murder under current law. We therefore affirm.

FACTS

These facts are taken from the preliminary hearing transcript, a transcription of a videorecorded police interview of Baltazar, and the testimony of Elizabeth Caufman, Ph.D., given at the evidentiary hearing. South Side…