Brookins

This is a case in which the defendant’s sole challenge is to the application of one of the recidivist statutes. The challenge relates to whether one of his prior offenses satisfies a criterial predicate for the imposition of a life term in prison without possibility of parole for 20 years under Penal Code section 667.7 (subsequent undesignated section references are to this code). Specifically, we must determine whether an abstract of judgment and related conviction documents showing only that the defendant was convicted of robbery while personally using a firearm (§§ 211, 12022.5, subd. (a)) are sufficient to demonstrate this prior conviction constitutes the type of robbery contemplated by the statute. This in turn involves the question of whether personal use of a firearm not shown to be loaded or used as a bludgeon is the equivalent of a prior prison term for “robbery involving use of force or a deadly weapon” within the meaning of subdivision (a) of section 667.7. We are compelled to conclude that without more the bare fact of a conviction for robbery while personally using a firearm not shown to be loaded or used as a bludgeon is not the same as robbery while using…