Sanchez

Petitioner Vincent Henry Sanchez is charged with capital murder. He seeks an order from this court directing the trial court to accept his offer to plead guilty to the charge of murder, leaving it to the trial court, sitting without a jury, to determine the degree of the murder pursuant to Penal Code section 1192. The People contend that if Sanchez wishes to plead guilty, the plea must be to the charge of first degree minder as alleged in the information, not to the charge recast by Sanchez as murder in an unspecified degree.

We hold that where the language of the felony information charges a defendant with only first degree murder, he or she may plead guilty to first degree murder, but may not plead guilty to murder in an unspecified degree or utilize the procedures of section 1192 to determine the degree of the offense. Accordingly, we deny the writ.

Procedural History

A multicount felony information was filed in May 2002 charging Sanchez in count 1 with the first degree murder of Megan Barroso “in violation of Penal Code sections 187(a) and 189.” The information alleges “special allegations” that the “murder as charged in Count 1 is murder of the first degree in…