Cardenas

Guillermo Cardenas appeals from the judgment following his conviction for second degree robbery. He contends the prosecutor exercised group bias in excusing two Hispanic prospective jurors in violation of People v. Wheeler [1] and the trial court erred in imposing the upper term sentence based on facts not found by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt in violation of Cunningham v. California. [2] We find no merit to defendant's Wheeler contention but we conclude defendant was sentenced to the high term in violation of Cunningham.

A jury convicted Cardenas of robbing Cory Konopka of his wallet on the street in front of Konopka's workplace. Cardenas and Konopka had been co-workers but Cardenas had recently been fired. He believed Konopka played a role in his termination. The facts showed another person assisted Cardenas in the robbery but this person was not a co-defendant or witness in Cardenas' trial.

We concern ourselves here only with the jury selection process and the trial court's imposition of the upper term sentence. We state the facts relevant to these issues in our discussion below.

Because the court would be using a Spanish language interpreter for some of…