Moenius

George Donald Moenius was convicted by a jury of one count of possession of heroin. (Health & Saf. Code, § 11350, subd. (a).) The trial court found that he had been convicted of burglary (Pen. Code, § 459) in 1974 and 1991. After determining that both burglary convictions were qualifying prior felony convictions under the legislative version of the three strikes law (Pen. Code, § 667, subds. (b)-(i)), the trial court sentenced him to a prison term of 25 years to life. He appealed from the judgment.

On January 24, 1996, we affirmed the judgment. The Supreme Court subsequently granted review and transferred the matter to this court with directions to reconsider the case in light of People v. Superior Court (Romero) (1996) 13 Cal.4th 497, 530 , footnote 13 [ 53 Cal.Rptr.2d 789 , 917 P.2d 628 ], People v. Fuhrman (1997) 16 Cal.4th 930, 944 [ 67 Cal.Rptr.2d 1 , 941 P.2d 1189 ], and a portion of the reporter’s transcript in which the trial court expressed the view that it had no discretion to vacate a qualifying prior felony conviction finding under the three strikes law on its own motion in the furtherance of justice.

Facts

On June 2, 1994, appellant bought some heroin, he…