Jacobs

A jury convicted defendant Deontae Lapoleon Jacobs of two counts of auto burglary and two counts of receiving stolen property. He was sentenced to five years four months in state prison, sentenced by a different judge than the one who presided over his trial—despite that the trial judge had set the sentencing on his calendar, in his department, and would be available in three court days to impose it.

Defendant’s sole contention on appeal is that his sentence is improper, a contention distilled into two essential arguments: (1) defendant had a right to be sentenced by the trial judge, and (2) the sentencing judge abused his discretion in refusing to grant defendant a continuance of the sentencing hearing. We conclude that defendant’s first argument has no merit, but that under the circumstances here his second argument does—that the refusal of the short continuance was not in conformity with the spirit of the law, and could be said to impede or defeat the ends of justice. We thus reverse and remand for sentencing by the trial judge.

I. Background

On December 14, 2005, defendant was charged with two counts of felony auto burglary in violation of Penal Code section 459…