People v. Thrash CA4/2

I. INTRODUCTION

In October 2010, defendant William Leonard Thrash was sentenced under the

“Three Strikes” law (Pen. Code, §§ 667, subds. (b)-(i), 1170.12)1 to 25 years to life in

prison for one of two current felony convictions for assaulting a correctional officer by

means likely to produce great bodily injury while defendant was serving a state prison

sentence (§ 4501). The assaults occurred at Ironwood State Prison in 2007, while

defendant was serving an indeterminate life sentence as a third strike offender for a 1996

aggravated assault conviction in Orange County. (§ 245, subd. (a)(1).) Because

defendant was serving a life term when he committed the section 4501 offenses, the

offenses were serious felonies. (§ 1192.7, subd. (c)(12).)

Defendant petitioned the trial court to recall his current 25-year-to-life sentence

and resentence him pursuant to the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2012 (the Act), also

known as Proposition 36. (See People v. Yearwood (2013) 213 Cal.App.4th 161, 169-

171 [explaining how the Act changed the Three Strikes law].) The trial court denied the

petition on the ground defendant was serving a life term when he committed the section

4501…