Salmorin

INTRODUCTION

After pleading no contest to forgery, Julius Fernando Salmorin petitioned to recall his sentence under Proposition 47, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act (Pen. Code, § 1170.18). The trial court denied the petition, concluding the aggregate value of the checks Salmorin was convicted of forging made him ineligible for resentencing. Because the trial court erred by aggregating the face amounts of the forged checks, we reverse.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In 2013 the People charged Salmorin and Debra Lynn Spratt with three felonies: forgery (§ 470, subd. (d)), receiving stolen property (§ 496, subd. (a)), and possession of methamphetamine (Health & Saf. Code, §11377, subd. (a)). Salmorin waived his right to a jury trial and pleaded no contest to the forgery count. Pursuant to a negotiated agreement, the trial court suspended imposition of sentence and placed Salmorin on three years of formal probation. The court dismissed the remaining counts on the People’s motion.

In March 2015 Salmorin filed a petition for resentencing under Proposition 47 and checked the preprinted box indicating ‘“[t]he amount in question is not more than $950.00.” The People…