People v. Hatfield CA3

DISCUSSION

1. Case No. C079826

In Scarbrough, supra, 240 Cal.App.4th at pages 920 through 930, this court held that trial courts lack subject matter jurisdiction to rule on a section 1170.18 resentencing motion while the defendant’s appeal from the original judgment is pending. Therefore, any order a trial court issues on such a motion, whether purporting to grant or deny it, is void. That is the case here as to the order in case No. C078926.

Anticipating our conclusion, defendant requests that we reach the merits of his Proposition 47 argument despite Scarbrough “for the sake of judicial economy.” Alternatively, he proposes that we find “unusual circumstances” to justify treating the appeal as a petition for writ of mandate, or that we stay his pending appeal and issue a limited interim remand under section 1260 for purposes of conducting a hearing on his section 1170.18 petition. These proposals are unavailing.

We rejected the “judicial economy” argument in Scarbrough for the following reasons: “Defendant . . . argues that judicial economy will be thwarted if trial courts

3 cannot act while an appeal is pending. She claims a second appeal could be averted by concurrent…