People v. Valdez CA6

I. INTRODUCTION

In case No. SS132528A, defendant Pete Calderon Valdez, Sr., pleaded no contest to possession of a controlled substance (former Health & Saf. Code, § 11377, subd. (a)) and misdemeanor inflicting corporal injury on a spouse (Pen. Code, § 273.5, subd. (a)).1 In case No. SS140906A, defendant pleaded no contest to possession of a controlled substance (former Health & Saf. Code, § 11377, subd. (a)) and misdemeanor violating a protective order (§ 166, subd. (c)(1)). The trial court suspended imposition of sentence in each case and placed defendant on probation.

1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated. While defendant was on probation, section 1170.18 was enacted by the voters as part of Proposition 47, which reclassified certain offenses as misdemeanors. Defendant filed a petition in each case for recall of sentence and resentencing to a misdemeanor under section 1170.18 with respect to his felony drug convictions. The trial court implicitly determined that defendant, as a probationer, was not serving a sentence within the meaning of section 1170.18. However, in order to sentence the drug convictions as misdemeanors, the court…