People v. Lavis CA2/2

BACKGROUND

On December 10, 2013, defendant pled no contest to forgery (§ 475, subd. (b)) and theft of access card account information (§ 484e, subd. (d).) He also admitted a prior “strike” conviction. (§§ 667, subd. (b)-(j), 1170.12.) He was sentenced to state prison for a total of four years. On June 24, 2015, defendant filed a petition for resentencing under Proposition 47. At the November 5, 2015 hearing on the petition, the trial court denied the petition on the ground that defendant’s offenses were ineligible for resentencing under Proposition 47. This appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

I. Applicable law and standard of review

In November 2014, California voters approved Proposition 47, which reclassified certain felony drug and theft offenses as misdemeanors. (§ 1170.18, subd. (a).) Proposition 47 added section 1170.18, under which a person currently serving a felony sentence for an offense that is now a misdemeanor under Proposition 47 may petition for a recall of that sentence and request resentencing in accordance with certain specific statutes that were added or amended by Proposition 47. (§ 1170.18, subd. (a).)2 As

All further statutory references are to the Penal…