Eslava

This case comes to us on appeal a second time following defendant Mario Eslava’s conviction on a jury verdict finding him guilty of voluntary manslaughter. In the first appeal, we affirmed the conviction and an accompanying weapons use enhancement, but reversed Eslava’s 18-year prison sentence and remanded for a bench trial to determine whether a prior conviction for battery resulting in serious bodily injury qualifies as a sentence-enhancing strike and serious felony. Eslava pled guilty to the battery in 2009.

The linchpin issue on remand was whether the record of conviction proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Eslava personally inflicted serious bodily injury on the battery victim. To address that issue, the trial court examined the complaint in the 2009 battery case, the transcript of the plea colloquy, and a police report of the underlying incident. During the plea colloquy, Eslava’s counsel stipulated that the police report—which describes Eslava hitting the victim with a wooden stick, injuring him seriously enough to require hospitalization—supplies a factual basis for the conviction. Based on this stipulation, the trial court found the requisite personal…