People v. See CA5

INTRODUCTION

This is defendant Chawa See’s third appeal relating to his conviction for a 2006 murder he committed when he was 16 years old.1 Defendant was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) for murder and 25 years to life for personal use of a firearm. In 2016, long after judgment was final, defendant filed a successful petition for writ of habeas corpus and was resentenced in accordance with the United States Supreme Court’s decisions in Miller v. Alabama (2012) 567 U.S. 460 (Miller) and Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016) 577 U.S. 190 [136 S.Ct. 718] (Montgomery). Voters passed Proposition 57 between the grant of defendant’s habeas petition and his resentencing hearing, at which the trial court imposed two consecutive terms of 25 years to life. Defendant timely appealed his sentence on constitutional grounds and in See II, this court remanded the matter for the trial court to consider whether to strike the firearm enhancement under Senate Bill No. 620 (2017–2018 Reg. Sess.) (Senate Bill No. 620), but otherwise affirmed. On remand, the trial court denied defendant’s motion to strike the firearm enhancement. Defendant timely appealed. He claims the trial court…