People v. Smart CA3

DISCUSSION

Defendant contends the trial court improperly used her lack of remorse to justify the upper term for the assault with a deadly weapon resulting in great bodily injury count because she entered the no contest plea pursuant to West. (Citing People v. West (1970) 3 Cal.3d 595.) A defendant entering a West plea does not admit the plea’s factual basis,

2 which “allows a defendant to plead guilty in order to take advantage of a plea bargain while still asserting his or her innocence.” (People v. Rauen (2011) 201 Cal.App.4th 421, 424.) In essence, defendant asserts that, because she did not admit guilt and pled no contest to take advantage of the prosecution’s plea bargain, the court erred when it relied upon her lack of remorse. The People assert defendant forfeited the argument because she failed to object to the trial court’s imposition of the upper term on that ground. We agree with the People. “In order to encourage prompt detection and correction of error, and to reduce the number of unnecessary appellate claims, reviewing courts have required parties to raise certain issues at the time of sentencing. In such cases, lack of a timely and meaningful objection forfeits or…