People v. Taylor CA3

BACKGROUND

Defendant does not challenge his convictions; therefore, we will not discuss the details of his crimes. It suffices to say that, as the jury findings outlined above suggest, defendant was convicted of numerous offenses involving sexual crimes against a minor. He filed a written pretrial request to strike his prior strike convictions2 pursuant to People v. Superior Court (Romero) (1996) 13 Cal.4th 497. The trial court denied this request. In so ruling, the trial court noted: “In terms of [defendant’s] character and prospects, however he got into the situation that he’s in, I have no confidence that his character has changed from the time of the commission of these alleged offenses, or that his prospects are different. He is in no different situation right now than he was at the time that he was alleged to have committed these offenses.

Approximately 25 years before the crimes at issue here, defendant was convicted of two sex offenses at age 16 (forcible sexual penetration with a foreign object [§ 289, former subd. (a)] and oral copulation in concert [former § 288a, subd. (d)]), and burglary (§ 459) when he was 18.

2 “So, applying the Williams[3] factors, I am…