People v. Fortune CA2/5

I. BACKGROUND

A. Defendant’s No Contest Plea In October 1997, the Los Angeles County District Attorney charged defendant in an information with two counts of robbery (Pen. Code,1 § 211) and one count of assault with a deadly weapon (§ 245, subd. (a)(1)). The information further alleged defendant personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon in the commission of the robberies (§ 12022, subd. (b)(1)). At the time of the charged offenses, defendant was a legal permanent resident of the United States and had been for 11 years. Two months later, pursuant to an agreement with the prosecution, defendant pled no contest to one of the robbery charges. Defendant also admitted the corresponding section 12022 allegation. Defendant agreed—as expressed by his initials on a pre-printed written plea advisement form—that he was

1 Undesignated statutory references that follow are to the Penal Code.

2 entering his no contest plea “freely and voluntarily and with the full understanding of all the matters set forth in the [information] and in this form.” Among the advisements on the plea form checked and initialed by defendant was the following: “I understand that if I am not a citizen of the…