Santos

*926 Defendant John Alves Santos was arrested in connection with a stolen vehicle report. He pleaded no contest to vehicle theft with a prior conviction, possession of methamphetamine, possession of burglary tools, and buying or receiving a stolen motor vehicle with a prior conviction, and admitted one prison prior. The trial court sentenced Santos to two years in state prison and imposed specified fees and fines.

Santos's appointed counsel filed an opening brief in which no issues are raised and asked this court to independently review the record under People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436 , 158 Cal.Rptr. 839 , 600 P.2d 1071 . We sent a letter to Santos notifying him of his right to submit written argument on his own behalf on appeal but received no response. 1 After independent review of the record, we requested supplemental letter briefs from Santos's counsel and the Attorney General in light of People v. Dueñas (2019) 30 Cal.App.5th 1157 , 242 Cal.Rptr.3d 268 ( Dueñas ). In Dueñas , Division 7 of the Second Appellate District applied due process principles to prohibit the imposition of certain fees and a restitution fine upon an indigent defendant without first ascertaining…

The majority reverses and remands to allow defendant John Alves Santos to request a hearing as to his ability to pay the court operations assessment ( Pen. Code, § 1465.8, subd. (a)(1) ) and the court facilities assessment ( Gov. Code, § 70373 ) under People v. Dueñas (2019) 30 Cal.App.5th 1157 , 242 Cal.Rptr.3d 268 ( Dueñas ). I believe that Dueñas was wrongly decided. 1 Therefore, I respectfully dissent.

*492 A. The Dueñas Decision

In Dueñas , Division 7 of the Second Appellate District held that due process requires the trial court (1) to conduct a hearing to ascertain a defendant's ability to pay before it imposes a court operations assessment or a court facilities assessment and (2) to stay execution of any restitution fine ( Pen. Code, § 1202.4 ) unless and until it holds an ability-to-pay hearing and concludes that the defendant has the ability to pay the restitution fine. Because defendant challenges only the imposition of the court operations and court facilities assessments, I confine my discussion to those fees.

Court facilities assessments ( Gov. Code, § 70373 ) and court operations assessments ( Pen. Code, § 1465.8, subd. (a)(1) ) are statutorily required to be…