People v. Soulik CA6

I. INTRODUCTION

Defendant Paul Jacob Soulik appeals after pleading no contest to murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a))1 for a stipulated sentence of 25 years to life. After denying defendant’s motion to withdraw his plea, the trial court sentenced defendant to 25 years to life and imposed a gang registration requirement (§ 186.30) over defendant’s objection. Defendant contends that the gang registration requirement must be vacated because there is not substantial evidence in the record that the murder was gang related. Defendant further contends that if the gang registration requirement is not vacated, the judgment should be reversed and the cause remanded to give him an opportunity to withdraw his plea. The Attorney General concedes that insufficient evidence supports the registration requirement, but asserts that the matter should be remanded to allow the

All further statutory references are to the Penal Code. prosecution an opportunity to provide the requisite proof. Defendant has no objection to a remand. For reasons that we will explain, we agree with the parties that there is insufficient evidence to uphold the gang registration requirement. Accordingly, we will…