People v. Dean CA3

I. BACKGROUND

Defendant entered an open plea to battery with serious bodily injury (Pen. Code, § 243, subd. (d)) following a fight with another inmate while housed at Modoc County Jail when he was 24 years old.1 The probation report recommended the court impose an upper-term sentence of four years, based on a number of aggravating factors, including: (1) the crime involved great violence resulting in great bodily injury; (2) the crime required planning, sophistication, and professionalism; (3) the crime indicated that defendant was a danger to society; and (4) defendant’s criminal history indicates increasing seriousness. The probation officer concluded that there were no facts limiting the defendant’s culpability nor were there any circumstances in mitigation. The trial court considered defendant’s “good demeanor” and “good decorum” throughout the proceedings as a mitigating factor. Nonetheless, the court stated, “there’s no question in my mind, in reviewing this [probation] report, that the aggravating circumstances far outweigh” those in mitigation and therefore the upper term was appropriate. The trial court sentenced defendant to the four-year upper term.2 Defendant timely…