People v. Miller CA2/4

BACKGROUND

I. Preliminary Hearing

The court held a preliminary hearing on January 13 and 17, 2012. The following facts were adduced.3 According to Blaza’s fiancé, Randall Badger, Blaza lived in an extended-stay hotel in Torrance with her dog and worked as an escort. Badger often paid for the hotel but lived elsewhere.

3 Appellant “submits there are no facts in the record of the conviction based upon appellant’s no contest plea” pursuant to People v. West (1970) 3 Cal.3d 578 (West), under which a defendant does not admit a factual basis for a plea. (See People v. Rauen (2011) 201 Cal.App.4th 421, 425.) However, the reporter’s transcript of the plea hearing shows that appellant pled guilty, not no contest. The minute order documenting the hearing mentions West, but that appears to have been in error, as it also contains a nunc pro tunc correction striking reference to a plea of nolo contendre and replacing it with “plea of guilty entered.” At appellant’s sentencing hearing, both the prosecutor and appellant’s counsel corrected the court when it erroneously stated the plea was no contest.

3 Blaza was still married to appellant but had “put a divorce decree together.” She…