People v. Gomez CA5

INTRODUCTION

In 1996, appellant Alejandro Gomez was convicted by jury of first degree murder with special circumstances, among other offenses. He was 17 years old at the time of the offense. Gomez was sentenced to a prison term of life without the possibility of parole (LWOP). In 2019, following proceedings initiated by the filing of a petition for writ of habeas corpus by Gomez, the trial court vacated his sentence and then resentenced him to

LWOP.

On appeal from his resentencing hearing, Gomez contends the trial court abused its discretion when it elected to reimpose a sentence of LWOP. The Attorney General contends Gomez’s claim has been rendered moot by the enactment of Senate Bill No. 394 (2017-2018 Reg. Sess.) (Senate Bill No. 394), which guarantees all juvenile offenders sentenced under Penal Code section 190.5 an opportunity to receive parole consideration at a youth offender parole hearing after no more than 25 years of incarceration. We reject the Attorney General’s assertion that Gomez’s claim of sentencing error is moot. We conclude that Gomez did not meet his burden of demonstrating the trial court abused its discretion in reimposing a sentence of LWOP. However, we…