People v. Ayala CA2/3

INTRODUCTION

In 1996, a jury convicted Juan Carlos Sanchez Ayala of first degree murder and found a principal was armed with a gun during the crime. The court sentenced Ayala to 26 years to life in prison. A different panel of this division affirmed Ayala’s conviction in 1997. (People v. Ayala (Oct. 29, 1997, B102520) [nonpub. opn.].) In 2019, Ayala filed a petition to vacate his conviction and reduce his sentence under former Penal Code1 section 1170.95 (now § 1172.6).2 Ayala argued he was convicted of murder under either the natural and probable consequences doctrine or the felony murder rule and couldn’t now be convicted of the same crime under sections 188 and 189, as those statutes were

All undesignated statutory sections are to the Penal Code. 2Effective June 30, 2022, Penal Code section 1170.95 was renumbered section 1172.6, with no change to the text (Stats. 2022, ch. 58, § 10). For convenience, we refer to the former statute number throughout this opinion.

2 amended by Senate Bill No. 1437 (S.B. 1437) (2017–2018 Reg. Sess.) (Stats. 2018, ch. 1015, § 2). The court denied Ayala’s resentencing petition without issuing an order to show cause, finding the jury convicted…