People v. Fallon CA2/3

INTRODUCTION

A jury convicted defendant James Steven Fallon of, among other crimes, premeditated, deliberate, and willful attempted murder. The jury also found true allegations that Fallon personally used a firearm and personally inflicted great bodily injury during the attempted murder. A different panel of this division reversed Fallon’s convictions because the trial court did not properly instruct the jury on reasonable doubt and the jury was exposed to a prejudicial email between the prosecutor and a detective that was not admitted as evidence at trial. (People v. Fallon (Dec. 30, 2014, B251619) [nonpub. opn.] (Fallon).) After the matter was remanded to the trial court, Fallon pled no contest to one count of attempted murder, and he admitted that he personally used a firearm during the commission of that offense and that he suffered a prior strike conviction. The remaining charges and allegations, including the premeditation special circumstance allegation, were dismissed. Fallon later filed a petition to vacate his attempted murder conviction under Penal Code1 section 1172.6. After appointing counsel for Fallon, the court denied the petition without issuing an order to show…