People v. Baca CA3

BACKGROUND

In 1997, a jury found defendant guilty of first degree murder and the appropriate fact finder found true the special circumstance that defendant had perpetrated the murder by discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle. (§§ 187, 189, subd. (a), 190.2, subd. (a)(21).) Defendant was 19 years old when he committed the murder. The trial court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 10 years for personally using a firearm In 2023, defendant filed a motion requesting a Franklin hearing, at which he could augment the record to include mitigating evidence that would be relevant at an eventual youth offender parole hearing. (People v. Franklin, supra, 63 Cal.4th at p. 261; In re Cook, supra, 7 Cal.5th at p. 439; § 3051.) In the motion, defendant claimed he was entitled to a youth offender parole hearing because, by denying youth offender parole hearings to young adults convicted of special-circumstance murder, like him, section 3051, subdivision (h) violated his right to equal protection of the law. The trial court summarily denied his motion, finding defendant was ineligible for a youth offender parole hearing pursuant to section 3051,…