(HC) Martinez v. Montgomery

I. BACKGROUND/PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

On June 17, 2014, Martinez was charged with attempted aggravated mayhem (Count I), attempted mayhem (Count II), battery with serious bodily injury (Count III), mayhem (Count IV), assault with a deadly weapon (Count V), possession of a firearm by a felon with a prior conviction (Counts VI and VII), and failure to appear (Count IV) in an information that consolidated the allegations of four complaints (apparently without consolidating the four cases). In addition to other enhancements, the consolidated information further alleged as to all counts that Martinez suffered a prior conviction for a serious and/or violent felony pursuant to California’s Three Strikes law. At focus in the instant Petition are the charges stemming from a December 2013 attack on a fellow jail inmate. On direct appeal of his conviction, the California Court of Appeal recounted the following facts underlying the charges stemming from that event (Counts I through III) and the evidence presented at trial: [Martinez’s] cellmate (who was still in jail at the time of [Martinez’s] trial) testified [Martinez] was a member of a Los Angeles subset of an umbrella criminal gang;FN3 the…