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 conclude that resentencing is required for various sentencing errors discussed in part IV of this opinion. We therefore remand this case back to the lower court for a resentencing hearing. In all other respects, the judgment is affirmed.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On September 25, 1996, Gomez and his codefendant, Frank De Lao, were convicted by jury of first degree murder (Pen. Code,[1] § 187, count 1), two counts of attempted vehicle theft (§§ 664, 10851, subd. (a), count 2 & 3), and three counts of second degree burglary (§ 459, counts 4 through 6.) In addition, the jury found true three special circumstances alleging the murder occurred during the commission of a burglary (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)) and an enhancement alleging Gomez was armed with a firearm in the commission of the murder (§ 12022, subd, (a)(1)).
On November 12, 1996, Gomez was sentenced to LWOP plus one year.
In January 2000, this court’s unpublished opinion
[1] All undefined statutory citations are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated.
