CA Unpub Decisions

Adela R. (mother) challenges orders denying her modification petition under Welfare and Institutions Code section 388 and terminating her parental rights to her children Roy J. (born March 2011), Aaliyah J. (born March 2013), and Prince M. (born September 2015), pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 366.26. We find no error and affirm the orders.

Defendant and appellant Andwele Abiade Shabazz pled no contest to possession of a firearm, and the trial court sentenced him to 32 months in state prison. On appeal, Shabazz argues the gun evidence was obtained in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. For the reasons discussed below, we agree with Shabazz and remand the case to the trial court.

Petitioner Randy D. Sullivan, along with his co-defendants Joshua Lockett and Terrell Henderson, was convicted in 2014 of the murder of Brandon Houston. All three defendants petitioned for resentencing under Penal Code section 1170.95. The trial court held a single evidentiary hearing where no new evidence was presented, and the defendants based their arguments on the trial record. The court denied all three petitions for resentencing in a single order in August of 2019. Lockett and Henderson filed timely appeals. We resolved these appeals via a nonpublished opinion. (People v. Lockett et al. (July 23, 2021, B301103) [nonpub. opn] (Lockett).) In Lockett, we reversed the trial court and ordered that Lockett’s and Henderson’s petitions for resentencing be granted.

While riding on Ballona Creek Bike Path (Bike Path), Kildare Lima Silva (Silva) encountered uneven asphalt, lost control of his bike, and suffered personal injuries that rendered him a quadriplegic. A negligence lawsuit ensued. The trial court granted summary judgment for City of Los Angeles (City) based on the absolute trail immunity in Government Code section 831.4, subdivision (b). It also granted summary judgment for Shelter Clean Services, Inc. (Shelter Clean), a contractor for City responsible for keeping the Bike Path swept and clear, due to the absence of a duty to protect third parties from harm caused by the Bike Path’s uneven surface.
We affirm.

Defendant and appellant Jeffrey Bryant is currently serving a sentence of more than 60 years for taking part in five armed robberies and attempted robberies of check cashing stores in 2002 and 2003. In January 2020, the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) sent a letter to the trial court recommending that the court recall Bryant’s sentence under former Penal Code section 1170, subdivision (d) and resentence him in light of recent amendments to the law giving trial courts the discretion to strike certain sentence enhancements that had previously been mandatory.

Defendant and appellant Nicole Herschel (defendant) appeals from the judgment entered in favor of plaintiff and respondent Yijing Chen (plaintiff) after a jury awarded plaintiff $18 million in damages for injuries plaintiff suffered after defendant’s truck struck plaintiff and her mother, Hongfen Shen (Shen), while they were crossing a freeway onramp. Shen died from injuries sustained in the accident. The jury found that defendant had acted with malice but awarded $0 in punitive damages.

Cruz Casas (appellant) appeals from a judgment entered after the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of respondent County of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (county or respondent) on appellant’s claims against the county for violations of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) (Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.). We find that appellant failed to establish a prima facie case for each of the four causes of action he brought against the county. Therefore, we affirm the judgment.

Marqus Scott, William Saulsberry, and Wesley Saulsberry were convicted of various crimes arising out of incidents in 2015 and 2016. William and Scott were tried together; Wesley was tried separately. All three appeal on multiple grounds. We conclude that recent amendments to Penal Code section 186.22 require us to vacate the gang enhancement findings (§ 186.22, subds. (b)(1)(A) and (b)(1)(C)); the gang-related special circumstance findings (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(22)); and the firearms enhancement findings under section 12022.53, subdivision (e)(1). We remand these issues to the trial court for retrial. In all other respects, the judgments are affirmed.

Arthur Duane Jackson, convicted in 1994 of attempted murder and carjacking, appealed the summary denial of his petition for resentencing under Penal Code section 1170.95, contending the superior court had erred in ruling section 1170.95 did not apply to attempted murder and denying his petition without appointing counsel and conducting a hearing at which the parties could present evidence. We affirmed the order based on prior decisions from this and other courts of appeal that had rejected identical arguments.

In 2012, defendant Rodney Che Williams pleaded no contest to failure to register as a sex offender, felony possession of marijuana for sale, being a felon in possession of ammunition, and three counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He also admitted that he had suffered two prior strike convictions. The trial court denied defendant’s request to strike one of his prior strike convictions pursuant to People v. Superior Court (Romero) (1996) 13 Cal.4th 497 (Romero) and sentenced him to 25 years to life in prison. This court affirmed in case No. H039393.

This is an appeal from an April 20, 2021 judgment of the Tulare County Superior Court entered in favor of defendants/respondents City of Visalia, City Council for the City of Visalia, Curtis Cannon in his official capacity as Community Development Director, and Paul Bernal in his official capacity as City Planner (City).

In 2013, defendant Alfredo Navarro was convicted of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)). The jury found true the allegation that the murder was committed while he was engaged in or was an accomplice in the commission of a kidnapping (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)). Defendant was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. In 2019, he filed a petition for resentencing pursuant to section 1170.95, which was denied. On appeal, defendant contends: (1) “the trial court erroneously relied upon the special circumstance finding of kidnapping with intent to kill in determining that [he] did not satisfy the prima facie case for section 1170.95 resentencing”; and (2) he “is entitled to a new hearing because he was not present at the hearing on his petition.” (Boldface & capitalization omitted.) We reject these claims and affirm the denial.

In this writ proceeding, Wonderful Orchards (Wonderful) seeks review of a decision and order of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB or Board).  The Board found Wonderful had engaged in an unfair labor practice and ordered remedies for that practice.  We affirm the Board’s decision and order.

In 2013, appellant and defendant Christopher Harvell Patterson was convicted, after a jury trial, of first degree premeditated murder with a special circumstance and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. In 2019, defendant filed a petition for resentencing pursuant to Penal Code section 1170.95 and alleged his murder conviction was based on the felony-murder rule or the natural and probable consequences doctrine. The court denied the petition.