P. v. Rodriguez
Under a plea agreement, defendant pleaded guilty to committing a lewd and lascivious act on a child under the age of 14 and admitted a special allegation that he engaged in substantial sexual conduct with the victim. The trial court sentenced him to the upper term sentence of eight years. Defendant appealed from the imposition of the upper term sentence, contending that the trial court committed prejudicial error by: (1) disregarding significant mitigating factors shown in the record, and (2) relying on aggravating circumstances neither admitted in his plea nor proven beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury. We affirmed the judgment in an opinion issued on September 29, 2005.
On February 20, 2007, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari, vacated the judgment, and remanded the case to this court for further consideration in light of Cunningham v. California (2007) 549 U.S. [127 S.Ct. 856] (Cunningham). Court have recalled the remittitur and afforded the parties an opportunity to file supplemental briefs on the effect of Cunningham on the issues presented. Court now vacate defendants upper term sentence and remand the case to the trial court for the limited purpose of conducting sentencing proceedings in accordance with the requirements of Blakely v. Washington (2004) 542 U.S. 296 [124 S.Ct. 2531] (Blakely) and Cunningham.
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