P. v. Bates
During Adron Lee Bates's prosecution for selling cocaine base (People v. Bates (Super. Ct. San Diego County, 2006, No. SCD178150)) (hereafter case SCD178150),Bates disrupted the court proceedings and resisted the officers who tried to subdue him in the courtroom. He was prosecuted for resisting an executive officer (Pen. Code, 69)[2]and resisting an officer ( 148, subd. (a)(1)). The jury convicted him on both counts, and Bates admitted one strike prior ( 667, subds. (b)-(i), 668, 1170.12) and six prison priors ( 667.5, subd. (b)).
The trial court sentenced Bates in this case at the same time that it sentenced him in case SCD178150. The trial court specified the sentence in case SCD178150 as the principal term and imposed a prison sentence of 20 years in that case, which included a six-year sentence for the same six prison priors that Bates also admitted in this case. With respect to the convictions obtained in this case, the trial court sentenced Bates to 16 months in prison and stayed the execution of the six year sentence arising from the same prison priors for which it had imposed a six-year sentence in case SCD178150.
Bates argues (1) that the trial court abused the discretion given to it under Evidence Code section 352 by admitting evidence concerning Bates's plan to disrupt the court proceedings by using his feces as distraction in order to grab an officer's gun and try to shoot his attorney and the trial judge; (2) that the prosecutor committed misconduct by making improper statements during her closing argument; and (3) that the trial court erred by staying execution of Bates's six-year sentence for his prison priors in this case rather than either striking the sentence or imposing it.
Court conclude (1) that that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence of Bates's planned courtroom disruption, and (2) that Bates's arguments regarding prosecutorial misconduct lack merit. However, we conclude that the trial court did err by staying execution of the six-year sentence for Bates's prison priors rather than imposing the sentence or exercising its discretion to strike it. Accordingly, Court vacate the portion of the trial court's judgment staying the execution of that part of Bates's sentence, and Court remand for the trial court to determine whether to impose the six year sentence or to exercise its discretion to strike it.
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