P. v. Montes
In 1999, Appellant Juan Alexander Montes was convicted of attempted murder, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, exhibiting a firearm, street terrorism, and attendant firearm use and gang enhancements. He was sentenced to 30 years to life imprisonment. He appealed his conviction and we affirmed the judgment against him.
In December 2012, he filed in superior court a petition to recall his sentence on the basis that newly-enacted Penal Code section 1170.126 required a new and lesser sentence for his crimes.[1] The petition was denied and he appealed.
We appointed counsel to represent him on that appeal. Counsel filed a brief which set forth the facts of the case. Counsel did not argue against his client, but advised the trial court he could find no issues to argue on appellant’s behalf. Montes was invited to express his own objections to the proceedings against him, but did not. Under the law, this put the onus on us to review the record and see if we could find any issues that might result in some kind of amelioration of Montes’ lot. (People v. Wende (1979) 25 Cal.3d 436.) It should be emphasized that our search was not for issues upon which Montes would prevail, but only issues upon which he might possibly prevail.
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