P. v. Contreras
Defendant Ismael Contreras and Ronnie Padilla were jointly charged in the second amended information with attempted premeditated murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Each count had allegations that each defendant personally inflicted great bodily harm and committed the offense to promote a criminal street gang. Padilla alone was charged with eleven additional gun- and gang-related crimes. A jury convicted defendant—and Padilla—on the two jointly-charged counts, for which defendant was sentenced to an aggregate term of 18 years to life. (Padilla was convicted as charged on 11 of the charges against him, acquitted on one, and found guilty of a lesser included offense on the last.)
After the first consolidated information was filed, which had the two joint charges and only ten separate charges against Padilla, defendant moved to sever trial on the joint charges. The obvious ground for the motion was that the two jointly-charged offenses were alleged to have occurred on October 3, 2006, but the remaining counts against Padilla involved offenses for November 12, 2005, December 31, 2005, and March 26, 2008. Immediately after granting the prosecution’s motion to amend the information with the final charge against Padilla, the trial court denied defendant’s severance motion, as follows:
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