P. v. Brooks CA1/1
A jury convicted appellant Marcel Brooks of conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder of his 11-month-old son. On appeal, Brooks argued that the trial court abused its discretion by (1) denying his two motions to replace his appointed attorney; (2) admitting jail letters from Brooks to his co-conspirator Andanna Ibe that contained sexually explicit statements; and (3) admitting a police sergeant’s testimony related to song lyrics contained in another jail letter from Brooks to Ibe. We rejected those claims in our original opinion.
The California Supreme Court granted review and transferred the matter back to us with directions to vacate our decision and reconsider the cause in light of Assembly Bill No. 518 (2021–2022 Reg Sess.) (Stats. 2021, ch. 441, § 1) (Assembly Bill No. 518), which recently amended Penal Code section 654 to afford trial courts discretion to impose a lesser sentence.
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