People v. Magana CA2/2 ( 2024 )

Filed 9/3/24 P. v. Magana CA2/2
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions
not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion
has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION TWO
THE PEOPLE, B332105
Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County
Super. Ct. No. BA129512)
v.
JOSE MAGANA,
Defendant and Appellant.
APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of
Los Angeles County. Lisa B. Lench, Judge. Affirmed.
James Koester, under appointment by the Court of Appeal,
for Defendant and Appellant.
Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief
Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Assistant
Attorney General, Steven D. Matthews and J. Michael Lehmann,
Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
____________________
In 1996, defendant and appellant Jose Magana was
convicted of second degree murder. (Pen. Code, § 187.)1 He was
sentenced to 16 years to life in state prison. Defendant appealed
his conviction, and on October 29, 1997, we affirmed the
judgment. (People v. Magana (Oct. 29, 1997, B106669) [nonpub.
opn.] (Magana I).)
On January 31, 2019, defendant filed a petition for
resentencing under section 1172.6.2 The trial court summarily
denied his petition. Defendant appealed, and on June 2, 2020, we
affirmed the trial court’s order. (People v. Magana (June 2, 2020,
B297514) [nonpub. opn.] (Magana II).) As relevant to the issues
in this appeal, we rejected defendant’s argument that “because
the jurors were instructed with CALJIC No. 3.00, which contains
the misleading phrase ‘equally guilty,’ they could have found
defendant guilty of murder based only upon the direct
perpetrator’s malice, rather than his own.” (Magana II, supra,
B297514.)
On February 15, 2023, defendant filed a second petition for
resentencing. After the appointment of counsel, briefing from the
parties, and a hearing, the trial court denied the petition.
Defendant timely appealed. Relying upon the passage of Senate
Bill No. 775 (2021-2022 Reg. Sess.), he argues that the trial
court’s instruction pursuant to CALJIC No. 3.00 “afforded the
jurors an avenue to convict [defendant] as a direct aider and
abettor through the imputation of the direct perpetrator’s
malice.”
1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code
unless otherwise indicated.
2 Defendant actually filed his petition pursuant to section
1170.95. Effective June 30, 2022, section 1170.95 was
renumbered section 1172.6, with no change in text (Stats. 2022,
ch. 58, § 10). For simplicity, we refer to the section by its new
numbering.
2
We are not convinced by defendant’s argument.
Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s order.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
“On June 25, 1995, Miguel Garcia dropped Alex Campos off
at Alex’s house, and rode his bicycle to his house two blocks away
to get a sweater. Alex’s house was in a territory claimed by the
Primera Flats street gang. Alex’s brother, Julio Campos, was
outside the house when Alex arrived home. Alex went across the
street with his friends, and Julio went inside the house. Alex’s
sister Juana was on her way home from a friend’s house when
she saw Alex approach a black car that had just passed her.
Miguel returned to the house at that time, and the black car
passed him. He noticed that the car pulled up by Alex. Miguel
saw that the driver was an overweight, bald, Hispanic man. The
passenger asked Alex, ‘Where are you from?’ Alex answered, and
the passenger took a gun out and shot him. Alex instinctively
raised his hands, and tried to run. Alex fell to the ground, and
the passenger continued to shoot him. The firing stopped and the
vehicle sped away. Alex was mortally wounded. Juana Campos
and Veronica Gudino also witnessed the shooting. Veronica
covered Alex after the shooting, felt for a pulse, and told people to
call the police.
“Miguel and Juana identified the shooter as Miguel Funes
[(Funes)]. Juana identified [defendant] as the driver.
“Police officers interviewed [defendant], who stated that on
June 25, 1995, he was with a couple of friends, including Miguel
Funes. Someone asked [defendant] to get the neighborhood gun.
He went into his house and retrieved it. Funes took possession of
the gun and they decided to drive around. They saw someone on
a bicycle, and approached him and another young man standing
near him. They asked the man without the bicycle where he was
from, and when he replied he was from Primera Flats, Funes shot
3
him approximately six times. They drove away, and [defendant]
dropped off Funes at home. [Defendant] stated that he did not
know Funes was going to shoot anybody.
“Officer Daniel Jaramillo testified that the Al Capone gang
occupied a small area within the housing projects and was
surrounded by the Primera Flats street gang, which began
infringing on the Al Capone territory in the 1990’s. The rivalry
between the two gangs resulted in physical altercations and
shootings. Jaramillo testified that he had witnessed Al Capone
gang members commit a drive-by shooting of a Primera Flats
gang member. He also investigated a second shooting of a
Primera Flats gang member by an Al Capone gang member. He
testified that when a gang member asks, ‘Where are you from?’
he is issuing a challenge. The answer could result in no incident,
an altercation, or a shooting. Officer Jaramillo came into contact
with [defendant] in 1993, when he claimed to be a member of the
Al Capone gang.
“Julio was able to identify the vehicle used in the shooting.
At trial, Julio testified that a few weeks prior to his brother’s
murder, the same vehicle had approached him while he was
riding his bicycle. After asking him where he was from, the
occupant tried to shoot him with a shotgun, but the gun did not
go off.
“[Defendant] testified that he belonged to the Al Capone
gang for seven or eight years previous to the shooting. A few
days before the shooting, Funes came to [defendant’s] house and
asked him to keep a gun for him. On June 25, 1995, Funes
visited [defendant], asked for the gun, and asked for a ride.
When [defendant] gave the gun to Funes, it was unloaded. Even
though at trial he stated that he was concerned that Funes had a
gun in his car, he did not protest when Funes wanted to cruise in
his car with a gun. Indeed, he stated he wanted to be part of the
4
gang, and allowed people to ride in his car who he knew were
carrying guns. He also testified that he was aware that his gang
committed drive-bys and shot people. He knew that there was a
war going on between the Al Capone gang and Primera Flats
gang, and that Al Capone gang members had shot or tried to
shoot members of Primera Flats gang. [Defendant] and Funes
were cruising when they saw Alex and Miguel. [Defendant]
stopped the car near them. Funes asked Alex where he was from,
and when Alex answered ‘Flats,’ he shot him. [Defendant]
testified that he was not aware that Funes was going to shoot.
However, he waited until Funes was finished shooting, then sped
away from the scene and drove Funes home.” (Magana I, supra,
B106669.)
DISCUSSION
Defendant urges us to “conclude that cases in which the
jurors were instructed with the ‘equally guilty’ language as
contained within then CALJIC No. 3.00 should be included
within the legislative concerns that underlie [Senate Bill Nos.]
1437 and . . . 775 and are not categorically excluded from Penal
Code section 1172.6 resentencing consideration simply because
the jurors were not instructed on either a felony murder or
natural and probable consequences doctrine.”
I. Relevant law
The Legislature enacted Senate Bill No. 1437 (2017-2018
Reg. Sess.) in 2018, effectively abolishing the natural and
probable consequences doctrine in cases of murder and limiting
the application of the felony murder doctrine. (Stats. 2018,
ch. 1015, § 1, subd. (f); People v. Lewis (2021) 11 Cal.5th 952,
957.) With one narrow exception (§ 189, subd. (f)), the legislation
bars murder convictions premised on any theory of imputed
malice—that is, any theory by which a person can be convicted of
murder for a killing committed by someone else—unless the
5
People also prove that the nonkiller defendant personally acted
with the intent to kill or was a major participant who acted with
reckless disregard for human life. (§§ 188, subd. (a)(3) & 189,
subd. (e); People v. Gentile (2020) 10 Cal.5th 830, 842–843,
superseded by statute on other grounds as explained in People v.
Wilson (2023) 14 Cal.5th 839, 869.)
“Section 1172.6 expressly states that its resentencing
provisions apply only where the ‘petitioner could not presently be
convicted of murder or attempted murder because of changes to
Section 188 or 189.’ [Citation.]” (People v. Garcia (2023)
93 Cal.App.5th 416, 424.) In other words, a petitioner is not
entitled to resentencing if he could be convicted under still valid
theories of murder. (See, e.g., People v. Vizcarra (2022)
84 Cal.App.5th 377, 392.)
Senate Bill No. 1437 also created section 1172.6, which
“provides a mechanism whereby people ‘who believe they were
convicted of murder for an act that no longer qualifies as murder
following the crime’s redefinition . . . may seek vacatur of their
. . . conviction and resentencing by filing a petition in the trial
court.’ [Citation.]” (People v. Arnold (2023) 93 Cal.App.5th 376,
382.)
Effective January 1, 2022, Senate Bill No. 775 amended
section 1172.6 to broaden the eligibility pool of those entitled to
resentencing. (§ 1172.6, subd. (a); People v. Saibu (2022)
81 Cal.App.5th 709, 747; People v. Vizcarra, supra,
84 Cal.App.5th at p. 388.) Those eligible for relief now include
persons convicted of murder under any “theory under which
malice is imputed to a person based solely on that person’s
participation in a crime.” (§ 1172.6, subd. (a).)
II. The trial court did not err
Applying these legal principles, we conclude that the trial
court correctly denied defendant’s petition for resentencing.
6
While we agree that Senate Bill No. 775 expanded the scope of
section 1172.6 relief, it is not so broad as to include situations
such as the instant one—where the jury was not instructed on a
theory that would have allowed the jury to impute Funes’s malice
to defendant. In other words, defendant is ineligible for relief
because his jury was not instructed on any theory of imputed
malice.
Relying upon People v. McCoy (2001) 25 Cal.4th 1111, 1122,
People v. Samaniego (2009) 172 Cal.App.4th 1148, 1164–1165,
and People v. Nero (2010) 181 Cal.App.4th 504, 518 (Nero),
defendant contends that the CALJIC No. 3.003 “constructively
allowed the jurors to convict” him by imputing malice.
We are not convinced. (See People v. Burns (2023)
95 Cal.App.5th 862, 865, 868–869.) For the reasons set forth in
Magana II, defendant shared the actual perpetrator’s (Funes)
intent: He gave Funes a gun and drove around with him in a
rival gang territory in the midst of a gang war; he knew that
Funes was going to shoot someone.4 (Magana II, supra,
B297514.)
Furthermore, as we noted in Magana II, “while the phrase
‘equally guilty’ in CALJIC No. 3.00 might be misleading and
confusing in certain cases (Nero, supra, 181 Cal.App.4th at
p. 518), there is no indication that the jury here was confused and
3 That instruction provided: “The persons concerned in the
[commission] of a crime who are regarded by law as principals in
the crime thus [committed] and equally guilty therefore include:
[¶] 1. Those who directly and actively [commit] the act
constituting the crime, or [¶] 2. Those who aid and abet the
[commission] of the crime.” (Magana II, supra, B297514.)
4 Defendant’s claim is also barred by the doctrine of law of
the case for the same reasons set forth in Magana II, supra,
B297514.
7
mistakenly convicted defendant based upon the shooter’s, as
opposed to his own, malice. After all, the jury was also instructed
with CALJIC No. 3.01. (Magana I, supra, B106669.) Any
potential misdirection in CALJIC No. 3.00 was cured by CALJIC
No. 3.01’s clear requirement of what the jury must find in order
to convict defendant as an aider and abettor. (People v. Amezcua
& Flores (2019) 6 Cal.5th 886, 917–919.)” (Magana II, supra,
B297514.) Reading CALJIC No. 3.00 “in the context of the
instructions and record as a whole” (People v. Vang (2022)
82 Cal.App.5th 64, 84), it is clear that the jury found that
defendant personally possessed a particular mental state—
specifically, knowledge of the unlawful purpose of the shooter and
the specific intent to encourage or facilitate the killing—to find
him guilty of murder. (See People v. Johnson (2016) 62 Cal.4th
600, 638, 640–641.)
DISPOSITION
The order is affirmed.
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS.
_______________________, Acting P. J.
ASHMANN-GERST
We concur:
________________________, J.
CHAVEZ
________________________, J.
HOFFSTADT
8