People v. Berry-Vierwinden ( 2023 )

Filed 12/6/23
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION ONE
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
THE PEOPLE, D081861
Plaintiff and Respondent,
v. (Super. Ct. No. RIF121073)
RYAN BERRY-VIERWINDEN,
Defendant and Appellant.
APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Riverside County,
John D. Molloy, Judge. Affirmed.
Eric R. Larson, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for
Defendant and Appellant.
Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant
Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Assistant Attorney General, Junichi
P. Semitsu, Alan Amann and Eric A. Swenson, Deputy Attorneys General, for
Plaintiff and Respondent.
Ryan Berry-Vierwinden appeals from an order denying his petition for
resentencing on a 2010 first degree murder conviction under Penal Code
section 1172.6.1 Relying on the holding of People v. Maldonado (2023) 87
Cal.App.5th 1257 (Maldonado), he argues that he is eligible for relief because
the instructions given at trial permitted the jury to convict him of first
degree, lying-in-wait murder by imputing malice to him “based solely on [his]
participation in a crime.” (§ 1172.6, subd. (a).) Under our more recent
decisions in People v. Burns (2023) 95 Cal.App.5th 862 (Burns) and People v.
Flores (2023) 96 Cal.App.5th 1164 (Flores), we conclude that the trial court
correctly denied relief at the prima facie stage because Berry-Vierwinden’s
claim of instructional error fails to establish that he “could not presently be
convicted of murder or attempted murder because of changes to Section 188
or 189 made effective January 1, 2019” by Senate Bill No. 1437 (2017–2018
Reg. Sess.) (Senate Bill No. 1437). (§ 1172.6, subd. (a)(3), italics added.)
Accordingly, we affirm the order.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND2
The Killing
In early December 2004, the victim Krishana F. was staying at a
Comfort Inn hotel with several friends and acquaintances, including Berry-
1 Penal Code section 1172.6 was originally enacted as Penal Code section
1170.95, but then renumbered as section 1172.6 on June 30, 2022. (See
Stats. 2022, ch. 58, § 10 (Assem. Bill No. 200).) We refer to the subject
statute by its current number throughout this opinion. All further statutory
references are to the Penal Code.
2 We previously granted appellant’s unopposed request for judicial notice
of the appellate record from his direct appeal. (People v. Berry-Vierwinden
(Nov. 27, 2012, D059670) [nonpub. opn.]) On our own motion, we also take
judicial notice of the opinion from the direct appeal. (Evid. Code, §§ 452,
459.) We take our factual summary of the trial evidence from our prior
opinion on direct appeal, but we have independently confirmed that it is an
accurate summary of the record.
2
Vierwinden and Benjamin Medina. Medina was a gang member who was
known to carry a gun. Krishana asked Medina for permission to use a stolen
Lincoln Navigator in the group’s possession, but Medina refused. Krishana
decided to use the vehicle anyway.
Medina was upset with Krishana and felt she had been “disrespectful.”
He told Berry-Vierwinden that he wanted to “just do her or blast her,” which
meant to kill her. Medina and Berry-Vierwinden agreed that when Krishana
returned to the hotel, Berry-Vierwinden would go to her room to retrieve the
Navigator keys. Berry-Vierwinden was friends with Krishana, and they
believed she would hand over the keys more easily to him. Their plan was for
Berry-Vierwinden to “chirp” Medina on a two-way radio to come to Krishana’s
hotel room after he retrieved the keys. Berry-Vierwinden later told the police
that he expected Medina to “tune her up or hit her or something” and he
“brushed” off Medina’s earlier statement that he wanted to kill Krishana as
“small talk.”
Around 3:00 a.m. on December 3, Krishana returned to the hotel in the
stolen vehicle and went to her room. Berry-Vierwinden went to Krishana’s
room and retrieved the Navigator keys from a nightstand. Medina then
received a “chirp” and joined Berry-Vierwinden in Krishana’s room. After
arguing with Krishana, Medina hit her on the head with a handgun, causing
her to fall onto the bed. Medina then sat on her stomach and strangled her
for about three minutes until she was dead. At Medina’s direction,
Berry-Vierwinden placed Krishana’s body into some garbage bags, then they
disposed of her body in an orange grove. Several days later, Medina and
Berry-Vierwinden returned to the orange grove and burned Krishana’s body.
On December 14, a worker found Krishana’s burned body in the orange
grove.
3
Trial and Conviction
Berry-Vierwinden was charged with murder on the theory that he
aided and abetted Medina in the killing, and that the murder was first degree
because it was committed by means of lying in wait. (§§ 187, 189.) He was
tried separately from Medina. At his trial, the prosecution’s theory was that
he and Medina formulated and put into action a plan to murder Krishana by
means of lying in wait. The defense theory was that the only plan was for
Berry-Vierwinden to retrieve the Navigator keys from Krishana, and that
Medina on his own decided to kill Krishana.
The trial court instructed the jury with CALCRIM Nos. 400 and 401
on direct aiding and abetting liability, but did not give CALCRIM Nos. 402 or
403 on the natural and probable consequences theory of aiding and abetting.3
CALCRIM No. 400 stated:
“A person may be guilty of a crime in two ways. One, he
may have directly committed the crime. I will call that
person the perpetrator. Two, he may have aided and
abetted a perpetrator, who directly committed the crime. A
person is equally guilty of the crime whether he committed
it personally or aided and abetted the perpetrator who
committed it.
“Under some specific circumstances, if the evidence
establishes aiding and abetting of one crime, a person may
also be found guilty of other crimes that occurred during
the commission of the first crime.”
3 California law recognizes two forms of liability for aiders and abettors:
(1) directly aiding and abetting the perpetrator’s commission of a target
offense; or (2) the natural and probable consequences doctrine, which imposes
liability on a defendant for a nontarget offense committed by an accomplice
as a natural and probable consequence of the target offense the defendant
directly aided and abetted. (People v. Gentile (2020) 10 Cal.5th 830, 843–844
(Gentile).) Senate Bill No. 1437 eliminated the latter theory of liability for
murder, but not the former. (Gentile, at pp. 846–848.)
4
CALCRIM No. 401 stated in relevant part:
“To prove that the defendant is guilty of a crime based on
aiding and abetting that crime, the People must prove that:
“1. The perpetrator committed the crime;
“2. The defendant knew that the perpetrator intended to
commit the crime;
“3. Before or during the commission of the crime, the
defendant intended to aid and abet the perpetrator in
committing the crime;
“AND
“4. The defendant’s words or conduct did in fact aid and
abet the perpetrator’s commission of the crime.
“Someone aids and abets a crime if he knows of the
perpetrator’s unlawful purpose and he specifically intends
to, and does in fact, aid, facilitate, promote, encourage, or
instigate the perpetrator’s commission of that crime.”
The court also gave a modified version of CALCRIM No. 520 on murder
with malice aforethought. The modifications revised the opening paragraph
to refer to aiding and abetting liability and substituted generic language
referring to “a person” or “the person who killed” in place of “the defendant”
in subsequent paragraphs. As so modified, the instruction stated in relevant
part:
“The defendant is charged in Count 1 with murder in
violation of Penal Code section 187.
“To prove that the defendant is guilty of this crime, the
People must prove that he aided and abetted:
5
“1. A person who committed an act that caused the death
of another person;
“AND
“2. When that person acted, he had a state of mind called
malice aforethought.
“There are two kinds of malice aforethought, express malice
and implied malice. Proof of either is sufficient to establish
the state of mind required for murder.
“The person who killed acted with express malice if he
unlawfully intended to kill.
“The person who killed acted with implied malice if:
“1. He intentionally committed an act;
“2. The natural and probable consequences of the act were
dangerous to human life.
“3. At the time he acted, he knew his act was dangerous to
human life;
“AND
“4. He deliberately acted with conscious disregard for
human life.”
The court further instructed the jury with a modified version of
CALCRIM No. 521 on first degree murder by lying in wait. The court did not
instruct on any other theory of first degree murder. The modifications to
CALCRIM No. 521 similarly revised the instruction to refer to aiding and
abetting liability and substituted “a person” for “the defendant.” As modified,
the instruction stated in relevant part:
6
“If you decide that the defendant has committed murder,
you must decide whether it is murder of the first or second
degree.
“The defendant is guilty of first degree murder if the People
proved that the defendant aided and abetted the murder of
Krishana [F.] while lying in wait or immediately thereafter.
A murder is committed by lying in wait if:
“1. A person concealed his purpose from the person killed;
“2. A person waited and watched for an opportunity to act;
“AND
“3. Then, from a position of advantage, a person who killed
intended to and did make a surprise attack on the person
killed.
“[¶] . . . [¶]
“All other murders are of the second degree.”
The jury convicted Berry-Vierwinden of first degree murder. The court
sentenced him to 25 years to life in prison.
Direct Appeal
We affirmed the judgment on direct appeal. (People v.
Berry-Vierwinden, supra, D059670.) We agreed with Berry-Vierwinden that
the trial court should not have given the “equally guilty” language of
CALCRIM No. 400 or the last sentence of this instruction stating that
“[u]nder some specific circumstances,” an aider and abetter of one crime “may
also be found guilty of other crimes that occurred during the commission of
7
the first crime.”4 However, we concluded that when considered as a whole,
the instructions correctly informed the jury that to convict Berry-Vierwinden
of first degree murder, it had to find he knew about and intended to assist
Medina’s intent to commit a murder by lying in wait. (Id. at **6–10.) We
also found that the trial court’s modifications of CALCRIM Nos. 520 and 521
did not “allow[] the jury to find [Berry-Vierwinden] guilty based on Medina’s
state of mind and/or conduct rather than his own” because “the jury was
properly instructed in a manner that told them that defendant was guilty of
murder committed by Medina only if defendant knew about, wanted to assist,
and did assist Medina’s murderous conduct.” (Id. at *10.)
Section 1172.6 Petition and Ruling
In December 2022, Berry-Vierwinden filed a pro per petition for
resentencing under section 1172.6, alleging that he was eligible for relief
under amendments to the law made by Senate Bill No. 775 (2021-2022 Reg.
Sess.). Specifically, he asserted that “[a]lthough [he] was not tried under
felony murder or the natural and probable consequences doctrine, he was
4 This “equally guilty” language has since been eliminated from
CALCRIM No. 400. The last bracketed sentence of CALCRIM No. 400 is
designed to be given only when the court also gives CALCRIM No. 402 or 403
on the natural and probable consequences doctrine. (See People v. Estrada
(2022) 77 Cal.App.5th 941, 945–949 [section 1172.6 petitioner ineligible for
relief as a matter of law even though trial court gave last sentence of
CALCRIM No. 400 at trial because court did not give CALCRIM No. 402 or
403 and the instructions taken as a whole did not permit conviction on
natural and probable consequences theory].)
8
convicted under a theory of aiding and abetting, and malice was imputed
based solely on his participation in a crime.”5
On February 24, 2023, the trial court relieved the public defender and
appointed counsel for Berry-Vierwinden. At a hearing held the same day,
counsel on both sides agreed that the trial judge gave no jury instructions on
either felony murder or the natural and probable consequences doctrine at
trial. Based on this agreement, the court denied the petition at the prima
facie stage.
DISCUSSION
The sole issue before us is whether the trial court erred by denying the
section 1172.6 petition at the prima facie stage. We independently review an
order denying section 1172.6 relief at the prima facie stage. (People v. Patton
(2023) 89 Cal.App.5th 649, 656.)
A. Governing Law
Effective January 1, 2019, Senate Bill No. 1437 significantly limited
the scope of California’s felony murder rule and eliminated liability for
murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine through two
key provisions. (Stats. 2018, ch. 1015, § 1, subd. (f); see People v. Strong
(2022) 13 Cal.5th 698, 707–708 (Strong).) First, Senate Bill No. 1437
amended section 189 so that “[d]efendants who were neither actual killers
nor acted with the intent to kill can be held liable for [felony] murder only if
5 Berry-Vierwinden filed a prior section 1172.6 petition in 2019, before
the statute was expanded to cover not only felony murder and the natural
and probable consequences doctrine, but also any “other theory under which
malice is imputed to a person based solely on that person’s participation in a
crime.” (§ 1172.6, subd. (a).) After the trial court summarily denied his first
petition because he was not convicted on either a felony murder or natural
and probable consequences theory, we affirmed. (People v. Berry-Vierwinden
(July 15, 2020, D077327) [nonpub. opn.].)
9
they were ‘major participant[s] in the underlying felony and acted with
reckless indifference to human life[.]’ ” (Strong, at p. 708, quoting § 189,
subd. (e)(3).) Second, it amended section 188 to provide that, when the
felony-murder rule does not apply, a principal in the crime of murder can
only be convicted where he or she acted “with malice aforethought,” and
“[m]alice shall not be imputed to a person based solely on his or her
participation in a crime.” (§ 188, subd. (a)(3); see Gentile, supra, 10 Cal.5th
at pp. 842–843.)
Senate Bill No. 1437 also established a new procedure to allow
defendants who could not have been convicted under current law to petition
the sentencing court to vacate their murder conviction and resentence them
on any remaining counts. (See § 1172.6, subd. (a); Strong, supra, 13 Cal.5th
at p. 708.) The process begins with the filing of a petition containing a
declaration that all requirements for eligibility are met. (See § 1172.6,
subd. (b)(1); Strong, at p. 708.) If the defendant’s petition is facially valid, the
trial court is permitted to examine the record of conviction after appointing
counsel to assess whether it refutes the petitioner’s claim of eligibility.
(People v. Lewis (2021) 11 Cal.5th 952, 970–972 (Lewis).) Under section
1172.6, subdivision (c), the court may deny the petition at the prima facie
stage if the record of conviction discloses that the petitioner is ineligible for
relief as a matter of law. (Lewis, at pp. 960, 971.) Otherwise, the court must
issue an order to show cause and hold an evidentiary hearing under
section 1172.6, subdivision (d) to determine whether to vacate the murder
conviction, recall the sentence, and resentence the petitioner on any
remaining counts. (Id. at p. 960.)
10
One of the requirements for the prima facie showing is that the
petitioner “could not presently be convicted of murder or attempted murder
because of changes to Section 188 or 189” made by Senate Bill No. 1437.
(§ 1172.6, subd. (a)(3).) Accordingly, a court may deny the petition at the
prima facie stage if the record of conviction conclusively establishes that the
petitioner was convicted on a theory not affected by Senate Bill No. 1437.
(See, e.g., People v. Williams (2022) 86 Cal.App.5th 1244, 1257–1258; People
v. Harden (2022) 81 Cal.App.5th 45, 47–48, 59–60.)
Effective January 1, 2022, Senate Bill No. 775 (2020–2021 Reg. Sess.)
(Senate Bill No. 775) amended section 1172.6. As relevant here, the
amendment expanded eligibility for resentencing to include not only those
convicted of felony murder or murder under the natural and probable
consequences doctrine, but also those convicted of murder under any “other
theory under which malice is imputed to a person based solely on that
person’s participation in a crime.” (§ 1172.6, subd. (a).)
Senate Bill No. 775 further clarified the governing procedures for the
prima facie hearing under section 1172.6, subdivision (c) and the evidentiary
hearing under subdivision (d). For a petition satisfying the basic pleading
requirements, the court must appoint counsel, permit briefing, and conduct
an initial hearing under subdivision (c) to determine whether the petitioner
has made a prima facie case for relief, and if so, issue an order to show cause.
(§ 1172.6, subds. (b)(3), (c).) After issuance of an order to show cause, the
court must conduct an evidentiary hearing under subdivision (d) to determine
whether the petitioner is entitled to relief. At the evidentiary hearing, the
burden is “on the prosecution to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the
petitioner is guilty of murder” under California law as amended by Senate
Bill No. 1437. (§ 1172.6, subd. (d).)
11
B. The Record Establishes as a Matter of Law that Berry-Vierwinden is
Ineligible for Relief
The trial court denied Berry-Vierwinden’s petition at the prima facie
stage. In his petition, Berry-Vierwinden conceded he was “not tried under
felony murder or the natural and probable consequences doctrine.” However,
Berry-Vierwinden argues that he is eligible for relief because the instructions
given at trial permitted the jury to convict him of first degree murder by
imputing malice to him “based solely on [his] participation in a crime.”
(§ 1172.6, subd. (a).) In support, Berry-Vierwinden relies on the First
District’s decision in Maldonado. Based on our subsequent decisions in
Burns and Flores, we conclude that Berry-Vierwinden is ineligible for relief
as a matter of law under section 1172.6, subdivision (a)(3).
In Maldonado, as in this case, the defendant was convicted of first
degree murder by means of lying in wait. After the trial court denied his
petition for relief under section 1172.6 at the prima facie stage, the Court of
Appeal reversed. Based on the standard CALCRIM instructions given at
trial on aiding and abetting (CALCRIM No. 401), implied malice (CALCRIM
No. 520), and lying-in-wait murder (CALCRIM No. 521), the court concluded
that the jury instructions were ambiguous and permitted a conviction of
murder based on a theory of imputed malice. (Maldonado, supra,
87 Cal.App.5th at pp. 1264–1267.) Although the court acknowledged that
“the jury was not required to construe the instructions in this manner,” it
concluded that Maldonado was eligible for relief because the jury could
reasonably have done so. (Id. at pp. 1266–1267.)
Maldonado relied on the prior decisions in People v. Powell (2021) 63
Cal.App.5th 689 (Powell) and People v. Langi (2022) 73 Cal.App.5th 972(Langi). In Powell, a direct appeal, the court ruled that CALCRIM No. 401
12
on direct aiding and abetting liability was “not tailored” for aiding and
abetting a second degree implied malice murder, because it did not make
clear that the aider and abettor must “intend the commission of the
perpetrator’s act, the natural and probable consequences of which are
dangerous to human life, intentionally aid in the commission of that act and
do so with conscious disregard for human life.” (Powell, at p. 714.) In Langi,
the court extended this holding to a section 1172.6 proceeding and concluded
that the instructional error identified in Powell permitted the jury to convict
the defendant of aiding and abetting a second degree murder on a theory of
imputed malice, making him eligible for relief under the statute as amended
by Senate Bill No. 775. (Langi, at pp. 978–984.) Maldonado in turn found
that, because first degree murder by lying in wait may also be based on
implied malice, the reasoning of Langi similarly applied to a conviction of
aiding and abetting first degree murder by lying in wait under CALCRIM
Nos. 401, 520, and 521. (Maldonado, supra, 87 Cal.App.5th at p. 1266.)
Berry-Vierwinden argues that Maldonado applies here because the
trial court gave the same combination of jury instructions on aiding and
abetting a lying-in-wait murder. He asserts that, as in Maldonado, these
instructions permitted the jury to convict him of aiding and abetting a
lying-in-wait murder by imputing malice to him based solely on his
participation in a crime. He further argues that this error was exacerbated
by the alleged instructional errors he previously raised on direct appeal: (1)
the court’s modifications of CALCRIM Nos. 520 and 521 to cover aiding and
abetting liability; (2) the “equally guilty” language of CALCRIM No. 400; and
(3) the last sentence of CALCRIM No. 400.
13
After the court’s decision in Maldonado, we issued our decision in
Burns.6 In Burns, a section 1172.6 petitioner convicted of murder argued
that he was entitled to relief because the “equally guilty” language of former
CALCRIM No. 400 given at his trial allegedly allowed the jury to convict him
as an aider and abettor on a theory of imputed malice. (Burns, supra, 95
Cal.App.5th at pp. 865–866.) We found that even if Burns was correct about
the flaw in this instruction, he was still not eligible for relief because “the
alleged error he identifies has nothing to do with the 2018 and 2021
legislative changes that gave rise to section 1172.6’s petition process.” (Id. at
p. 865.) We based our decision on subdivision (a)(3) of the statute, which
requires the petitioner to establish that he “ ‘could not presently be convicted
of murder or attempted murder because of changes to Section 188 or 189
made effective January 1, 2019.’ ” (Burns, at p. 867 [quoting § 1172.6,
subd. (a)(3)].) We concluded that the statute “was designed to permit the
resentencing of defendants who were properly convicted under the law that
applied at the time, but ‘could no longer be convicted of murder’ because of
recent legislative changes.” (Ibid.) “A [section 1172.6] petition thus
supplements a defendant’s traditional direct appeal by providing an
opportunity to make arguments that did not exist at the time of the appeal,
but have arisen since 2019 as a result of recent statutory amendments.”
(Ibid.)
We further concluded that the instructional error identified by Burns
had “nothing to do with the legislative changes to California’s murder law
effected by Senate Bill No. 1437 . . . and Senate Bill No. 775.” (Burns, supra,
95 Cal.App.5th at p. 867.) In fact, the case law Burns relied on to challenge
6 We requested and received supplemental briefing from the parties on
the effect of our decision in Burns.
14
CALCRIM No. 400 “was decided well before the jury verdict in his trial.”
(Burns, at p. 867.) “The problem with the ‘equally guilty’ language in former
CALCRIM No. 400 was not that it permitted the jury to rely on a now-invalid
theory of criminal liability, but that it may have misled the jury as to what
was then required to convict Burns.” (Id. at p. 868.) This “created a potential
issue of instructional error, but it did not operate to offer the jury a theory of
legal liability that can no longer support a conviction for murder as a result of
the recent statutory changes.” (Id. at pp. 868–869.) Burns “had every basis
and opportunity to raise that issue on his direct appeal.” (Id. at p. 869.)
In a footnote, we also addressed Burns’s reliance on Maldonado and
Langi. We distinguished those cases on two grounds. First, in both cases,
“the defendant’s trial and direct appeal took place before there was any
suggestion in the case law that there was a problem with the applicable jury
instructions.” (Burns, supra, 95 Cal.App.5th at p. 868, fn. 7.) Second, there
was no “indication the opinions considered the effect of the language in
subdivision (a)(3) of section 1172.6 requiring that defendant show they can no
longer be convicted ‘because of’ the recent legislative changes.” (Ibid.)
In a separate footnote, we also distinguished the section 1172.6 holding
of People v. Lee (2023) 95 Cal.App.5th 1164, which involved a prior conviction
of murder under the provocative act doctrine. We noted that in Lee, “the law
in effect at the time of the defendant’s conviction in 1994 ‘did not require the
jury to find that [he] personally acted with malice’ ” and “it was not until a
Supreme Court decision 15 years later that the law was clarified. . . . Thus,
the defendant had no reasonable opportunity on direct appeal to raise any
claim of error.” (Burns, supra, 95 Cal.App.5th at p. 868, fn. 8.)
We later applied the holding of Burns in Flores. In Flores, the
petitioner argued that the jury instructions given at his 2010 trial allowed
15
the jury to convict him of provocative act murder based on a theory of
imputed malice, namely, that he aided and abetted his accomplice’s
provocative act without himself acting with malice. (Flores, supra, 96
Cal.App.5th at p. 1170.) We concluded that when Flores was convicted in
2010, the law already required that an aider and abettor of a provocative act
murder must personally harbor malice. (Id. at pp. 1173–1174 & fn. 4.)
Flores’s claim that he could have been convicted on a theory of imputed
malice was therefore “a routine claim of instructional error” that “could have
been asserted on appeal from the judgment of conviction.” (Id. at p. 1173.)
Relying on Burns, we concluded that Flores therefore failed to satisfy the
prima facie requirement that he “could not presently be convicted of murder
or attempted murder because of changes to Section 188 or 189 made effective
January 1, 2019.” (§ 1172.6, subd. (a)(3), italics added.)
Notwithstanding Maldonado, we conclude that the holdings of Burns
and Flores apply here. To establish a prima facie case for relief,
Berry-Vierwinden was required to demonstrate that he could not presently be
convicted of murder “because of” the “changes” made by Senate Bill No. 1437.
(§ 1172.6, subd. (a)(3).) “The ‘changes’ described in section 1172.6,
subdivision (a)(3) plainly refer to the substantive amendments to sections 188
and 189 that were enacted along with the resentencing provisions in Senate
Bill 1437.” (People v. Curiel (Nov. 17, 2023) ___ Cal.5th ___, 2023 Cal. LEXIS
6622, at *48; see also Strong, supra, 13 Cal.5th at p. 712 [construing “because
of changes” language of subdivision (a)(3) to require “that the 2019 changes
supply a basis for the claim”].)
As in Burns and Flores, the instructional errors Berry-Vierwinden
asserts have nothing to do with these 2019 legislative changes. What he is
really arguing is that the instructions “may have misled the jury as to what
16
was then required to convict [him].” (Burns, supra, 95 Cal.App.5th at p. 868.)
By the time of his trial in 2010, California law was already clear that a direct
aider and abettor could not be convicted of lying-in-wait murder on an
imputed malice theory. Specifically, the Supreme Court had ruled that:
(1) the perpetrator of a first degree murder by means of lying in wait must
act with malice aforethought (People v. Dillon (1983) 34 Cal.3d 441, 465;
People v. Mattison (1971) 4 Cal.3d 177, 182); and (2) a direct aider and
abettor of murder must at a minimum “know and share the murderous intent
of the actual perpetrator.” (People v. McCoy (2001) 25 Cal.4th 1111, 1118
(McCoy); see also ibid. [“outside of the natural and probable consequences
doctrine, an aider and abettor’s mental state must be at least that required of
the direct perpetrator”]; Gentile, supra, 10 Cal.5th at pp. 844–845 [citing
McCoy for the principle that “when a person directly aids and abets a murder,
the aider and abettor must possess malice aforethought”]).
As we noted in Flores, the Supreme Court’s 2001 decision in McCoy
made “clear . . . that ‘when guilt does not depend on the natural and probable
consequences doctrine, . . . the aider and abettor must know and share the
murderous intent of the actual perpetrator.’ ” (Flores, supra, 96 Cal.App.5th
at p. 1173 & fn. 4 [quoting McCoy, supra, 25 Cal.4th at p. 1118]; see also
Burns, supra, 95 Cal.App.5th at p. 868 [“The Supreme Court’s McCoy
decision . . . made clear that the direct perpetrator’s mental state could not be
imputed to an aider and abettor, whose mental state had to be independently
evaluated.”].) After the Supreme Court’s 2001 decision in McCoy, it was
unmistakable that a direct aider and abettor’s “mental state is her own; she
is liable for her mens rea, not the other person’s.” (McCoy, supra, 25 Cal.4th
at p. 1118.)
17
By arguing that the jury instructions allowed the jury to convict him as
a direct aider and abettor of murder on an imputed malice theory, Berry-
Vierwinden is necessarily asserting that they were erroneous under the law
in effect at the time of his 2010 trial and subsequent direct appeal. Under
Burns and Flores, however, a section 1172.6 petitioner cannot establish a
prima facie case for relief by asserting that the jury instructions permitted
conviction on a theory of imputed malice that was already prohibited even
before the enactment of Senate Bill No. 1437. This amounts to “a routine
claim of instructional error” that “could have been raised on appeal from the
judgment of conviction.” (Flores, supra, 96 Cal.App.5th at p. 1173.) “Section
1172.6 does not create a right to a second appeal, and [Berry-Vierwinden]
cannot use it to resurrect a claim that should have been raised in his [direct]
appeal.” (Burns, supra, 95 Cal.App.5th at p. 865; see also People v. Farfan
(2021) 71 Cal.App.5th 942, 947 [section 1172.6 “does not afford the petitioner
a new opportunity to raise claims of trial error”].)
To the extent Maldonado and Langi can be read to suggest that such
an instructional error may be asserted as a basis for section 1172.6 relief—
even if the alleged error could have been raised on direct appeal under then-
existing law not changed by Senate Bill No. 1437—we disagree for two
reasons. First, such a result would be inconsistent with our decisions in
Burns and Flores. Second, as we noted in those cases, the courts in
Maldonado and Langi did not consider the language of section 1172.6,
subdivision (a)(3) requiring that defendants show they can no longer be
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convicted of murder “because of changes” made by Senate Bill No. 1437.7
(Burns, supra, 95 Cal.App.5th at p. 868, fn. 7; Flores, supra, 96 Cal.App.5th
at p. 1174.)
In sum, Senate Bill No. 1437 did not change the law to prohibit direct
aider and abettor liability on an imputed malice theory—this was already
settled California law by the time of Berry-Vierwinden’s 2010 trial. Under
Burns and Flores, Berry-Vierwinden cannot establish that he “could not
presently be convicted of murder or attempted murder because of changes to
Section 188 or 189” made by Senate Bill No. 1437. (§ 1172.6, subd. (a)(3),
italics added; see also People v. Antonelli (2023) 93 Cal.App.5th 712, 720–721,
review granted Oct. 18, 2023 (S281599) [irrespective of any instructional
error in allowing the jury to convict petitioner of provocative act murder on
an imputed malice theory, petitioner was ineligible for relief under section
1172.6, subdivision (a)(3) because the law in effect before Senate Bill
No. 1437 already required that the defendant personally harbor malice for a
provocative act murder and Senate Bill No. 1437 “did not change the law” on
the issue].) The trial court correctly denied the petition because
Berry-Vierwinden “did not satisfy the section 1172.6, subdivision (a)(3)
condition as part of his required prima facie showing.” (Burns, supra, 95
Cal.App.5th at p. 867.)
7 In its background discussion of the applicable law, Maldonado quoted
from a Supreme Court case quoting section 1172.6, subdivision (a)(3) (People
v. Strong (2022) 13 Cal.5th 698, 708), but Maldonado did not discuss or refer
to this subdivision in its subsequent legal analysis. (Maldonado, supra, 87
Cal.App.5th at pp. 1260–1267.) Likewise, Langi indirectly referred to
subdivision (a)(3) only in quoting part of the petitioner’s section 1172.6
petition alleging that he “ ‘could not be convicted of . . . 2nd degree murder
because of changes made’ by Senate Bill No. 1437.” (Langi, supra, 73
Cal.App.5th at p. 977.)
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DISPOSITION
The order denying the petition is affirmed.
BUCHANAN, J.
WE CONCUR:
McCONNELL, P. J.
KELETY, J.
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