California v. Bussey

A jury found defendant Nathan Bussey guilty of unauthorized taking or driving of a vehicle and receiving a stolen vehicle. Before trial, defendant had entered pleas of no contest to two misdemeanor counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and driving with a suspended license. Defendant admitted certain recidivist allegations, and the trial court sustained the remainder. It then sentenced him to state prison for six years (after striking two of the recidivist findings). On appeal, defendant claimed the trial court erroneously ignored his pretrial request to act in propria persona. He also contended that he received an unauthorized sentence, asserting that the trial court should have designated both of his felony convictions as misdemeanors and sentenced him accordingly, because the statutes on which these convictions are based should be deemed to be included within the reach of a 2014 ballot proposition that reduced a number of offenses to misdemeanors (even though they were not expressly included in it). The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment. The California Supreme Court granted review pending its disposition of “related issues” in other pending appeals. Then the Supreme Court decided California v. Page, 3 Cal.5th 1175 (2017), which concluded that a conviction for unlawfully taking a vehicle valued at less than $950 was eligible for resentencing under Penal Code section 1170.18; unlawful driving, on the other hand, was not an eligible offense. It then transferred this matter back to the Court of Appeal for reconsideration in light of Page. Having done so, the Court of Appeal conditionally reversed the conviction for unlawful taking or driving, vacated the sentence, and remanded for retrial on the election of the State and resentencing. View "California v. Bussey" on Justia Law