{"id":8042,"date":"2022-11-07T13:06:29","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T21:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042"},"modified":"2022-11-08T14:43:28","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T22:43:28","slug":"court-denys-resentencing-of-two-so-cal-murderers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042","title":{"rendered":"Court Denies Resentencing of Two So-Cal Murderers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Progressive Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon’s effort to reduce the sentences of every murderer in the county received a setback last week courtesy of the state’s Second District Court of Appeal.\u00a0 In the case of People v. Machado<\/a> a unanimous panel held that a trial judge has the discretion to refuse a sentence reduction even if both the district attorney and the defense attorney request it.\u00a0 The City News Service reports<\/a> that convicted murderer Ernest Machado appealed a trial judge’s refusal to reduce his 25-years-to-life sentence for a 1982 conviction for first-degree felony murder.\u00a0 He claimed that SB 1437, a 2018 sentencing reform law eliminating most murder convictions for accomplices, invalidated his conviction.\u00a0 In this case, the evidence indicated that both Machado and his accomplice participated in the murder and robbery, allowing both to be convicted under the felony murder rule.\u00a0 Machado also claimed that Gascon’s 2020 directive ordering his deputies not to oppose a murderer’s request for a reduced sentence, required<\/em> the judge to grant it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The trial judge held that, based upon the evidence,\u00a0 Machado did not qualify for a reduced sentence under SB 1437 and that the lack of opposition by Gascon’s office, did not require the court to reduce his sentence.\u00a0 The appeals court agreed, noting that “Contrary to Machado\u2019s claim, the plain language of<\/span> section<\/span> 1172.6,<\/span> subdi<\/span>vision (d)(2) does not<\/span> dictate that<\/span> the court<\/span> must<\/span> vacate the defendant\u2019s sentence in all cases where the parties so<\/span> stipulate.”\u00a0 The court added, “If Machado\u2019s interpretation were correct, the prosecution and the defendant could jointly agree to the correct interpretation of the law in the defendant\u2019s case, reducing the court to a mere rubber stamp.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In another unanimous Second District Court of Appeals case (People v. Vargas<\/a>), gang member Cynthia Vargas appealed a Los Angeles Superior Court judge’s refusal to reduce her first-degree murder sentence, which Gascon had supported.\u00a0 Vargas was convicted of first-degree felony murder, and received a sentence of 60-years to life, for encouraging a fellow gang member to shoot a man during a fight in an LA County park.\u00a0 The fight broke out when Vargas and fellow gang members Cesar<\/span> Alcantar, and <\/span>Daniel Luna, confronted three young men at the park who were not affiliated to any gang.\u00a0 When Alcantar insisted that the men did belong to a rival gang, and slugged on of them in the face, a fight ensued.\u00a0 Several witnesses testified that during the fight, which Alcantar was loosing, Vargas yelled at Luna, “Shoot the motherfucker.\u201d A few seconds later Alcantar yelled, \u201cHurry up. Shoot this motherfucker.\u201d Luna pulled out a handgun<\/span> and shot one of the men in the back, and then followed-up with a second shot to the head. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In her petition for a sentence reduction, Vargas, like Machado, claims that\u00a0 SB 1437 voids her conviction because she did not personally kill the victim.\u00a0 The court held otherwise noting,<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, substantial evidence supports the trial court\u2019s finding that appellant acted with implied malice to directly aid and abet the murder. The evidence presented at trial established that from the beginning, Vargas was inextricably involved in the events that led to the murder and she was directly responsible for prompting Luna to shoot and kill John.\u00a0 E<\/span>ven if these circumstances did not establish express malice on appellant\u2019s part, they certainly constitute sufficient evidence upon which the trial court could find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that appellant acted with implied malice in aiding and abetting the murder.\u00a0 <\/span>[T]he essence of aiding and abetting a murder under an implied malice theory is the accomplice\u2019s act of aiding, by words or conduct, the commission of a life-endangering act with knowledge of the danger to life that the act poses\u2026.Appellant knew that firing a gun into a brawl could ultimately result in someone\u2019s death, but she directed Luna to do it anyway. She did not object when Luna walked over to John and finished what she had started, nor did she try to stop him. Substantial evidence supports the trial court\u2019s finding that appellant is guilty of murder under a still-valid theory\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is likely that both of these decisions will be appealed.\u00a0 One wonders if state Attorney General Rob Bonta, who as a member of the state Assembly in 2018, voted for SB 1437, and as attorney general has colluded with District Attorney Gascon to reduce the sentences of murderers, will participate on the side of the murderers, or their victims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Progressive Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon’s effort to reduce the sentences of every murderer in the county received a setback last week courtesy of the state’s Second District Court of Appeal.\u00a0 In the case of People v. Machado a unanimous panel held that a trial judge has the discretion to refuse a sentence reduction even if both the district attorney and the defense attorney request it.\u00a0 The City News Service reports that convicted murderer Ernest Machado appealed a trial judge’s refusal to reduce his 25-years-to-life sentence for a 1982 conviction for first-degree felony murder.\u00a0 He claimed that SB 1437, a 2018 sentencing reform law eliminating most murder convictions for accomplices, invalidated his conviction.\u00a0 In this case, the evidence indicated that both Machado and his accomplice participated in the murder and robbery, allowing both to be convicted under the felony murder rule.\u00a0 Machado also claimed that Gascon’s 2020 directive ordering his deputies not to oppose a murderer’s request for a reduced sentence, required the judge to grant it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\nCourt Denies Resentencing of Two So-Cal Murderers - Crime & Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court Denies Resentencing of Two So-Cal Murderers - Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Progressive Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon’s effort to reduce the sentences of every murderer in the county received a setback last week courtesy of the state’s Second District Court of Appeal.\u00a0 In the case of People v. Machado a unanimous panel held that a trial judge has the discretion to refuse a sentence reduction even if both the district attorney and the defense attorney request it.\u00a0 The City News Service reports that convicted murderer Ernest Machado appealed a trial judge’s refusal to reduce his 25-years-to-life sentence for a 1982 conviction for first-degree felony murder.\u00a0 He claimed that SB 1437, a 2018 sentencing reform law eliminating most murder convictions for accomplices, invalidated his conviction.\u00a0 In this case, the evidence indicated that both Machado and his accomplice participated in the murder and robbery, allowing both to be convicted under the felony murder rule.\u00a0 Machado also claimed that Gascon’s 2020 directive ordering his deputies not to oppose a murderer’s request for a reduced sentence, required the judge to grant it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-07T21:06:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-08T22:43:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Rushford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Rushford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042\",\"name\":\"Court Denies Resentencing of Two So-Cal Murderers - Crime & Consequences\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-07T21:06:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-08T22:43:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/818db0b54694df828fde443a64c42758\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Court Denies Resentencing of Two So-Cal Murderers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\",\"name\":\"Crime & Consequences\",\"description\":\"Crime and criminal law\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/818db0b54694df828fde443a64c42758\",\"name\":\"Michael Rushford\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cjlf.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Court Denies Resentencing of Two So-Cal Murderers - Crime & Consequences","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Court Denies Resentencing of Two So-Cal Murderers - Crime & Consequences","og_description":"Progressive Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon’s effort to reduce the sentences of every murderer in the county received a setback last week courtesy of the state’s Second District Court of Appeal.\u00a0 In the case of People v. Machado a unanimous panel held that a trial judge has the discretion to refuse a sentence reduction even if both the district attorney and the defense attorney request it.\u00a0 The City News Service reports that convicted murderer Ernest Machado appealed a trial judge’s refusal to reduce his 25-years-to-life sentence for a 1982 conviction for first-degree felony murder.\u00a0 He claimed that SB 1437, a 2018 sentencing reform law eliminating most murder convictions for accomplices, invalidated his conviction.\u00a0 In this case, the evidence indicated that both Machado and his accomplice participated in the murder and robbery, allowing both to be convicted under the felony murder rule.\u00a0 Machado also claimed that Gascon’s 2020 directive ordering his deputies not to oppose a murderer’s request for a reduced sentence, required the judge to grant it.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042","og_site_name":"Crime & Consequences","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/","article_published_time":"2022-11-07T21:06:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-11-08T22:43:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Michael Rushford","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael Rushford","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042","url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042","name":"Court Denies Resentencing of Two So-Cal Murderers - Crime & Consequences","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-11-07T21:06:29+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-08T22:43:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/818db0b54694df828fde443a64c42758"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=8042#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Court Denies Resentencing of Two So-Cal Murderers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/","name":"Crime & Consequences","description":"Crime and criminal law","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/818db0b54694df828fde443a64c42758","name":"Michael Rushford","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.cjlf.org"],"url":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?author=3"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8042"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8052,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8042\/revisions\/8052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}