People v. Segura

• Decision Date: 04 August 2008
• Docket Number: No. S148536.,S148536.
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Luis Gregorio SEGURA, Defendant and Appellant.

188 P.3d 649

80 Cal.Rptr.3d 715

44 Cal.4th 921

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Luis Gregorio SEGURA, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S148536.

Supreme Court of California.

August 4, 2008.

Esperanza V. Bada, La Puente, under appointment by the Supreme Court, and Mark P. LaScola for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Robert R. Anderson and Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Pamela C. Hamanka, Assistant Attorney General, Victoria B. Wilson, Kristofer Jorstad and Steven D. Matthews, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

GEORGE, C.J.

Defendant Luis Gregorio Segura was charged with the commission of a felony and was alleged to have suffered a prior felony conviction, with both the prior and the current offenses qualifying as "strikes" within the meaning of the "Three Strikes" law. He negotiated with the prosecutor a plea of no contest to the present charge in exchange for which the prior conviction allegation was to be dismissed and he was to be placed on probation on the condition, among others, that he serve 365 days in county jail. Prior to entering his plea, defendant waived his constitutional rights and acknowledged that if he was not a citizen of the United States, the one-year jail term would qualify the offense as an "aggravated felony" under federal law and require his deportation.

When the federal authorities initiated deportation proceedings after defendant was released from jail, he applied to the trial court to "reduce" his jail term to 360 days, effective nunc pro tunc. The trial court denied defendant's request on the ground the court was not authorized to modify a sentence prescribed pursuant to the parties' plea agreement. On appeal, the reviewing court reversed, concluding the trial court possessed continuing jurisdiction during the period of probation and the authority to modify or revoke probation, including a change in the agreed-upon term of confinement that was imposed as a condition of probation.

We granted review to determine whether a prescribed jail term that constitutes a material provision of a plea agreement conferring as its chief benefit, a grant of probation in lieu of a prison sentence, may be modified by the trial court in the exercise of its authority to modify or revoke probation during the probationary period. As we shall explain, in this matter defendant was granted probation, for which he otherwise was ineligible in view of the prior conviction allegation, in exchange for entering into a plea agreement comprised of various terms, including confinement in the county jail for a specified number of days. He knowingly and voluntarily accepted those terms of the agreement. The trial court's statutory authority to modify conditions of probation in the exercise of its jurisdiction over a probationer did not extend to modifying a material term of a plea agreement that bestowed the privilege of probation subject to defendant's service of a specified jail term. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment rendered by the Court of Appeal.¹

I

An information was filed in August 2005 alleging that on May 29, 2005, defendant inflicted corporal injury upon his spouse (punishable by a term of two, three, or four years in state prison), a serious or violent felony within the meaning of the Three Strikes law (Pen.Code §§ 273.5, subd. (a), 1170.12, subds. (a)-(d)), and that in 1990 defendant suffered a prior conviction of felony battery, also a serious or violent felony (§§ 246.3; 1170.12, subds. (a)-(d)).² Defendant additionally had suffered a 1997 felony conviction of possessing or discharging a loaded firearm. Ordinarily, a defendant who has suffered two prior felony convictions is ineligible for probation. (§ 1203, subd. (e)(4).)

On September 14, 2005, the parties entered into a plea agreement pursuant to which defendant agreed to plead no contest to the charge he inflicted corporal injury upon his spouse. The prosecutor agreed that the prior conviction allegation would be dismissed, that defendant's present conviction would not be utilized as a "strike" conviction in a future case, and that defendant would be placed on five years' probation, subject to the condition he serve the first 365 days in county jail. Defendant executed the printed form recording the parties' plea agreement, placing his initials in appropriate boxes indicating he understood and agreed to waive his constitutional rights related to trial, and understood that if he was not a citizen of the United States, he "must expect" that his plea of no contest would result in deportation, exclusion from admission to the United States, and denial of citizenship or naturalization.

At the hearing held on that date, and prior to defendant's entry of his plea, the prosecutor reviewed and obtained defendant's waiver of his trial-related constitutional rights, and also explained the collateral consequences of defendant's plea. During the latter review, the prosecutor advised defendant: "Sir, if you're not a citizen of the United States, this plea will have the consequences of deportation exclusion from admission and denial of naturalization." After explaining an additional consequence of the plea applicable if defendant was then on probation or parole in another matter, the prosecutor stated: "Do you understand the possible consequences of your plea?" Defendant, who is not a citizen of the United States, responded "Yes."

Having found that defendant freely, knowingly, and voluntarily had waived his constitutional rights and entered his plea, the trial court accepted defendant's plea, dismissed the prior conviction allegation, and placed defendant on probation subject to the terms of the plea agreement, which specified that defendant serve 365 days in county jail. The court imposed various other conditions, including that defendant not contact the victim and that he participate in domestic violence counseling.

When released from jail, defendant promptly was detained by federal immigration authorities. On January 6, 2006, defendant's attorney filed in the superior court an "ex parte motion to reduce sentence" seeking an "emergency" nunc pro tunc order or a writ of error coram nobis to modify defendant's probationary jail term to 360 days.³ The motion was based upon the following information. The United States Department of Homeland Security (which encompasses the former United States Immigration and Naturalization Service) had commenced deportation proceedings against defendant pursuant to section 237(a)(2)(A)(iii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii)) because he had been convicted of an "aggravated felony," defined as a "crime of violence ... for which the term of imprisonment [is] at least one year." (Immig. & Nat. Act, § 101(a)(43)(F), 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(F).) That agency had set a hearing on his deportation for January 13, 2006. Defendant had been a "lawful permanent legal resident" of the United States for more than 15 years, owned a residence, and was the sole means of support for his wife and three children. Notice of the pending action of the federal authorities had been provided to the deputy district attorney who had participated in the plea agreement.

At the January 6 hearing on defendant's motion, the prosecutor argued that the one-year sentence was a term of the plea agreement, that defendant had obtained "a good deal," that the prosecutor had agreed to dismiss defendant's 1990 prior strike conviction as remote, but that since 1990 defendant had been convicted of a number of misdemeanor offenses and had been identified as being involved in gang activity. The superior court denied defendant's motion, finding that the 365-day sentence was an integral part of the parties' plea agreement and as such was not subject to subsequent modification by the court. Defendant appealed.⁴

The Court of Appeal reversed, agreeing with the argument, newly advanced by defendant, that section 1203.3 authorized the trial court to modify, by means of an order entered nunc pro tunc, any imposed condition of probation — including the negotiated requirement that defendant serve one year in the county jail —without obtaining the prior approval of both parties. The appellate court remanded the case, reasoning the trial court failed to recognize that the plea agreement did not preclude it from exercising its discretion to reduce the jail term during the period of probation. We granted the People's petition for review.

II

The People contend the trial court correctly determined that the plea agreement, requiring defendant as a condition of his probation to serve one year in county jail, precluded the court from subsequently reducing the prescribed term of incarceration in order to avert defendant's deportation.⁵ The People urge that when a trial court has accepted the terms of a negotiated plea, determined the defendant has validly waived his or her constitutional rights, and entered and imposed sentence, the court lacks statutory or inherent authority thereafter to "unilaterally alter a material term of the plea agreement" to render it more favorable to the defendant. The People also suggest the Court of Appeal misconstrued the trial court's general statutory authority to modify probation conditions by interpreting that authority to permit alteration of a material term of the parties' plea agreement, failed adequately to distinguish Borja, supra, 95 Cal.App.4th 481, 115 Cal.Rptr.2d 728, and erroneously viewed the trial court's discretionary authority to issue an order nunc pro tunc as encompassing the modification of a completed sentence.

In deciding whether the trial court was authorized in its discretion to modify the condition of defendant's probation requiring a one-year county jail term, notwithstanding the parties' plea agreement that expressly incorporated that condition, we briefly consider the nature and purpose...