People v. Bechtol
Annotate this CaseIn July 2015, Bechtol was charged with a DUI committed within 10 years of a prior felony DUI conviction (Vehicle Code 23152(a), 23550.5(a)), and driving with a blood alcohol content of more than .08 percent within 10 years of a prior felony DUI conviction (sections 23152(b), 23550.5(a)). The information alleged he had been convicted of a felony DUI in 2006. In August, Bechtol filed a section 41403 motion to strike his 2006 conviction as constitutionally invalid on the ground that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. The trial court denied the motion as unauthorized under section 41403 without making a finding on the merits of the ineffective assistance claim. Bechtol subsequently pled guilty. The court of appeal affirmed, holding that section 41403 does not independently authorize challenges such Bechtol’s motion to strike his prior conviction, but simply sets forth the procedural rules to be used for those challenges that are otherwise authorized. The court noted that in Garcia v. Superior Court (1997), the California Supreme Court determined that a criminal defendant could not move to strike a prior conviction, alleged as an enhancement in a pending proceeding, on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel in the earlier case.
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