People v. Jackson
Annotate this CaseJackson stole chairs from a home-staging business. The police soon found him with the chairs in a stolen vehicle. A jury convicted him of felony counts of unlawfully taking or driving a vehicle and second-degree robbery. The judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison: two five-year terms for prior felony convictions, a two-year term for robbery, and a concurrent two-year term for unlawfully taking or driving a vehicle. The court of appeal reversed Jackson's conviction for unlawfully taking or driving a vehicle, Vehicle Code section 10851(a), because the vehicle’s value was not proven. Under People v. Page (2017), which was decided after Jackson's trial, a defendant cannot be convicted of a felony violation of section 10851(a) based on the theft of a vehicle unless the vehicle is worth more than $950. Since Jackson's jury was not so instructed, it could have relied on a legally invalid theory to convict Jackson. The presumption of prejudice that arises with this type of instructional error was not overcome. Although there was strong evidence that Jackson unlawfully drove a vehicle, which could have supported the felony conviction without regard to the vehicle’s value, it is not clear beyond a reasonable doubt that the jury unanimously relied on that theory.
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