People v. Medrano
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Medrano and Vargas purchased a semi-automatic rifle. Medrano “scored” the bullets to make them "more explosive.” Vargas, Throop, and Scholle discussed committing a drive-by shooting. Vargas drove them to Ventura County. Throop held the rifle, sitting in the back seat next to Medrano, and fired multiple shots at people attending a baptism party. As Vargas drove away, Scholle shouted the names of rival gangs. Two men attending the party died of gunshot wounds. Two others were shot but survived.
In 1991 Medrano was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder with a multiple death special circumstances finding, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. He was sentenced to prison for 50 years to life. In 2019, Medrano filed a Penal Code section 1170.95 petition seeking resentencing, arguing that he was convicted of first-degree murder pursuant to the felony murder rule or the natural and probable consequences doctrine and could not now be convicted of 1st or 2nd-degree murder because of Senate Bill 1437's changes to Penal Code sections 188 and 189, effective in 2019. The court of appeal affirmed the denial of his petition. Section 1170.95 relief is unavailable to a petitioner concurrently convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder where both convictions involve the same victim; conviction of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder shows, as a matter of law, that the “target offense” is murder, not some lesser offense.
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