In re Ontiveros
Annotate this CaseIn 2017, Israel Ontiveros was convicted of multiple felonies and sentenced to state prison in two criminal cases. In the first case, a jury convicted Ontiveros on two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with gang enhancements. Ontiveros admitted suffering a prior serious felony conviction, a “strike” prior, and a prison prior. The trial court sentenced Ontiveros to an effective prison term of 19 years 8 months. In the second case, Ontiveros pleaded guilty to one count of robbery, and again he admitted a prior serious felony conviction. The court sentenced Ontiveros to a term of seven years in prison, to run consecutively with Ontiveros’s sentence in the first case. Two years later, Ontiveros requested early parole consideration under Proposition 57, the California Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) denied his request. The trial court likewise denied his petition for writ of habeas corpus. The court reasoned that, because one of Ontiveros’s convictions was for a violent felony (robbery), he was ineligible for early parole consideration under Proposition 57. Ontiveros petitioned the Court of Appeal for habeas relief, relying primarily on In re Mohammad, 42 Cal.App.5th 719 (2019). In response, the Attorney General argued that Mohammad’s interpretation of Proposition 57 was inconsistent with the intent of the voters and lead to an absurd result. The Court of Appeal agreed with the Attorney General: "A policy that rewards inmates for additional convictions is plainly unreasonable. Under established principles of statutory construction, we are not bound to follow the literal interpretation of the text if it would lead to such an absurd and unreasonable result that could not have been intended. We therefore conclude Ontiveros is not entitled to early parole consideration under Proposition 57 and deny his petition."
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