P. v. Dunn
Annotate this Case
Defendant was charged with assault with a means of force likely to cause great bodily injury (“force-likely assault”) (Pen. Code,1 Section 245, subd. (a)(4); count 1) and misdemeanor violation of a protective order (Section 273.6, subd. (a); count 2).
Defendant contends on appeal that her sentence on count 1 must be vacated and her case remanded for resentencing in light of Senate Bill No. 567 because the trial court’s aggravating circumstances findings fail to meet the requirements of amended section 1170.
The Fifth Appellate District affirmed Defendant’s sentence. The court explained that the correct standard for harmless error lies between the standards articulated in Flores and Lopez. As such, the court applied a version of the standard articulated in Lopez, modified to incorporate Watson in the first step. Here, there was no error as to the first aggravating circumstance, Defendant had numerous convictions, meeting the requirements of section 1170, subdivision (b)(3), permitting the trial court to rely on certified records of Defendant’s prior convictions. Moreover, the court wrote there was also no error as to the trial court’s reliance on the third aggravating circumstance. Further, there is not a reasonable likelihood the jury would not have found the second aggravating circumstance true beyond a reasonable doubt, thus, the error was harmless.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.