People v. Patterson
Annotate this Case
The California Fifth Appellate District Court examined a case where the defendant, Brandon Michael Patterson, petitioned for resentencing under Penal Code section 1172.6. Patterson was initially convicted for first-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. He later petitioned for resentencing, claiming that he did not meet the criteria for murder under changes made to sections 188 and 189. The lower court agreed and redesignated his murder conviction as attempted robbery and first-degree residential burglary.
However, the appellate court found that the murder conviction could not be redesignated as a first-degree residential burglary because it was not the "underlying felony" of Patterson's felony-murder conviction. Based on the instructions given to the jury during the original trial, the only "underlying felony" was attempted robbery. The court ruled that the term "underlying felony" refers to the specific crime that underlies a felony-murder conviction, which, in this case, was attempted robbery. Consequently, the court reversed the lower court's decision to redesignate the murder conviction as a first-degree residential burglary, and remanded the case for Patterson to be sentenced on the redesignated attempted robbery conviction.
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.