When trial court conducted a full resentencing after granting Proposition 47 relief, it erred by reimposing on-bail enhancement where the felony the defendant was on bail for had been reduced to a misdemeanor. In August 2014, Buycks pleaded no contest to petty theft with a prior (Pen. Code, § 666, subd. (a)) and evading a police officer. He also admitted that he committed these offenses while out on bail in a separate felony drug case (Pen. Code, § 12022.1). After Proposition 47 passed, Buycks filed petitions to reduce the felony drug offense and the petty theft offense to misdemeanors. The court first granted his petition in the drug case and reduced the offense to a misdemeanor. Approximately two weeks later, the court granted Buycks’ petition to reduce his felony petty theft conviction to a misdemeanor. Because the felony petty theft had been the principal term in that case, the court conducted a full resentencing and reimposed the on-bail enhancement over Buycks’ objection. He appealed. Held: Reversed. A defendant is subject to an on-bail enhancement when he commits a felony offense (the secondary offense) while on bail for another felony offense (the primary offense) and is ultimately convicted of both offenses. Here, at the time of Buycks’ resentencing, his felony drug conviction (the primary offense) had been reduced to a misdemeanor “for all purposes” (Pen. Code, § 1170.18, subd. (k)). Relying on rules of statutory construction and the reasoning in People v. Park (2013) 56 Cal.4th 782, the Court of Appeal concluded that the voters intended section 1170.18, subdivision (k) to preclude the trial court from reimposing the on-bail enhancement. The court was required to reevaluate the applicability of the on-bail enhancement at the time of the resentencing and the primary felony offense had been reduced to a misdemeanor by the time Buycks was resentenced for the secondary offense.
Case Summaries