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Name: People v. Page
Case #: E062760
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 4 DCA
Division: 2
Opinion Date: 10/23/2015
Subsequent History: Review granted 1/27/2016: S230793
Summary

Felony conviction for unlawfully taking a vehicle (Veh. Code, § 10851, subd. (a)) may not be reduced to a misdemeanor under Proposition 47. Page pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including the unlawful taking of a vehicle, and was sentenced to prison. After Proposition 47 passed, he filed a petition to reduce his felony conviction for unlawful taking to a misdemeanor. The trial court denied his petition. He appealed. Held: Affirmed. Proposition 47 added Penal Code section 490.2, which provides that “[n]otwithstanding Section 487 or any other provision of law defining grand theft, obtaining any property by theft where the value of the money, labor, or real or personal property taken does not exceed [$950] shall be considered petty theft and shall be punished as a misdemeanor.” Although Vehicle Code section 10851 is a lesser included offense of Penal Code section 487, subdivision (d)(1) (grand theft auto), the Court of Appeal here concluded that section 490.2 does not apply to section 10851. Section 490.2 amended the definition of grand theft, but section 10851 does not proscribe theft; instead, it prohibits taking or driving a vehicle without the intent to steal. Proposition 47 did not amend the language of section 10851, subdivision (a), which makes a violation of the statute punishable as either a felony or a misdemeanor, and section 10851 is not one of the enumerated offenses in the resentencing provision of Proposition 47 (Pen. Code, § 1170.18, subd. (a)). The court also rejected Page’s equal protection argument. (See People v. Wilkinson (2004) 33 Cal.4th 821, 838.)