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Name: People v. Segura
Case #: G051280
Opinion Date: 08/05/2015
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 4 DCA
Division: 3
Citation: 239 Cal.App.4th 1282
Summary

Proposition 47 does not authorize the trial court to reduce felony conspiracy conviction to a misdemeanor even if the offense the defendant conspired to commit was reduced to a misdemeanor. Segura and two codefendants planned and executed a theft at a 7-Eleven. Segura pled guilty to second degree burglary (Pen. Code, §§ 459, 460, subd. (b)) and conspiracy to commit theft (Pen. Code, §§ 182, subd. (a)(1), 484, subd. (a), 488), which were both felonies at the time. After Proposition 47 passed, he petitioned to have both convictions reduced to misdemeanors. The trial court granted the petition with respect to the second degree burglary conviction but denied it with respect to the conspiracy conviction. He appealed. Held: Affirmed. Section 1170.18 sets forth the various crimes that are eligible for reduction to a misdemeanor. Conspiracy is not among them. Thus the trial court correctly concluded that it lacked the statutory authority to resentence defendant on the conspiracy count. This conclusion does not lead to absurd results even though the petty theft, which is eligible for reduction, and the conspiracy, which is not, were inextricably intertwined. A conspiracy presents a greater evil than an individual acting alone: “a group of evil minds planning and giving support to the commission of crime is more likely to be a menace to society than where one individual alone sets out to violate the law.” (People v. Welch (1928) 89 Cal.App.18, 22.)