P. v. Williams
Defendant entered a negotiated no contest plea to transporting methamphetamine (Health & Saf. Code, 11379, subd. (a)). He also entered no contest pleas to misdemeanor possession of a smoking device (Health & Saf. Code, 11364) and driving on a suspended license (Veh. Code, 14601.1, subd. (a)), and admitted he had served a prior prison term.
As Court have pointed out, an exception to this rule is that the trial court may increase the penalty for a crime based upon the defendants prior convictions, without having this aggravating factor submitted to the jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. (Apprendi, supra, 530 U.S. at p. 490.) That is what occurred in this case. The court cited defendants prior criminal convictions he has three prior felony convictions, two prior prison commits, and again, an extensive record with felonies as the sole basis for imposing the upper term. Since defendants prior convictions were not subject to the rule of Apprendi and Blakely, and were legally sufficient to expose him to the upper term, there was no error.
Comments on P. v. Williams