P. v. Farhbaksh
On May 17, 2006, Farzad Farhbaksh entered guilty pleas to 32 counts of robbery. (Pen. Code, 211.) There was no agreement with the prosecution but the court advised Farhbaksh that it would not impose a sentence in the 30-year range. On August 11, the court sentenced Farhbaksh to prison for 34 years: the three year middle term on one robbery conviction with consecutive one year terms on the remaining 31 robbery convictions (one third the middle term). On December 1, the court set aside the sentence and set a hearing for December 21 on Farhbaksh's motion to reduce the sentence to not more than 14 years in light of the court's statement when Farhbaksh entered the guilty pleas or to withdraw the guilty pleas because: his attorney misadvised him regarding the length of possible consecutive terms; two of the robberies Farhbaksh pled guilty to having committed were attempted robberies; and Farhbaksh was improperly interrogated after his arrest. On December 21, the People dismissed the charges on the two counts Farhbaksh claimed were attempted robberies, and the court denied the motion to withdraw the guilty pleas. It sentenced Farhbaksh to prison for 28 years: the three-year middle term on one count with consecutive one-year terms on 25 counts and concurrent terms on four counts. In a request for a certificate of probable cause, Farhbaksh alleged that the guilty pleas were induced by his trial counsel's misstatement that consecutive terms would only be eight months each, and that consecutive sentences violated the Sixth Amendment (see Cunningham v. California (2007) U.S. [127 S.Ct. 856] (Cunningham). The court issued a certificate of probable cause. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.304(b).) The judgment is affirmed.
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