P. v. Santos
Defendant, Erik Santos appeals from a judgment entered after he pleaded no contest to five counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child (Pen. Code, 288, subd. (b)(1).) On January 26, 2007, pursuant to a plea agreement, the trial court sentenced the defendant to a 40 year determinate term. On March 9, 2007, the defendant filed a notice of appeal challenging the validity of the plea and requesting a certificate of probable cause. However, trial counsel failed to state any legal grounds for seeking the certificate, so on March 19, the trial court denied the certificate of probable cause and deemed the appeal inopperative. Thereafter, on April 24, 2007, the defendant, on his own, attempted to file another notice of appeal and request for certificate of probable cause alleging that there was no admissible evidence against him and that his plea was not knowing or intelligent because the trial judge had threatened him with lethal injection if he did not plead guilty. The trial court rejected this notice of appeal and request for certificate of probable cause as untimely.
The judgment is affirmed.
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