P. v. Aguilera
A jury convicted defendant Anthony S. Aguilera of (1) attempted premeditated murder and shooting at an occupied motor vehicle--victim Baldwin (counts 1 & 2), (2) assault with a deadly weapon--victim Mendez (count 3), (3) assault with a deadly weapon--victim Hernandez (count 4), and (4) attempted murder and reckless driving away from a peace officer--victim Bargar (counts 5 & 6). It also found true special allegations that defendant had committed (1) counts 1 and 2 for the benefit of a criminal street gang--five-year sentence enhancements, (2) counts 1 and 2 by discharging a firearm causing injury--25-year-to-life sentence enhancements, and (3) counts 3, 4, and 5 by personally inflicting great bodily injury--three-year sentence enhancements. Thereafter, defendant admitted to the trial court having suffered one prior juvenile conviction for purposes of the Three Strikes law. Upon defendants motion, the trial court struck the prior for purposes of counts 3 through 6 but doubled the base middle term for counts 1 and 2 pursuant to the Three Strikes law. On appeal, defendant contends that (1) the trial court erred by denying his pretrial motion to bifurcate trial of the criminal-street-gang allegations, (2) no substantial evidence supports the findings on the criminal-street-gang allegations and the dependent firearm allegations, (3) no substantial evidence supports the count-5 conviction, (4) the prosecutor engaged in misconduct during argument, and (5) the trial court transgressed his right to jury trial by using his juvenile conviction to double the base terms of counts 1 and 2. Court disagree and affirm the judgment.
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