P. v. Lucero
On February 2, 2005, a Monterey County jury convicted defendant Ricky Lucero of forcible sodomy and sodomy in a state correctional facility. (Pen. Code, § 286, subds.(c)(2) & (e).) [1] After a court trial, the court found that defendant had a prior serious felony conviction for robbery and a prior felony conviction for negligent discharge of a firearm and that both convictions qualified as strikes. (§§ 1170.12, subd. (c)(2), 211, 246.3, 667, subd. (a)(1).) The court imposed a term of 25 years to life for each conviction, stayed one of the terms, and added a five-year enhancement for the serious felony conviction.[2]
Defendant was sentenced in June 2005. No appeal was filed. However, subsequently, we granted defendant's motion for relief from default, and he filed his notice of appeal in January 2008. In that appeal, we reversed the judgment and remanded the matter for the limited purpose of conducting further proceedings on defendant's motion for new trial.
On November 1, 2011, the trial court denied defendant's motion for a new trial. Thereafter, defendant filed a timely notice of appeal. In this appeal, defendant contends that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel by counsel's failure to investigate and present expert testimony regarding exculpatory evidence as to the forcible sodomy charge. For reasons that follow, we reject defendant's claim.
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