P. v. Alvarez
A jury convicted appellant Robert Jessie Alvarez of first degree murder with special circumstances and attempted robbery. It also found true that Alvarez personally used a knife in the commission of the offenses. The trial court found that Alvarez had served three prison terms. Alvarez was sentenced to life in prison without parole on the murder conviction and terms were imposed for the enhancements; the term for the attempted robbery conviction was stayed.
Alvarez contends there were numerous errors that warrant reversal of his convictions: (1) error pursuant to Batson v. Kentucky (1986) 476 U.S. 79 (Batson) in jury selection, (2) ineffective assistance of counsel, (3) prosecutorial misconduct, and (4) the felony-murder special circumstance is unconstitutional. Additionally, he challenges his sentence on the grounds a life-without-parole sentence is not subject to enhancement and asserts clerical error in fixing presentence conduct credit.
We will direct that the clerical error be corrected. We reject Alvarez’s other challenges to his convictions and sentence and affirm the judgment.
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