Filed 12/11/20 P. v. Coto CA4/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115. IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION TWO THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, E072720 v. (Super.Ct.No. SWF1302612) JAVIER ALEJANDRO ALFONSO OPINION COTO, Defendant and Appellant. APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. John M. Davis, Judge. Affirmed. William J. Baker for Defendant and Appellant. Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, and Robin Urbanski and Yvette M. Martinez, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. In 2013, Javier Alejandro Alfonso Coto pleaded guilty to transporting more than an ounce of marijuana. In 2014, an immigration judge ordered Coto be deported based on 1 that conviction. In 2019, he filed a motion to vacate the conviction under a new statutory provision which allows offenders who aren’t in custody to move to vacate a conviction where they weren’t able to “meaningfully understand, defend against, or knowingly accept” the adverse immigration consequences of their plea and wouldn’t have taken the plea if they had understood. (Pen. Code, § 1473.7, unlabeled statutory citations refer to this code.) The trial judge denied Coto relief. Coto argues he’s eligible because his attorney did not inform him his conviction would make deportation mandatory and he would not have taken the plea had he understood that. We affirm because substantial evidence supports a finding that Coto would have taken the plea despite the immigration consequences. I FACTS Coto is a 29-year-old Cuban citizen. He immigrated to the United States in 2010 and received lawful permanent residency status in 2012. He speaks Spanish and knows only a few words of English. In 2013, he was traveling northbound on Interstate 15 when a Customs and Border Protection (Border Patrol) agent stopped him. The agent discovered marijuana in his car. The Riverside County District Attorney charged Coto with one count of possession of marijuana for sale (Health & Saf. Code, § 11359) and one count of transporting, selling, furnishing, or administering more than 28.5 grams of marijuana 2 (Health & Saf. Code, § 11360, subd. (a)). Coto hired private counsel to defend him against these charges, but his attorney “did not speak much Spanish.” Coto pleaded guilty to violating Health and Safety Code section 11360, subdivision (a). He signed a plea form and initialed 18 separate paragraphs saying he understood the potential consequences of his plea.1 One said “[i]f I am not a citizen of the United States, I understand that this conviction may have the consequences of deportation, exclusion from admission to the United States, or denial of naturalization.” (Italics added.) Another paragraph said, “I have had adequate time to discuss with my attorney ...
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Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals