Filed 10/18/22; on transfer CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION ONE STATE OF CALIFORNIA In re VICTOR RAUL TELLEZ D079716 on (San Diego County Super. Ct. No. SCE369196) Habeas Corpus. ORIGINAL PROCEEDING in habeas corpus. Petition denied. Megan Marcotte, Chief Deputy Alternate Public Defender, Vickie Fernandes, Gilson Gray and Anthony Parker, Deputy Alternate Public Defenders, for Petitioner. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Assistant Attorney General, Melissa Mandel, Nora Weyl, and Joy Utomi, Deputy Attorneys General, for Respondent. By petition for writ of habeas corpus, Victor Raul Tellez asks this court to vacate his conviction based on a plea of guilty to committing a lewd and lascivious act on a child under the age of 14 years. He complains his appointed counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to advise him before the plea that he could be subject to lifetime commitment as a sexually violent predator after service of the prison term. As we shall explain, Tellez has not stated a prima facie case for relief. We therefore deny the petition. I. BACKGROUND The People charged Tellez with three counts of committing a lewd and lascivious act on a child under the age of 14 years (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a)), each of which involved a different victim. Tellez pled guilty to one count, and as the factual basis for the plea admitted he willfully touched the back of a child under the age of 14 years with the intent to arouse his own sexual desires. He also stipulated to a three-year prison term. In exchange, the People dismissed the two other counts. The court imposed the stipulated prison term on December 20, 2017. Tellez was released from prison on parole on August 1, 2019. He was immediately arrested and was arraigned on a petition for involuntary commitment under the Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA; Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6600 et seq.) the following day. Tellez remains in jail while the commitment proceedings are pending. On March 2, 2021, Tellez filed in the superior court a petition for writ of habeas corpus alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. He alleged that as a result of inadequate investigation, counsel failed to obtain a potentially exculpatory psychological evaluation that when he touched the victim he was too intoxicated to form the specific intent required for conviction. Tellez further alleged counsel was incompetent for failing to tell him that after release from prison he could be involuntarily committed for life under the SVPA. Tellez claimed he would not have pled guilty and would have gone to trial but for counsel’s deficient performance. The superior court summarily denied the claim of inadequate investigation as untimely; and, after issuing 2 an order to show cause on the claim of failure to advise of the potential SVPA commitment and receiving a return from the district attorney, the court denied that claim as well. Tellez continued to press his claims of ineffective assistance of …
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