People v. Espino CA1/1


Filed 12/16/21 P. v. Espino CA1/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION ONE THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A160602 v. (San Mateo County JORGE ESPINO, Super. Ct. Nos. SC051474A, SF381780A) Defendant and Appellant. Defendant Jorge Espino appeals from the trial court’s sentencing order that imposed a four-year jail term after he pled no contest to attempted grand theft and multiple counts of forgery, plus an eight-month consecutive term based on his violation of probation from a prior case. Espino’s sole contention on appeal is that the trial court abused its discretion in imposing the consecutive term because Espino challenged whether he was the defendant in the earlier matter. We disagree. The record makes clear that the trial court imposed a consecutive term because Espino took the stand and perjured himself at his probation violation hearing. We affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND In May 2002, Espino was charged by felony complaint with commercial burglary (Pen. Code,1 § 460, subd. (b)), forgery (§ 470, subd. (a)), and petty 1 All statutory references are to the Penal Code. theft (§ 666) in case No. SC051474A (SC matter). Espino pled no contest to the forgery charge and, after serving a 60-day term in jail, was placed on probation for three years.2 On July 31, 2002, an affidavit of probation violation was filed, alleging Espino had failed to report to probation and recommending revocation. The court revoked his probation and issued a bench warrant for his arrest. In November 2019, Espino was charged by felony information in a second criminal matter for grand theft (§ 487, subd. (a)), attempted grand theft (§§ 664, 487, subd. (a)), and 33 counts of forgery (§ 470, subd. (d)) in case No. SF381780A (SF matter). Espino was alleged to have fraudulently cashed 33 checks from a local funeral home business in 2011, resulting in losses totaling $87,800. On December 30, 2019, Espino pleaded no contest to attempted grand theft and four counts of forgery. At the April 24, 2020 sentencing hearing, counsel for Espino requested that he be placed on probation in the SF matter. The trial court denied the request because, among other reasons, Espino had been on probation (from the SC matter) at the time of these offenses and had absconded from probation for approximately 17 years. It sentenced Espino to a four-year jail term: a two-year term on the initial forgery count, consecutive eight-month terms on each of the three additional forgery counts, and a concurrent one- year term on the attempted grand theft count. The trial court then turned to the SC matter. Although there had been an agreement communicated to the trial court that …

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