People v. Bueno

In People v. Bueno (2006) 143 Cal.App.4th 1503, the defendant previously had been charged with battery with serious bodily injury ( 243, subd. (d)), with the following separate allegation: "NOTICE: The above offense is a serious felony within the meaning of Penal Code section 1192.7 (c) (8)." Battery with serious bodily injury is not one of the crimes defined in section 1192.7 as a serious felony, but subdivision (c)(8) does define as serious "any felony in which the defendant personally inflicts great bodily injury on any person, other than an accomplice." Therefore, for battery with serious bodily injury to constitute a serious felony, a defendant must have personally inflicted the injury--rather than aided and abetted another in inflicting it--on a victim who was not an accomplice. Although the defendant pleaded no contest to the alleged violation of section 243, he made no admission that the offense was a serious felony, and no facts were adduced to prove these necessary additional elements. (People v. Bueno, supra, 143 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1507-1508.) Therefore, the court held, "there is no evidence that Bueno admitted the serious felony allegation in the information. Absent such evidence, we must treat the allegation as dismissed." (Id. at p. 1510.)