Dismissing Prior Burglary Conviction In California

In People v. Garcia (1999) 20 Cal. 4th 490, 503 85 Cal. Rptr. 2d 280, 976 P.2d 831, the state Supreme Court concluded that it was not an abuse of discretion for the trial court to dismiss prior burglary conviction allegations with respect to one but not both of the defendant's current burglary counts. The dismissal still left defendant to be sentenced to a term of 30 years in accordance with the Three Strikes law in connection with the second burglary count. The Supreme Court reasoned that the trial court's decision did not fall outside the bounds of reason because: the sentence was not lenient; the defendant's prior convictions all arose from a "single period of aberrant behavior for which he served a single prison term"; the defendant cooperated with police; the defendant's criminal history "did not include any actual violence"; and the defendant's crimes were related to drug addiction. People v. Garcia, supra, 20 Cal. 4th at page 503.