Case Title: People v. Gonzalez (Alejandro)

Citation: 

Docket Number: S107167

State: california

Court: California Supreme Court

Date: 2003-08-21T00:00:00Z

Document:
1
Filed 8/21/03 
 
 
 
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 
 
THE PEOPLE, 
) 
 
 
) 
 
Plaintiff and Respondent, 
) 
 
 
) 
S107167 
 
v. 
) 
 
 
) 
Ct.App. 4/3 G025767 
ALEJANDRO P. GONZALEZ et al., 
) 
 
 
) 
Orange County 
 
Defendants and Appellants. 
) 
Super. Ct. No. 98CF2766 
___________________________________ ) 
 
In People v. Scott (1994) 9 Cal.4th 331 (Scott), this court held that a party 
in a criminal case may not challenge the trial court’s discretionary sentencing 
choices on appeal if that party did not object at trial.  Scott stressed, however, that 
counsel must have a “meaningful opportunity to object . . . [which] can occur only 
if, during the course of the sentencing hearing itself and before objections are 
made, the parties are clearly apprised of the sentence the court intends to impose, 
and the reasons that support any discretionary sentencing choices.”  (Id. at p. 356.)  
To effectuate that requirement, must the trial court issue a tentative decision 
before the sentencing hearing?  The answer is “no.”   
I 
As jewelry salesman Dominguez Sosa backed his car out of his garage, 
codefendants Alejandro Gonzalez and Jaime Pano accosted him at gunpoint and 
got in the car, ordering Sosa into the passenger seat.  They threatened to harm 
Sosa’s family if he did not cooperate, claiming that two people were in his garage 
 
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waiting for instructions.  After defendants drove with Sosa for several hours, 
taking his gold ring, the car stalled on the freeway shoulder.  Shortly thereafter, a 
patrol car with two officers pulled up.  While the officers talked to defendants, 
Sosa alerted them to his capture by handing them an envelope on which he had 
written, “Help me.  He’s got a gun.”  Sosa later discovered that jewelry had been 
stolen from his home while defendants held him captive. 
Defendants were charged with kidnapping for robbery (Pen. Code, § 209),1 
carjacking (§ 215, subd. (a)), second degree robbery (§ 211), criminal threats 
(§ 422), and kidnapping for carjacking (§ 209.5, subd. (a)).  The information also 
alleged, as sentence enhancements, that each defendant used a firearm during the 
commission of these crimes (§ 12022.53, subd. (b)), and that defendant Gonzalez 
had served a prior prison term (§ 667.5, subd. (b)).  
Defendants waived the right to a jury trial, and they agreed to submit the 
matter to the trial court based on the investigative reports and the transcript of the 
preliminary hearing.  The court convicted both defendants of kidnapping (a lesser 
offense necessarily included in the charged crime of kidnapping for robbery), as 
well as the charged crimes of carjacking, robbery, and criminal threats.  The court 
acquitted defendants of kidnapping for carjacking.  It found the firearm use 
enhancement to be true as to each defendant.  Defendant Gonzalez admitted the 
prior prison term enhancement.   
Each defendant’s probation report listed the planned nature of the crimes as 
an aggravating circumstance, and defendant Gonzalez’s report also mentioned that 
he was on parole when he committed the offenses.  Defendant Gonzalez’s 
probation report listed no mitigating circumstances, while defendant Pano’s 
                                             
 
1  
All further statutory references are to the Penal Code. 
 
3
probation report listed his lack of a prior criminal record as the only mitigating 
circumstance.  The probation reports recommended that each defendant pay a 
restitution fine of $1,000.   
At the sentencing hearing, Sosa requested the court to order defendants to 
pay restitution for jewelry that was stolen from his home while defendants had 
kidnapped him.  He initially said his loss was “about $9,000,” but he then 
corrected himself, stating that he had lost approximately $5,000 and that he had 
brought receipts with him to court.  After listening to Sosa’s statement, the court 
said it would “consider restitution.”    
After hearing arguments from the prosecutor and counsel for defendant 
Gonzalez, and a personal statement from defendant Pano, the trial court 
announced its sentence.  For each defendant, it stayed execution of sentence for 
the charges of kidnapping and criminal threats.  (§ 654.)  It selected the crime of 
carjacking as the base term for each defendant and chose the aggravated term, nine 
years in prison, because they were armed when they committed that offense.  It 
sentenced each defendant to one year in prison for robbery, to be served 
consecutive to the sentence for carjacking, and it sentenced each defendant to 10 
consecutive years in prison for the firearm-use enhancement.  It also sentenced 
defendant Gonzalez to one consecutive year for his prior prison term.  Thus, the 
court sentenced Gonzalez to a total of 21 years in prison and Pano to 20 years.  It 
also ordered defendants to pay restitution of $5,000 to Sosa, for which they were 
jointly and severally responsible, and it ordered each defendant to pay a restitution 
fine of $5,000.   
Defendants objected to the restitution order, arguing that it was for a loss 
related to a crime they were neither charged with nor convicted of committing.  
The court responded:  “The objection [is] noted for the record.” 
 
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On appeal, defendants argued that in imposing sentence, the trial court had 
impermissibly relied twice on the fact that they were armed when they committed 
the crimes:  first to impose the upper term for carjacking, and then to impose the 
firearm use enhancement.  They further argued that the restitution order violated 
their due process rights because the court had not given them notice and an 
opportunity to be heard, and that the restitution was improper because they were 
not convicted of stealing Sosa’s jewelry.  The Attorney General responded that the 
first two of these claims were not properly before the Court of Appeal because of 
defendants’ failure to raise them in the trial court.  
The Court of Appeal held that none of defendants’ claims was barred on 
appeal.  It reasoned that because the probation reports did not list firearm use as an 
aggravating circumstance, and the trial court did not indicate before it imposed 
sentence that it would use this circumstance as an aggravating factor, defendants 
did not know the trial court would impermissibly use this fact twice.  Accordingly, 
the Court of Appeal held that the trial court did not apprise defendants of this 
aspect of its intended sentence and the reasons for its sentencing choices before it 
pronounced judgment, and therefore Scott, supra, 9 Cal.4th 331, did not bar them 
from challenging the sentence on this ground.  The Court of Appeal also held that 
defendants could raise an appellate challenge to the trial court’s restitution order 
on the ground that the trial court had ordered them to pay restitution without 
giving them notice and an opportunity to contest the restitution amount.  
Concluding that the trial court’s sentence was improper in each of these respects, 
the Court of Appeal reversed the judgment and remanded the case to the trial court 
for resentencing. 
We granted the Attorney General’s petition for review. 
 
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II 
In Scott, this court prospectively announced a new rule:  A party in a 
criminal case may not, on appeal, raise “claims involving the trial court’s failure to 
properly make or articulate its discretionary sentencing choices” if the party did 
not object to the sentence at trial.  (Scott, supra, 9 Cal.4th at p. 353.)  The rule 
applies to “cases in which the stated reasons allegedly do not apply to the 
particular case, and cases in which the court purportedly erred because it double-
counted a particular sentencing factor, misweighed the various factors, or failed to 
state any reasons or give a sufficient number of valid reasons” (ibid.), but the rule 
does not apply when the sentence is legally unauthorized (id. at p. 354). 
Scott reasoned:  “[C]ounsel is charged with understanding, advocating, and 
clarifying permissible sentencing choices at the hearing.  Routine defects in the 
court’s statement of reasons are easily prevented and corrected if called to the 
court’s attention.”  (Scott, supra, 9 Cal.4th at p. 353.)  Such a requirement would 
“reduce the number of errors committed in the first instance and preserve the 
judicial resources otherwise used to correct them.”  (Ibid.)  Scott perceived no 
unfairness to the parties.  It explained:  “The parties have ample opportunity to 
influence the court’s sentencing choices under the determinate scheme.  As a 
practical matter, both sides often know before the hearing what sentence is likely 
to be imposed and the reasons therefor.  Such information is contained in the 
probation report, which is required in every felony case and generally provided to 
the court and parties before sentencing.  [Citations.]  In anticipation of the hearing, 
the defense may file, among other things, a statement in mitigation urging specific 
sentencing choices and challenging the information and recommendations 
contained in the probation report.  [Citations.]  Relevant argument and evidence 
also may be presented at sentencing.  [Citations.]  . . .  [A] defense attorney who 
fails to adequately understand the available sentencing alternatives, promote their 
 
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proper application, or pursue the most advantageous disposition for his client may 
be found incompetent.”  (Scott, supra, 9 Cal.4th at pp. 350-351.)2 
But Scott went on to say:  “[T]here must be a meaningful opportunity to 
object to the kinds of claims otherwise deemed waived by today’s decision.”  
(Scott, supra, 9 Cal.4th at p. 356, italics added.)  “This opportunity can occur,” 
Scott observed, “only if, during the course of the sentencing hearing itself and 
before objections are made, the parties are clearly apprised of the sentence the 
court intends to impose and the reasons that support any discretionary choices.”  
(Ibid.) 
Defendant Pano argues that Scott requires trial courts to provide the parties 
with a tentative decision before the sentencing hearing, and defendant Gonzalez 
contends we should require the trial court to give tentative decisions in writing, 24 
hours before the hearing.  We disagree.  Scott rejected the argument of the 
defendant in that case that “a rule requiring a contemporaneous objection to 
defects in the court’s statement of reasons is impractical . . . [because] it is 
unrealistic to expect counsel to comprehend, remember, and respond to the various 
sentencing factors and choices delivered orally by the court at the hearing.”  
(Scott, supra, 9 Cal.4th at pp. 355-356.)  Scott held that the parties need only be 
advised of the trial court’s intended sentence “during the course of the sentencing 
hearing itself . . . .”  (Id. at p. 356.)   
As previously explained, the Scott rule applies when the trial court “clearly 
apprise[s]” the parties “of the sentence the court intends to impose and the reasons 
that support any discretionary choices” (Scott, supra, 9 Cal.4th at p. 356), and 
                                             
 
2  
We also urge prosecutors, as officers of the court, to bring to the trial 
court’s attention any errors they note in the court’s sentence, even when they do 
not intend to raise those errors on appeal. 
 
7
gives the parties a chance to seek “clarification or change” (id. at p. 351) by 
objecting to errors in the sentence.  The parties are given an adequate opportunity 
to seek such clarifications or changes if, at any time during the sentencing hearing, 
the trial court describes the sentence it intends to impose and the reasons for the 
sentence, and the court thereafter considers the objections of the parties before the 
actual sentencing.  The court need not expressly describe its proposed sentence as 
“tentative” so long as it demonstrates a willingness to consider such objections.  If 
the court, after listening to the parties’ objections, concludes that its proposed 
sentence is legally sound, it may simply state that it is imposing the sentence it has 
just described, without reiterating the particulars of that sentence.  By contrast, if 
the trial court finds that one of the parties has raised a meritorious objection to the 
proposed sentence, it should alter its sentence accordingly. 
It is only if the trial court fails to give the parties any meaningful 
opportunity to object that the Scott rule becomes inapplicable.  This occurred in 
People v. Dorsey (1996) 50 Cal.App.4th 1216.  There, the trial court placed the 
defendant on probation in the “interest of justice,” even though he was 
presumptively ineligible.  After asking the defendant if he accepted the terms of 
probation, the trial court immediately declared a recess without hearing from 
either party.  Because of the immediate recess, the Court of Appeal held that “the 
prosecutor had no opportunity, meaningful or otherwise, to object.”  (Id. at 
p. 1224.)  Accordingly, Dorsey correctly held that the prosecution could challenge 
the sentence on appeal.3   
                                             
 
3  
In People v. Middleton (1997) 52 Cal.App.4th 19, the trial court issued a 
tentative ruling before the sentencing hearing.  During argument, the defendant did 
not object to the intended sentence.  Therefore, the Court of Appeal held that he 
had not preserved his appellate challenge to the trial court’s sentence on the 
ground that the trial court gave inadequate reasons for ordering that the sentence 
 
(Footnote continued on next page.) 
 
8
Both defendants argue that the due process clause of the Fourteenth 
Amendment to the federal Constitution requires advance notice of the trial court’s 
intended sentence.  They do not assert there is an independent due process right 
that, if not followed to the letter by the sentencing court, would create its own 
ground for appellate reversal; nor would such an argument be tenable.  Rather, 
defendants argue that if they do not receive adequate notice in the trial court, the 
due process clause entitles them to raise on appeal any sentencing error not 
objected to in the trial court. 
In support, defendants cite Burns v. United States (1991) 501 U.S. 129 
(Burns).  At issue in Burns was whether a federal trial court must notify the 
defendant before the sentencing hearing if it intends to impose a sentence above 
the range established by the federal Sentencing Guidelines.  In a five to four 
decision, the high court held that such notification was implicit in rule 32 of the 
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.  It explained:  “Notwithstanding the absence 
of express statutory language, this Court has readily construed statutes that 
authorize deprivations of liberty or property to require that the Government give 
affected individuals both notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard.”  
(Burns, supra, 501 U.S. at pp. 137-138.)  It noted that if it were to hold that rule 
                                                                                                                                      
 
 
(Footnote continued from previous page.) 
 
on one count be served consecutively.  In dicta, the Court of Appeal said that Scott 
“did announce significant restrictions on the waiver rule,” and that the rule does 
not apply “if the sentencing court did not provide a tentative ruling which includes 
the court’s discretionary choices and supporting reasons.”  (Id. at p. 37.)  To the 
extent Middleton may be read as saying that Scott’s purpose was to impose 
“significant restrictions on the waiver rule” (ibid.) or that it requires trial courts to 
give a tentative ruling before the sentencing hearing, Middleton is inconsistent 
with Scott and is disapproved.  
 
9
32 did not require such notice, it “would then have to confront the serious question 
whether notice . . . is mandated by the Due Process Clause” (Burns, supra, 501 
U.S. at p. 138), and it quoted authority stating that the high court generally 
construes laws to avoid “ ‘serious constitutional problems’ ” (ibid.). 
Although Burns acknowledged that whether the due process clause requires 
a trial court to give advance notice of an unexpectedly high sentence poses a 
“serious question” (Burns, supra, 501 U.S. at p. 138), it did not decide when, if 
ever, the due process clause would require such notice.   
To determine whether notice is required, both parties urge us to apply the 
test the high court set forth in Mathews v. Eldridge (1976) 424 U.S. 319.  That test 
requires consideration of three factors:  “First, the private interest that will be 
affected by the official action; second, the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such 
interest through the procedures used, and the probable value, if any, of additional 
or substitute procedural safeguards; and finally, the Government’s interest, 
including the function involved and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the 
additional or substitute procedural requirement would entail.”  (Id. at p. 335.)   
It is not clear whether the Mathews test is applicable here.  Recently, the 
high court had this to say about that test:  “The Mathews balancing test was first 
conceived in the context of a due process challenge to the adequacy of 
administrative procedures used to terminate Social Security disability benefits.  
Although we have since invoked Mathews to evaluate due process claims in other 
contexts [citation], we have never viewed Mathews as announcing an all-
embracing test for deciding due process claims.  Since Mullane [v. Central 
Hanover Bank & Trust Co. (1950) 339 U.S. 306] was decided, we have regularly 
turned to it when confronted with questions regarding the adequacy of the method 
used to give notice.”  (Dusenbery v. U.S. (2002) 534 U.S. 161, 167-168.)   
 
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Mullane requires a reviewing court to determine whether the method of 
notice is “reasonably calculated, under all the circumstances, to apprise interested 
parties of the pendency of the action and afford them an opportunity to present 
their objections.”  (Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., supra, 339 
U.S. at p. 314; see also Dusenbery v. U.S., supra, 534 U.S. at p. 168.)  At issue 
here is the adequacy of the method used to give notice of the trial court’s intended 
sentence, so Mullane may apply, although the high court has not considered 
whether that test applies in criminal cases.   
Regardless of which test applies, however, we find nothing in the Fourteenth 
Amendment’s due process clause that would require advance notice by a trial court of 
its intended sentence.  Although defendants have an important private interest in 
receiving a fair sentence, the risk that the Scott rule will result in a deprivation of that 
interest is not substantial.  Under California law, information pertinent to sentencing is 
frequently contained in the presentence probation report, thus enabling the parties to 
anticipate the trial court’s sentencing choice and its reasons.  (See Scott, supra, 9 
Cal.4th at p. 351.)  In the rare instance where the actual sentence is unexpected, 
unusual, or particularly complex, the parties can ask the trial court for a brief 
continuance to research whether an objection is warranted, or for permission to submit 
written objections within a specified number of days after the sentencing hearing.  Such 
a procedure would satisfy a requirement, if any, under the due process clause of 
advance notice of the trial court’s sentence.  
Defendants also argue that the due process provisions of the California 
Constitution (Cal. Const., art. I, §§ 7, 15) require advance notice of the trial 
court’s intended sentence.  The California test for due process violations is slightly 
different from that used by the United States Supreme Court.  (See In re Sade C. 
(1996) 13 Cal.4th 952, 991, fn. 18; see also People v. Ramirez (1979) 25 Cal.3d 
260, 269.)  But defendants have not cited, nor have we found, anything in the 
 
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language or history of the state provisions, or the cases interpreting them, 
suggesting that they impose a notice requirement greater than that required by the 
federal Constitution in this context. 
Finally, we apply Scott, supra, 9 Cal.4th 331, to the facts of this case. 
The trial court prefaced its sentence with the words, “Defendants are 
sentenced as follows.”  (Italics added.)  These words may have implied to the 
parties that the trial court had already made its sentencing decision.  Because the 
court had not previously notified the parties that it intended to rely on defendants’ 
firearm use as a reason for its sentence, it should have more clearly given the 
parties a meaningful opportunity to object by saying it was announcing proposed 
sentences for each defendant and its reasons for the sentences, that the prosecutor 
and defendants were entitled to object, and that if the objections were meritorious 
it would alter the sentences appropriately.   
Nevertheless, the record shows that after the trial court had stated defendants’ 
sentences and its reasons for them, defendants did object, although not on two of the 
grounds they now wish to raise on appeal.  The court did not tell defendants their 
objection was untimely or impermissible; instead, it considered and rejected the 
objection.  Thus, the court did give defendants a “meaningful opportunity to object” 
as required by Scott, supra, 9 Cal.4th at page 356.  (See People v. Downey (2000) 82 
Cal.App.4th 899, 916 [Scott bar applies when trial court allowed parties to interrupt to 
make objections while it was pronouncing sentence].) 
Defendants objected to the trial court’s sentences on only one of the three 
grounds they raised on appeal (not addressed by the Court of Appeal):  that the 
court should not have ordered them to pay restitution for items taken from victim 
Sosa’s house when they had not been convicted of stealing those items.  Thus, on 
appeal they may challenge their sentences on that ground.  Defendants did not, 
however, object on the two other grounds they now assert:  that the trial court 
 
12
improperly relied on their use of firearms in committing the charged crimes in two 
different aspects of their sentences, and that the court imposed restitution without 
giving them a hearing regarding the amount of Sosa’s loss.  Therefore, they may 
not now raise these claims.  
DISPOSITION 
We reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal, and we remand the matter 
to that court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
KENNARD, J. 
 
WE CONCUR: 
 
GEORGE, C. J. 
BAXTER, J. 
WERDEGAR, J. 
CHIN, J. 
BROWN, J. 
MORENO, J. 
 
1
See next page for addresses and telephone numbers for counsel who argued in Supreme Court. 
 
Name of Opinion People v. Gonzalez 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Unpublished Opinion 
Original Appeal 
Original Proceeding 
Review Granted XXX 97 Cal.App.4th 1087 
Rehearing Granted 
 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Opinion No. S107167 
Date Filed: August 21, 2003 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Court: Superior 
County: Orange 
Judge: Robert R. Fitzgerald* 
 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Attorneys for Appellant: 
 
Harvey L. Goldhammer, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant Alejandro 
P. Gonzalez. 
 
Deborah L. Hawkins, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant Jaime Pano. 
 
 
 
 
 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Attorneys for Respondent: 
 
Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, David P. Druliner and Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorneys 
General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Steven T. Oetting, Pamela R. Ratner and Marilyn L. 
George, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. 
 
 
 
 
 
*Retired judge of the Orange Superior Court, assigned by the Chief Justice pursuant to article VI, section 6 
of the California Constitution. 
 
2
 
 
 
 
Counsel who argued in Supreme Court (not intended for publication with opinion): 
 
Harvey L. Goldhammer 
1724 N. Pacific Avenue 
Glendale, CA  91202 
(818) 243-8142 
 
Deborah L. Hawkins 
10755-F Scripps Poway Parkway PMB 414 
San Diego, CA  92131 
(858) 530-8032 
 
Marilyn L. George 
Deputy Attorney General 
110 West A Street, Suite 1100 
San Diego, CA  92101 
(619) 645-3038