A Riverside Superior Court judge erred by denying Sherwood Don Jenkins’ petition to vacate his murder conviction without an argument, a three-judge panel from California’s Fourth Appellate District unanimously ruled Oct. 25.
Jenkins, 46, based his petition on California Penal Code Section 1170.95, according to the court ruling. The law, added in 2019 by SB 1437, reduced accomplice liability for murders, and allowed retroactive vacations of murder by accomplice convictions.
The crime
According to the ruling, in 1999, Jenkins kidnapped and transported Phillip Reeves to the location of his murder by Jenkins’ associate, Michael Conner. Jenkins encouraged Conner to murder Reeves, then helped burn Conner’s clothes.
Even though Jenkins did not murder Reeves, he was convicted in 2003 of second-degree murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine, a doctrine that can no longer be used to convict people with murder due to section 1170.95.
The doctrine
The doctrine said that a defendant could be found guilty of a crime if already guilty of one offense, and if a co-participant in that offense committed the crime, and if a reasonable person in the defendant’s position would have known that the crime was a natural and probable consequence of the first offense.
“It is necessary to amend the felony murder rule and the natural and probable consequences doctrine, as it relates to murder, to ensure that murder liability is not imposed on a person who is not the actual killer, did not act with the intent to kill, or was not a major participant in the underlying felony who acted with reckless indifference to human life,” the bill’s preamble read.
The sentence
The court sentenced Jenkins to 15 years to life imprisonment on the murder count and an eight-year imprisonment on a kidnapping count, with a one-year firearm enhancement term.
Jenkins filed his petition to vacate his case in January 2019, but was denied by Riverside Superior Judge John Molloy without an order to show cause, according to the ruling.
Next
Riverside Superior Court must now argue why Jenkins’ case is exempt from the retroactive murder vacation provided in law, or accept his petition and resentence him without the murder conviction.
Associate Justice Art MicKinster presided over the appeal, Justice Frank Menetrez wrote the opinion, and Justice Marsha Slough was on the panel.
Case no: E075886
