The California Supreme Court ruled Jan. 20 that a judge can strike a firearm enhancement, and then replace it with a lesser enhancement.
Crime
The ruling stems from a Kern County Superior Court case, in which Jose Guadalupe Tirado drunkenly shot Brian Phillips in the back with a semiautomatic pistol while stealing a case of beer with an accomplice from a Bakersfield convenience store. Phillips survived, but the bullet fractured his hip.
Conviction
A jury convicted Tirado of second degree robbery with a firearm enhancement, and assault with a semiautomatic firearm with a firearm enhancement and a bodily injury enhancement.
Tirado urged the
