Appeals court rebuffs Wheatland three-striker

Fifteen years after he was sentenced to life in prison, a Wheatland man failed to persuade a state appeals court to reduce his sentence.

The 3rd District Court of Appeals this week said a Yuba County judge committed harmless errors when she declined to resentence Moses Duron under Proposition 36.

Duron was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in 2002 after pleading no contest to a felony charge of a felon possessing a firearm. He admitted three prior felonies for sentencing purposes in Yuba County Superior Court.

His record included 10 prior felony convictions, according to his probation report.

Duron was arrested after he allegedly fired shots at a campsite near Camp Far West after he argued with his wife, according to his probation report.

Sheriff’s deputies stopped a car in which Duron was riding. During a search, a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol was found in a leg brace Duron was wearing, the report said.

When voters approved Proposition 36, amending the three strikes sentencing scheme, he petitioned Yuba County Superior Court for a sentence reduction in 2012. Judge Julia Scrogin rejected his request in 2013.

Duron appealed, contending his lawyer was incompetent, he should have had a jury trial and the judge erroneously relied on the probation officer’s report during the resentencing.

The appeals court agreed with Duron that the judge “erred in relying on the probation officer’s report to find defendant ineligible for resentencing, but the error is harmless because the factual summary in the probation officer’s report is consistent with the facts summarized in this court’s nonpublished appellate opinion in defendant’s prior appeal.”

Duron “had a gun available for his use when he committed the current offense of possessing a firearm by a felon. Defendant is not, therefore, eligible for resentencing,” the appeals court said.