Error and/or relief
As in Patton, we grant appellant’s request to remand the matter for the opportunity to file a supplemental petition under Penal Code section 1172.6.
First Holding:
When the court makes the prima facie determination, it may rely on unchallenged, relief-foreclosing facts within a preliminary hearing transcript to refute conclusory, checkbox allegations made in a form section 1172.6 petition.
Authority:
People v. Patton (2025) 17 Cal.5th 549
Second Holding:
Petitioners confronting a record of conviction that demonstrates relief is unavailable have the burden of coming forward with nonconclusory allegations to alert the prosecution and the court to what issues an evidentiary hearing would entail. It follows from what we have said already that should a trial court encounter a material fact dispute, the court may not resolve that dispute at the prima facie stage and should instead grant petitioner an evidentiary hearing, assuming relief is not otherwise foreclosed.
Authority:
People v. Patton (2025) 17 Cal.5th 549, 566-567
Third Holding:
While it may be that a record can refute the allegations made in the petition, it would be somewhat imprecise to say that evidence in a preliminary hearing transcript, offered at the prima facie stage, irrefutably establishes any particular fact to any particular standard of proof. A conclusion that a record refutes an allegation at the prima facie stage is not, moreover, a conclusion about the strength of evidence in the record.
Authority:
People v. Patton (2025) 17 Cal.5th 549, 567, fn. 10