California Court of Appeal

In this case, defendant, who was on home detention, cut his GPS electronic monitoring device, mailed it to the sheriff, and flew to Pennsylvania. Judgment finding defendant guilty of escape by force in violation of Penal Code section 4532(b)(2) and denying defendant’s motion to withdraw his plea of no contest to one count of section 4532(b)(2) is affirmed, where: 1) the “force” in forcible escape may be any wrongful use of force against property, including the cutting off of the GPS device with scissors to facilitate escape, as here; and 2) even if defendant could have prevailed on a motion to dismiss the forcible escape charge, the probable outcome would not have been more favorable, as he would still face a minimum term of more than five years.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/03/2014
• Published 12/03/2014

Judges

• Gilbert

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel