The Fourth Appellate District has reaffirmed its denial of an appeal of a 1473.7 motion, even after considering the new standards laid out by the California Supreme Court in People v. Vivar.
“Here, with regard to the section 273.5 felony domestic violence charge, no immigration-neutral charge existed. Nor did defendant request or even explore the possibility of an immigration-neutral charge as to this offense. He did plead to, and was convicted on, an apparently immigration-neutral felony, namely, the section 273a child cruelty charge. The record shows no attempt to negotiate a plea leveraging the immigration-neutral count by admitting, for example, solely the section 273a count in place of the section 273.5 count requiring mandatory deportation. Neither does the petition suggest the possibility of having done so. Nor is there any indication whatsoever that such a suggestion would have been acceptable in negotiations with the People or when presented to the trial court. Furthermore, defendant presents no evidence that he ever participated in contemporaneous discussions or negotiations for immigration-neutral charges with the People, or even that he discussed the possibility of immigration consequences⸺other than described below⸺with his counsel. Absent any such record evidence, defendant simply claimed in his declaration, without elaboration or explanation of his basis for knowledge, that counsel did not “explore any immigration neutral charges.” However, “a defendant’s self-serving statement—after trial, conviction,and sentence—that with competent advice he or she would have accepted [or rejected] a proffered plea bargain, is insufficient in and of itself to sustain the defendant’s burden of proof as to prejudice, and must be corroborated independently by objective evidence.”
The full text of People v. Bravo can be found here: