From Page One
THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2022 A5
FATAL: New laws apply retroactively to current inmates From Page A1 Street, passing other vehicles and nearly sideswiping a bicyclist before broadsiding Jonasen’s car while she turned left from Cantrell Drive. The crash instantly killed Jonasen, a former Yolo County probation officer who, according to her family, devoted her life to helping others. Late last month, those relatives received a letter from the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office alerting them that Hendrix “will be considered for resentencing and may have their sentence shortened.” Several changes in state law brought this about, starting on Jan. 1, 2020, when Senate Bill 136 invalidated one-year sentencing enhancements for prior prison terms, but for sentences not yet final. Then came SB 483, which as of Jan. 1 of this year brought retroactive relief for those who had
prior-prison enhancements imposed, as Hendrix did. SB 483 later became Penal Code 1171.1 (renumbered to 1172.75 in July). All eligible cases automatically undergo a review, including about 40 to 50 in Yolo County, according to Melinda Aiello, Yolo County’s assistant chief deputy district attorney. Aiello noted that the court also can consider other factors in a resentencing bid, such as the inmate’s post-conviction conduct. As for any potential new sentence Hendrix could receive, “it’s not clear what’s going to happen,” Aiello said. The case returns to court Oct. 6. Hendrix, serving his time at the California State Prison, Los Angeles County, was not present for Thursday’s hearing. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation website shows he’s eligible for a parole hearing in February 2026. Since the fatal collision, the city installed a flashing red light at
STORAGE: Hunters object to ordinance From Page A1 time it would take to actually steal it,” he said Tuesday. But speaking to the council on Tuesday, Mark Hennelly of the California Waterfowl Association, urged the council to remove that portion from the ordinance. He noted that many association members travel through Davis during the hunting season, often stopping for lunch or to get hunting equipment, and “that’s where I can see them getting caught up in this. “That vehicle storage provision, in our view, is just going to significantly affect their hunting activities,” Hennelly said. “Most … have soft cases for their guns or no case at all and they travel around. And these are people coming from other counties, from out of state… none of them are going to know about this ordinance and I just think people are going to fall through the cracks and then be cited for things that really they had no knowledge of.” Hennelly added that requiring duck hunters, in particular, to put their guns in hard cases “is problematic.” “When we go out, it’s during the wettest, rainiest days — those are the best duck-hunting days if you’re hunting rice fields. And the firearms get completely soaked wet. The last thing you want to do is to put that (firearm) in an environment where there’s no ventilation. It causes rust, it causes corrosion. Some of these shotguns are $2,000, $3,000 … it just ruins them..” He also cited the expense of installing a hard container and urged the council to remove the vehicle storage component altogether “or amend it to make it much more workable.” In response to the concerns raised, Pytel offered an amendment to the ordinance. “I think that there is a fairly simple fix by changing a couple of words that both can work for a majority of hunters but also make sure that firearms are safely secured,” he told council members. “(A)s currently worded, it says ‘for vehicles with four or more wheels and lacking a trunk, in a located container that is permanently affixed to the vehicle and underneath a seat, or covered, or otherwise outside the plain view from the outside of the vehicle.’ “By removing the word ‘permanently,’ and then after ‘affixed’ adding in ‘or secured’ then that should be some kind of middle ground,” said Pytel. “In other words, the firearm would still have to be in a
locked container, but the locked container can then be secured to the vehicle with a chain or cable lock so that it would be more secure than having it simply sitting in the vehicle where it can be easily stolen. “But it doesn’t require having … some sort of container permanently affixed to the vehicle… it’s a lowcost solution, but makes it more secure.” Pytel added that the ordinance only applies to unattended vehicles. “So anybody can drive with a gun in the car as long as they’re lawfully carrying the firearm under state law. But for… stopping to get gas, assuming that you’re just doing that at the pump, the firearm’s attended in the vehicle and there is no violation of this ordinance. “This is to stop people from leaving unsecured weapons inside of a vehicle and leaving the vehicle,” he said. “And again, making it harder for somebody to steal the firearm from the vehicle.” As for concerns that police might target hunters passing through the city, Pytel said just like any other city ordinance, “we consistently give warnings and educate people and this one would be really no different. “The primary goal here is to educate our community about how to safely store firearms to make them more difficult for people to access them. This was never really about enforcement, although in some cases enforcement may be entirely appropriate if somebody leaves their guns unsecured in a car and they’re stolen … Having an infraction violation probably is not such a bad thing.” He noted as well that city has “a pretty large theft problem” with people often leaving purses or computers in their cars and losing them thanks to break-ins. “But here we’re talking about firearms, and especially in the case of hunters, oftentimes there’s ammunition with those firearms. And honestly they should not be left unsecured in the vehicles. That’s dangerous.” As for suggestions that hunters should be exempted from the ordinance, Mayor Lucas Frerichs said, “I’m not sure the ability to do an exemption for a class of people, in this case hunters, is going to work … there’s a slippery slope and when you start to exempt classes of folks.” The council ultimately voted unanimously to amend the ordinance as proposed by Pytel. Hennelly thanked Pytel for working to address the concerns of hunters, but said, “I don’t think that’s going to fully fix our issue.”
Wayne Tilcock/Enterprise photo
Emergency responders attend the scene of the fatal 2016 crash at Second Street and Cantrill Drive. the intersection of Second Street and Cantrell Drive, along with a flashing orange light at Second Street and Pena Drive.
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A colorful memorial to Jonasen of flowers and windmills still adorns a lamppost near the crash scene.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene