Most often hoodlums locked in prison drop the pruno jar and fly off their bunk beds with joy when they hear that an appellate court has issued a reversal in their criminal case.
But sadly for Orange County's Daniel Infante the news wasn't worth celebrating.
Infante, a Headhunters gangster in the midst of his fourth trip to a California prison, can thank District Attorney Tony Rackauckas for working overtime to keep him locked up longer than his initial punishment for gang-related activities in La Habra.
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This week at Rackauckas' urging, a California Court of Appeal based in Santa Ana reversed Superior Court Judge Richard Stanford's May 2012 decision to dismiss two of four felony charges in the case.
Police
stopped Infante in April 2010 for failing to obey a traffic sign and
found a revolver and semi-automatic 9mm handgun, both loaded, inside the
vehicle.
Given the hoodlum's prior criminal history, the DA
piled on the charges: possession of a concealed firearm in a motor
vehicle by an active gang member, possession of a loaded firearm in
public by an active gang member, possession of a firearm by a felon and
active participation in a criminal street gang.
In a 14-page opinion, Justice Eileen C. Moore wrote for a three-justice panel that state law allows prosecutors to file an avalanche of charges for known gang members.
Upshot: Infante, 32, who is presently enjoying the spectacular confines of Kern Valley State Prison, should face at least a doubling of his current, two-year punishment and then can return to society to commit more crimes.
(In the comments section, the hoodlum's lawyer says his client won't get additional time despite the ruling.)
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CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.
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