LIFE SENTENCE OVERTURNED FOR OROVILLE DRUG-MAKER

OROVILLE -- A life prison term for a convicted Oroville drug
manufacturer has been overturned by an appeals court ruling that
found the state's three-strikes law was improperly applied in the case.

Lenny Ross Maestas, who has served about six years of his sentence,
could now be released within a year, according to his lawyer.

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey criticized the appellate
ruling as "tortured logic," and said he feared it could impact other
three-strikes cases.

Maestas was convicted by a jury in 2000 of manufacturing
methamphetamine and possession of a firearm by a felon, after a
police raid on his Oroville mobile home and shed turned up
drug-making chemicals and three guns.

At the time of sentencing, Butte County Superior Court Judge Stephen
Benson upheld arguments by the prosecution that two 1992 burglary
convictions on Maestas' record involving break-ins of a fifth-wheel
trailer in Contra Costa County constituted "serious felonies" under
California's three-strikes law.

Maestas appealed the life sentence, pointing out that although his
prior crimes were charged as first-degree residential burglaries --
which are strikes -- they were reduced in a plea bargain to
second-degree burglary, Advertisement ChicoER.com Movie Times
non-strike offenses.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento upheld Maestas' drug
conviction, but overturned the life sentence, agreeing his prior
crimes are not strikes.

In its 16-page decision, the three-member appellate panel conceded
that because of various changes to the three-strikes law since it was
first passed by California voters in 1982, there are times when it is
appropriate for judges to "look beyond" the facts of a defendant's
earlier crimes to resolve any ambiguity as to whether they qualify as strikes.

However, "the trial court's finding that (Maestas) committed
first-degree burglaries contradicts his conviction of second-degree
burglary," the appellate court stated.

"The court may look beyond the fact of the conviction, but not beyond
logic and reason," it added, calling the life sentence against
Maestas "neither fair or reasonable."

The California Supreme Court has reportedly since denied a petition
by the Attorney General's Office to "de-publish" the Maestas opinion
in an attempt to avoid establishing a legal precedent in other
three-strikes cases.

Reached for comment, Ramsey asserted judges routinely examine the
underlying facts of a defendant's prior crimes at the time of sentencing.

"I've re-read this decision, and find it convoluted and full of
tortured logic," said Ramsey.

But Maestas' lawyer, Robert Radcliffe of Chico, feels the appeals
court was trying to correct a basic unfairness in the case.

"I believe that the way they wrote the decision, the court felt it
was not fair for the D.A. to go behind the plea agreement," Radcliffe observed.

Radcliffe calculated that with his two strikes now dismissed, Maestas
has only about eight to 10 more months of his 2000 drug-manufacturing
sentence to serve.

Maestas, who is currently imprisoned near Susanville, was supposed to
be returned to Butte County to be re-sentenced last week.

When he didn't appear, Benson set a new sentencing date next month
and signed an order for him to be transferred from prison for that hearing.