Court: Teen's 110-year sentence is constitutional

(01-18) 15:38 PST LOS ANGELES -- A state appeals court upheld a 16-year-old gang member's 110-year sentence for three attempted murders Tuesday and said the fact that he will be in prison until he dies doesn't violate the U.S. Supreme Court's ban on life-without-parole terms for juveniles in non-homicide cases.

Rodrigo Caballero was convicted in adult court of shooting at three rival gang members and wounding one in Palmdale (Los Angeles County) in June 2007. He testified that he had been trying to kill them, but his lawyer argued that Caballero, who was diagnosed as schizophrenic and delusional after his arrest, should have been found incompetent to stand trial.

The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles rejected that argument Tuesday, saying Caballero had regained his competency with medication, and also said his sentence did not violate the constitutional standard that the Supreme Court set in a Florida case in May.

The high court said a sentence of life without parole for a minor for any crime besides murder or manslaughter violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment by denying the juvenile the chance to show he has been rehabilitated.

The ruling applied mostly to youths in Florida prisons but also affected four inmates in California. State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill that would have allowed another 250 youths serving life-without-parole terms for murder in California to seek eligibility for release after 25 years, but it died in the Legislature.

The Supreme Court did not say whether youthful non-murderers could be sentenced to terms so long they would never be released. A California appellate court said in September that the state could not do so, ruling that a 16-year-old serving 84 years for carjacking was entitled to a sentence that would leave open the possibility of parole.

The appeals court in Caballero's case disagreed with that ruling Tuesday. The Supreme Court's ban applies only to sentences that expressly deny any possibility of parole for a juvenile non-murderer, the appellate panel said.

Otherwise, a youth who shot and wounded multiple victims "could not receive a term commensurate with his or her crimes if all the victims had the good fortune to survive," Justice Steven Suzukawa said in the 3-0 ruling.

Defense lawyer David Durchfort said he would probably appeal to the state Supreme Court and argue that a 110-year term is the same as life without parole.

Caballero had no history of violent crime and should have "the opportunity to show growth and maturity in custody," Durchfort said.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.