Opinion
A099127.
10-9-2003
THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. JEROME L. GRIMES, Defendant and Appellant.
Appellant Jerome L. Grimes purports to appeal from an order finding him incompetent to stand trial. (Pen. Code, § 1368.) We have previously construed his appeal as being from the subsequent commitment to Atascadero State Hospital on July 2, 2002, pursuant to the section 1368 finding and order.
DISCUSSION
Appellant contends that the trial court erred in failing to appoint a second psychiatrist to examine him as required under Penal Code section 1369, subdivision (a). The Attorney General concedes that it was error to fail to appoint a second mental health expert to examine appellant and suggests that "the proper remedy would be to remand the case to the San Francisco County Superior Court with instructions to conduct another mental health evaluation and hearing in compliance with the statutory requirements . . . ."
This court, on its own motion, has ordered the record augmented to include the clerks minutes and the reporters transcript of proceedings held in the superior court on March 13, 2003. The augmented record reveals that on March 13, 2003, months before the filing of appellants opening brief, appellant was returned from Atascadero State Hospital and found competent to stand trial. Criminal proceedings were resumed, he pled guilty to two felony counts, and was sentenced to an aggregate term of two years in state prison. Because of the accumulation of custody credits, he was not remanded to state prison but placed on parole.
Accordingly, this appeal is dismissed as moot.
We concur: Kay, P.J. and Rivera, J. --------------- Notes: It is difficult to comprehend why neither appellants counsel nor the Attorney General ascertained the true status of this case.