Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

For a Cruz/Vargas waiver to come into play, the judge has to agree to let the person out of custody prior to sentencing. If a defendant has multiple prison priors, that's far less likely to happen.

1) The defendant accepts a plea deal and is released until the sentencing date.

2) The defendant promises to appear for sentencing, and agrees to a Cruz/Vargas waver, which says the plea will stand if the defendant fails to show up, but the judge is not bound by the negotiated sentence and can give the defendant up to the maximum for the offenses he pled to.l

In this situation, if the defendant was released and failed to appear for sentencing, he would have even more problems. Failure to appear on a felony case is a new felony, with a sentence of up to three years in prison, plus an additional two-year enhancement.