Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: The romero act

It's not an act. It's a case. His attorney would file a "Romero motion" and ask the court to strike the one or more of the priors. If he has two strikes on his record now, he's looking at 25 to life per count. If the court strikes one strike, leaving one, any sentence would be doubled.

In doing an analysis of whether or not the court will strike the priors, they'll look at how old the strikes are (not good in your case), whether he was off parole when the new case happened (not good in your case), whether the new offense was a violent crime or one that indicates a danger to the public (guns = not good in your case), whether the strikes were related (a shooting, now possessing a gun = not good in your case) and whether they came from the same case or different cases (not good in your case).

The final analysis is whether or not a sentence of 25 to life would be disproportionate for the crime he's currently accused of. That's where the majority of the fight will come in your case.

Your friend needs a very, very, very good criminal defense attorney working on their behalf or they're looking at the rest of their life in prison.