People v. Sinay (Cal. Ct. App., May 19, 2025, No. 2D CRIM B331391) 2025 WL 1692074, at *1
Summary: Sinay appeals an order awarding restitution to a crime victim and her parents for horrible injuries and economic losses suffered from Sinay’s commission of crimes of torture, mayhem, corporal injury to a child, and child abuse. The Court rejected Sinay’s contentions regarding the trial court’s jurisdiction to award victim restitution, the constitutional rights to a speedy trial, and the calculation of the present valuerestit of the victim’s lost wages and affirm.
Factual And Procedural History
A jury convicted Sinay of torture, mayhem, corporal injury to a child, and child abuse. (§§ 206, 203, 273d, 273a.) It also found that he personally inflicted great bodily injury upon R.P. (§ 12022.7.) On November 1, 1993, the trial court sentenced Sinay to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The court imposed a $10,000 restitution fine but did not address or order victim restitution.
On June 18, 2021, Sinay was granted psrole by the Board of Parole Hearings and on October 7, 2021, he was released on parole.
The prosecutor filed a motion seeking $8,408.62 in restitution to the California Victim Compensation Board as well as actual restitution to R.P. and her family. (§ 1202.46.) The prosecutor asserted that the trial court could modify Sinay’s sentence to include the victim restitution order because the 1993 sentence did not include victim restitution. Attached to the motion were exhibits supporting the restitution request for reimbursement of medical and mental health treatment expenses (1993-2013), lost income to R.P.’s mother, and R.P.’s lost income as an adult.
On May 16, 2023, the trial court held a victim restitution hearing. R.P. and her parents testified. R.P.’s mother described her work history and described R.P.’s frequent medical treatments. R.P.’s father described the amounts paid for R.P.’s medical treatments over the years – skin grafts, medical supplies, and reconstructive surgeries, among other treatments. R.P. testified regarding her ongoing recent burn injuries, the many reconstructive surgeries she experienced, the pain she had and continues to have, and her work history. R.P. stated that she had worked on a full-time basis earning $44,000 per year for six years.
Sinay opposed the restitution request on the ground that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to resentence him after the execution of his sentence. He argued that a restitution hearing 30 years following his initial sentencing violated his constitutional rights to due process of law and to a speedy trial. Sinay did not challenge the monetary amounts claimed in the requested restitution.
Following briefing and argument, the trial court determined that it had jurisdiction to order victim restitution. The court expressly found the testimony of R.P. and her parents credible and sufficient evidentiary support for the requested restitution. The court ordered $15,600 to R.P.’s mother for lost wages; $818,697.14 past and future lost wages to R.P.; and $85,866.65 for past medical expenses. The amounts bore an interest rate of 10 percent per year from the order date (August 15, 2023).
Sinay appeals and challenges the restitution award. He claims: 1) the trial court lacked jurisdiction to render a restitution award 30 years after his sentencing; 2) the delay violated his federal and state constitutional rights to a speedy trial and due process of law; and 3) the court’s choice of a 4.25 percent discount rate in the calculation of the present value of R.P.’s future wages lacks evidentiary support.
Discussion
Sinay argues that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to award victim restitution 30 years following his initial sentencing.
The trial court correctly concluded that it had jurisdiction to award victim restitution. The California Constitution and section 1202.4 mandate an award of victim restitution “ ‘in every case … in which a crime victim suffers a loss, unless compelling and extraordinary reasons exist to the contrary.’ ” (People v. Giordano (2007) 42 Cal.4th 644, 652.) The purpose of such restitution “is to reimburse the victim for economic losses caused by the defendant’s criminal conduct, i.e., to make the victim reasonably whole.” (People v. Guillen (2013) 218 Cal.App.4th 975, 984; § 1202.4, subd. (f)(3).)
Section 1202.46 provides: “Notwithstanding section 1170, when the economic losses of a victim cannot be ascertained at the time of sentencing pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 1202.4, the court shall retain jurisdiction over a person subject to a restitution order for purposes of imposing or modifying restitution until such time as the losses may be determined. This section does not prohibit a victim, the district attorney, or a court on its own motion from requesting correction, at any time, of a sentence when the sentence is invalid due to the omission of a restitution order or fine pursuant to Section 1202.4.”
A restitution order may be upheld after a judgment was entered and the matter affirmed on appeal.
The restitution order was affirmed.
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