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A man whose conviction for committing a violent carjacking in Pacific Beach was reversed on appeal resolved his case on May 6 and was immediately sentenced to 14 years in state prison.
Skyler Jace Battreal, now 23, was originally sentenced to life in prison plus five years in November 2019 for carjacking Brett Charbonnel, 22, to drive him through Pacific Beach on Oct. 14, 2018.
Charbonnel, a college student at the time, was hit in the face with an airsoft pellet gun, which he thought was a handgun. He lost two teeth in the assault and was pushed out of his own 2007 Hyundai Elantra in Pacific Beach around 9:15 p.m.
Battreal kept driving but crashed the car into a parked car in the 1300 block of Emerald Street. The car was totaled.
On May 6, Battreal appeared before San Diego Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein and pleaded guilty to carjacking and use of a deadly weapon that inflicted great bodily injury to Charbonnel.
Battreal and his attorney requested immediate sentencing and he received 14 years in prison.
Deputy District Attorney Jim Koerber said Battreal will receive credit for roughly four years he has already spent in jail and prison, but he did not know the exact amount.
“The Department of Corrections will determine that amount,” said Koerber.
Koerber said the victim agreed with the settlement of the case to avoid a retrial.
A jury convicted Battreal after only two hours of deliberations in September 2019, of kidnapping during a carjacking, assault with a deadly weapon, carjacking, and inflicting great bodily injury.
The 4th District Court of Appeal reversed all of Battreal’s jury convictions due to judicial error when they faulted Judge Sharon Majors-Lewis for not conducting a mental competency hearing for Battreal.
Battreal’s attorney asked for a mental competency hearing on the third day of trial because his client was nonresponsive and could not keep his head up or his eyes open. The attorney feared he had taken medication in a suicide attempt, according to the appeal.
Majors-Lewis, who is now retired, refused to allow a mental competency exam, saying the trial had already started. She imposed the life sentence plus five years, which was vacated by the appeal.
Battreal had arrived in San Diego from Texas on a Greyhound bus. He was walking around Garnet Avenue near Cass Street near 9 p.m. when he asked Charbonnel for a ride, saying his motorcycle had been stolen.
Charbonnel testified that once inside his car Battreal became menacing.