The California Court of Appeals is sending the case of a Calif. City couple back to a Bakersfield courtroom for a resentencing hearing. The court will not, however, revisit the verdict.

  Calif. City residents Trezell and Jacqueline West were convicted in 2023 of second-degree murder in the death of Orrin and willful cruelty to Orson, 3. The boys were reported missing in 2020 and have yet to be found.

  The case is heading back to court for a resentencing hearing because of how the original sentence was structured, rather than new evidence.

  The Mojave Desert News first reported on this story in Dec. 2020 stating that Orrin and Orson West, two adopted boys ages 3 and 4, went missing on Dec. 20, 2020 from their home in the 10700 block of Aspen Ave. The adoptive parents, Trezell and Jacqueline West, said the boys had been playing on the patio with chalk while the mother was wrapping Christmas gifts. The father was gathering firewood nearby for a fire and found the boys missing minutes after seeing them.

  Officers had previously searched the home on Dec. 22nd and 23rd under a search warrant related to any information on the location of the boys. The Wests confirmed on Dec. 23 that many of their technology items such as cellphones had been taken under the term of the search warrant.

  In Jan. 2021, an increased reward of 80,000 was offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects responsible and in March of that same year, the Bakersfield Police Department (was made lead agency in the case), Kern County Search and Rescue and the FBI conducted a 50-person search in rural fields in Southeast Bakersfield (while a search continued in Calif. City) for the boys. BPD Sgt. Robert Pair told media that search did not find any trace of the boys.

  Then, in March 2022, more than a year following the shocking disappearance of California City brothers, we reported that the adoptive parents were in custody charged with murder.

  In June 2022, following a grand jury superseding indictment that includes the new charges in addition to those in the original indictment; the Wests each faced two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of child cruelty, falsely reporting an emergency, involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy.

  In March 2023, opening statements began in the trial then on May 18, 2023, the West’s were found guilty of second-degree murder and other offenses. Jurors found the Wests guilty of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and child cruelty regarding Orrin West, 4, but failed to reach verdicts on second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with Orson’s death. A guilty verdict for child cruelty was returned regarding Orson. In addition, the adoptive parents were convicted of falsely reporting an emergency.

  In Sept. 2023, they were each sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, plus four years, Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer said during a press conference after the sentencing by Judge Charles Brehmer that, “This case was prosecuted because the evidence was overwhelming that Trezell and Jacqueline West murdered those two boys,” 

  After receiving news of the resentencing hearing by the California Court of Appeals, Bakersfield Attorney Kyle Humphrey said the issue comes down to one key principle: the law states that defendants cannot be punished twice for the same act. An appeals court found the second-degree murder and child abuse convictions were based on the same act, meaning the law only allows one punishment. He also said that it’s unlikely the original sentence could technically change.

  “So, if you’re going to be convicted of murder for doing a single act, you can’t also be convicted for child endangerment for that same single act and, chances are that, in his mind, he knew this was a 15-to-life case. So now when they come back, he’ll have to state the reasons that went unstated before as to why that higher sentence is appropriate, and I just don’t see that happening” Humphrey said.

  The original sentence could very well stay the same or could be adjusted as to how the punishment is applied; no hearing date has been set for the resentencing.