Justice Stone reversed murder conviction after judge advised prosecutors

A trial judge who texted a former colleague in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office in the middle of a murder trial, asking why the prosecutor hadn't called a rebuttal witness, "took on the role of the prosecutor and attempted to tip the scales of justice," Justice Natalie P. Stone of the 2nd District Court of Appeal wrote in reversing the conviction.

In People v. Rockhill (2025), Stone held that Judge Emily Cole's texts created a constitutionally intolerable probability of bias requiring a new trial.

After the defendant testified, the prosecutor said she had no rebuttal. Cole texted a deputy district attorney watching the trial to ask why no rebuttal witness was called. "Maybe people should talk it over with her???" she wrote.

"Judge Cole's purpose appears inescapable: to strengthen the prosecution's case to convict Rockhill," Stone wrote. "This was antithetical to her duty." The Commission on Judicial Performance had censured Cole.

Stone joined Division 7 in 2024 and on Nov. 3 seeks retention for the four remaining years of her predecessor's term.

State law limited Pasadena's authority to regulate rents, Stone concluded in a ruling that largely upheld the city's voter-approved rent control measure. She upheld a rental board with seven of 11 seats reserved for tenants but found state law preempted provisions requiring relocation payments to some tenants facing lawful rent increases and more than the state's three-day eviction notice. California Apartment Assn. v. City of Pasadena (2025).

"However worthy and laudable that goal of Measure H is, state law provides for a different purpose," she wrote. The Supreme Court denied review, and Division 7 later relied on the decision to invalidate a similar Los Angeles provision.

How far regulators may go in requiring new technology was at issue in Western States Petroleum Assn. v. California Air Resources Board (2025). Rejecting an industry challenge, Stone upheld rules requiring vessels, including oil tankers, to cut emissions while docked at California ports. She held that regulators may require technology that does not yet exist if it can be achieved by the compliance deadline.

Stone drew on criminal court experience in a mental health diversion dissent. In People v. Tourville (2026), she would have upheld a judge's decision to deny diversion to a military veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who attacked the mother of his 4-day-old child but received probation with the same treatment.

"Faulting courts for granting probation after denying diversion could have the perverse effect of leading courts to send more defendants with mental health issues to prison instead of allowing them to be treated in the community," she wrote. She noted that when defendants on diversion leave their programs, courts are "often in the dark."

At her confirmation hearing, Stone said that in nine years in juvenile dependency and criminal court she saw how important it was for defendants, their families and victims "to feel that they have a judge who hears them. I intend to keep in mind all those human faces, instead of just seeing a cold record before me."

Retired Justice Thomas L. Willhite Jr., for whom Stone worked as a research attorney, called hiring her one of his best decisions. "Judge Stone writes to get it right."

Judge Kim Nguyen recalled bringing Stone legal puzzles. Stone's eyes would light up, and she would say, "There's gotta be an opinion on that."

Nguyen also recalled a lawyer who, after losing a hotly contested ruling, insisted on telling the record he had never disagreed more with a court. "The extent of your disagreement with the court is irrelevant," Stone replied. "Can we move on to the next issue?"

A UCLA School of Law graduate, Stone spent more than a decade at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, representing the J. Paul Getty Trust in antiquities disputes. She helped lead Food From the Bar, which has raised more than $8 million for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.