Error and/or relief
Three counts of conviction of section 220 were but one crime, and could give rise to only a single conviction.
First Holding:
Section 954 authorizes multiple convictions for different or distinct offenses, but does not permit multiple convictions for a different statement of the same offense when it is based on the same act or course of conduct. Whether multiple convictions are proper under section 954 requires our independent evaluation of the statutes at issue.
Authority:
PEN 954
People v. Vidana (2016) 1 Cal.5th 632, 650
People v. Aguayo (2022) 13 Cal.5th 974, 979, 994 fn. 8 [we confirm that the same course of conduct may not form the basis of separate convictions for the same offense]
People v. Rodriguez (2021) 71 Cal.App.5th 921, 936
Second Holding:
The jury convicted the defendant of three violations of section 220(a)(1). The charging information and verdict forms for each section 220 violation did not identify separate assaultive acts. Nor did the jury instruction on the crimes. It grouped the three assault charges together, did not require multiple actus rei, and only potentially differentiated between the charges based on the intended sex crime. The jurors, evaluating the evidence, could have reasonably assigned the same act or acts to all three offenses.
Authority:
People v. Aguayo (2022) 13 Cal.5th 974, 982–993 [finding assault with a deadly weapon and force-likely assault different statements of the same offense under section 954]
People v. Frank (1865) 28 Cal. 507, 513 [enumerated series of acts in a single statutory provision constitute but one and the same offense]
People v. Thompson (1896) 111 Cal. 242, 247–250 [same, even when a single statutory provision referenced multiple intents]