Error and/or relief
In 2023 a jury convicted the defendant of, among other things, receiving a stolen vehicle and operating a chop shop. On appeal, the defendant seeks to vacate the former conviction because it is a lesser included offense of the latter. The People agree. We agree with the parties, reverse the conviction, and remand for resentencing.
First Holding:
In California, a single act or course of conduct by a defendant can lead to convictions of any number of the offenses charged. But a judicially created exception to this rule prohibits multiple convictions based on necessarily included offenses. In deciding whether an offense is necessarily included in another, we apply the elements test, asking whether all the legal ingredients of the corpus delicti of the lesser offense are included in the elements of the greater offense. In other words, if a crime cannot be committed without also necessarily committing a lesser offense, the latter is a lesser included offense within the former. Where defendant is convicted of a greater and an included offense, the conviction for the included offense must be reversed.
Authority:
People v. Montoya (2004) 33 Cal.4th 1031, 1034
People v. King (2000) 81 Cal.App.4th 472, 475
Second Holding:
Receiving stolen property is a lesser included offense of operating a chop shop. The elements of receiving stolen property are (1) stolen property; (2) knowledge that the property was stolen; and (3) possession of the stolen property. Operating a chop shop requires the same elements but adds the further requirement that the defendant intentionally own or operate a place in which such stolen property is altered, destroyed, disassembled, dismantled, reassembled, or stored in order to change their identity or to sell them. Accordingly, all of the elements of receiving stolen property are necessarily included in running a chop shop where, as here, it is clear from the information that the stolen property alleged to have been received is the same property, i.e., the stolen motor vehicles, that constitute the chop shop violation.
Authority:
People v. King (2000) 81 Cal.App.4th 472, 476
Third Holding:
Because we reverse one of the defendant’s convictions, we must also remand to allow the trial court to conduct a full resentencing based on the surviving convictions.
Authority:
People v. Buycks (2018) 5 Cal.5th 857, 893 [When part of a sentence is stricken on review, on remand for resentencing a full resentencing as to all counts is appropriate, so the trial court can exercise its sentencing discretion in light of the changed circumstances.]