People v. Barrios ( 2021 )


Menu:
  • Filed 2/22/21; See dissenting opinion
    CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
    IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
    SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
    DIVISION EIGHT
    THE PEOPLE,                               B302847
    Plaintiff and Respondent,         (Los Angeles County
    Super. Ct. No. KA116550)
    v.
    JOSE MARCOS BARRIOS,
    Defendant and Appellant.
    APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los
    Angeles County. Mike Camacho, Judge. Remanded to modify
    sentence.
    Paul Couenhoven, under appointment by the Court of
    Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.
    Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief
    Assistant Attorney General, Susan Sullivan Pithey, Senior
    Assistant Attorney General, Steven D. Matthews and Rama R.
    Maline, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
    __________________________
    Jose Marcos Barrios hijacked I. Hsiung and his car for a
    robbery. Barrios took the cash from Hsiung’s wallet and ordered
    Hsiung to drive them both to ATMs for more cash. This
    nighttime affair lasted some two hours. It included freeway
    travel and a long interval of inaction while Barrios persisted in
    holding Hsiung. Barrios awaited the stroke of midnight in hopes
    it would bring Hsiung a new daily ATM withdrawal limit and so
    would allow Barrios to rob Hsiung of yet more cash. Police
    rescued Hsiung after he texted for help.
    The jury convicted Barrios of several crimes. Pertinent
    now are two: kidnapping for robbery and robbery. Each
    conviction, with its gun enhancement, meant a separate sentence
    of 25 years to life plus 10 years. (Pen. Code, § 12022.53, subd.
    (b).) The court did not stay either sentence, but ordered them to
    be consecutive: 50 years to life plus 20 years. The whole
    sentence, including a five-year prior conviction enhancement
    (Pen. Code, § 667, subd. (a)(1)), was 75 years to life.
    If many offenses were incident to one objective, Barrios
    may be punished for any of the offenses but not for more than
    one. (People v. Goode (2015) 
    243 Cal.App.4th 484
    , 492; Pen.
    Code, § 654.) Here, robbery was an incident to Barrios’s
    kidnapping for robbery. Because the kidnapping had no objective
    but robbery, the robbery sentence and its enhancement must be
    stayed.
    I
    Hsiung was parked on the street at about 10:30 p.m. Out
    of the dark, Barrios approached on foot wearing sunglasses, a
    mask, and a hat. He tapped the car window with a gun and told
    Hsiung to open his car or lower the window. Hsiung lowered the
    window.
    2
    Barrios asked if Hsiung had money in the car. Hsiung said
    he had cash in his wallet and “I will just give you that.” After
    getting this cash, Barrios told Hsiung he wanted to get in
    Hsiung’s car to go to an ATM to withdraw money. Barrios got in
    back and made Hsiung drive to an ATM. Barrios, not Hsiung,
    raised the topic of ATMs.
    The two drove to a Bank of the West. Hsiung told Barrios
    he could withdraw only his daily limit of $500. Barrios ordered
    Hsiung to make the withdrawal and to keep the car door open so
    Barrios could shoot if Hsiung ran. Hsiung got $500 and gave it to
    Barrios.
    Barrios told Hsiung they would wait until after midnight,
    “so technically it’s another day.” Barrios wanted to see if Hsiung
    could withdraw more money after midnight. They parked a ways
    off and waited.
    Astonishingly, robber Barrios took a nap. Hsiung texted
    friends for help. A text time stamp showed 11:50 p.m.
    After midnight, Barrios awoke and they started to return to
    the ATM. On the way there were police. Barrios told Hsiung to
    drive to the freeway. After five minutes on the freeway, Barrios
    told Hsiung to exit and they drove to a Bank of America. Hsiung
    tried but could not withdraw money from the ATM there. At
    Barrios’s command, Hsiung kept driving until a police roadblock
    ended the episode.
    II
    Whether Barrios can be imprisoned for both robbery and for
    kidnapping to commit robbery calls for an interpretation of Penal
    Code section 654, which says an “act” punishable in different
    ways by different legal provisions shall be punished under the
    provision providing the longest potential term of imprisonment,
    3
    but in no case shall the “act” be punished under more than one
    provision.
    We must interpret the statutory word “act.” Was Barrios’s
    venture one “act” or more than one “act?” Obviously Barrios
    performed many different physical actions over these two
    hours: he tapped with his gun, he issued commands, he napped,
    he awoke, and so on. Yet the question is legal and not
    physical: within the meaning of Penal Code section 654, was this
    course of conduct but a single “act?” This question of statutory
    interpretation is a question of law.
    The facts in this case are undisputed because Barrios
    testified to an exculpatory version that the jury, to convict, had to
    reject. Barrios does not press his version on appeal. We are left
    with only Hsiung’s version, which is uncontested.
    When facts are undisputed, the application of Penal Code
    section 654 raises a question of law. It is purely a question of
    statutory interpretation. Our review is independent. (People v.
    Corpening (2016) 
    2 Cal.5th 307
    , 312.) This remains true whether
    the statutory “act” is or is not a course of conduct that violates
    more than one statute and thus poses the problem of whether the
    course of conduct comprises a divisible transaction that can be
    punished under more than one statute within the meaning of
    section 654. (People v. Beamon (1973) 
    8 Cal.3d 625
    , 637
    (Beamon).)
    The Beamon decision, for instance, grappled with facts
    similar to those here. We detail the similarity in the next
    paragraph. First we note Beamon used an independent standard
    of review: “We are compelled to the conclusion as a matter of law
    that on the record here both crimes were committed pursuant to
    a single intent and objective, i.e., to rob Ashcraft of the truck or
    4
    its contents.” (Beamon, supra, 8 Cal.3d at p. 639 [italics added];
    cf. People v. Coleman (1989) 
    48 Cal.3d 112
    , 162 & 163 [citing
    Beamon]; Coleman, at p. 128 [“Defendant [Coleman]
    testified. His account corroborated most of the prosecution
    testimony but differed in certain crucial respects.”].)
    We now detail how the facts of the Beamon case resemble
    this case.
    Victim Ashcraft drove a liquor truck and got out for a
    delivery. When Ashcraft returned to the driver’s seat, Beamon
    entered the passenger side with a gun. The two drove a distance
    and then fought. Ashcraft fled and called police, who later
    arrested Beamon. The episode lasted about 20 minutes and
    covered about 15 blocks. (Beamon, supra, 8 Cal.3. at pp. 630–
    631.) The jury convicted Beamon of robbery and kidnapping for
    robbery. The Supreme Court had “little difficulty” with the
    case: Beamon “was convicted of [kidnapping] for the purpose of
    robbery and for the commission of that very robbery. We are
    compelled to the conclusion as a matter of law that on the record
    here both crimes were committed pursuant to a single intent and
    objective, i.e., to rob Ashcraft of the truck or its contents.” (Id. at
    p. 639.) Beamon “may therefore be punished for only one of such
    crimes. As punishment for second degree robbery is the lesser
    punishment for the two crimes, its execution must be
    stayed.” (Id. at pp. 639–640.)
    Beamon governs. It is not identical to this case, but the
    facts of this Supreme Court precedent are close. Under Beamon,
    Barrios’s robbery sentence and his sentence for the associated
    enhancement must be stayed.
    The prosecution cites People v. Porter (1987) 
    194 Cal.App.3d 34
    , which itself cited Beamon. (Porter, at p. 38.) The
    5
    Court of Appeal, however, made no effort to distinguish Beamon;
    Porter merely asserted every case must be decided on its own
    facts. (Porter, at p. 38 [application of Pen. Code, § 654 “to any
    particular case depends upon the circumstances of that
    case”].) This treatment of a factually similar Supreme Court
    precedent is baffling.
    If you kidnap people to rob them, robbing them is the whole
    point. The project has no other goal. Breaking robbery apart
    from kidnapping for robbery is artificial and unconvincing, absent
    some event or occurrence that, midstream, marks a transition
    and redirects the perpetrator to embark on a new criminal
    objective.
    This record reveals no epiphany for Barrios. He kept doing
    what he set out to do: commandeer Hsiung and his car for a
    robbery. Barrios sought to rob Hsiung of as much cash as he
    could. That intent is apparent from Barrios’s command to
    Hsiung to go to the ATM to withdraw money. No factual
    development broke the chain of events and showed Barrios
    changed his plan or developed a new one. There was but one
    criminal “act.”
    6
    DISPOSITION
    We remand this case for the trial court to stay both the
    sentence for the robbery conviction on count 4 and for the
    enhancement for that count. The trial court is to modify the
    abstract of judgment accordingly and to forward the corrected
    abstract to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
    WILEY, J.
    I Concur:
    STRATTON, J.
    7
    BIGELOW, P. J.
    I respectfully dissent.
    In People v. Porter (1987) 
    194 Cal.App.3d 34
     (Porter),
    1
    the court held Penal Code section 654 allowed a defendant to be
    separately punished for robbery and kidnapping for robbery when
    he and another suspect robbed a victim at knifepoint in the
    victim’s car, then, unsatisfied with the money they found, forced
    the victim to drive to an ATM machine to withdraw more money.
    In this case, defendant Barrios did the same thing—he demanded
    and received $50 from the victim at gunpoint while standing
    outside the victim’s car, then got into the car and forced the
    victim to drive to an ATM to withdraw $500 more. Like the
    defendant in Porter, Barrios was separately punished for robbery
    and kidnapping for robbery.
    Though these cases are basically identical, the majority
    disagrees with Porter and holds Barrios could not be punished for
    both felonies pursuant to section 654 based on People v. Beamon
    (1973) 
    8 Cal.3d 625
     (Beamon). I do not find that case controlling
    here and, based on Porter, would affirm.
    The majority makes two errors in its analysis that lead it to
    the wrong conclusion. First, it applies the wrong standard of
    review. Second, it fails to appreciate that the robbery here was
    completed before the kidnapping for a second robbery even began.
    With this in mind, I turn to the facts. At 10:30 p.m. on
    October 20, 2017, victim I. Hsiung went to pick up his mother at
    her friend’s house. He parked outside and sent her a text.
    1
    All undesignated statutory citations refer to the Penal
    Code.
    1
    While he was waiting, Barrios knocked on the closed driver’s side
    window. He was in disguise, wearing dark clothes, a mask, a
    beanie, sunglasses, and gloves. He had a gun.
    Hsiung rolled down the window, and Barrios demanded
    money. Hsiung gave him the $50 cash he had in his wallet.
    Apparently unsatisfied with it, Barrios got into the back seat of
    Hsuing’s car and told him to drive to an ATM to withdraw more
    money. Hsiung said he was waiting for his mother, and Barrios
    forced him to text her and tell her to get a ride from her friend.
    If Hsiung did not obey, Barrios threatened to kill everyone inside
    the house.
    With Barrios in the back seat, Hsiung drove to a nearby
    bank and withdrew $500, his daily withdrawal limit. He gave it
    to Barrios. Barrios wanted more. Since it was almost
    midnight—and close to a new day with a new withdrawal limit—
    Barrios forced Hsiung to park on a nearby street and wait to
    make another withdrawal. He threatened to shoot Hsiung if he
    ran.
    As they waited, Barrios fell asleep. Hsiung texted some
    friends he was being robbed and told them to call 911. They did.
    Barrios woke up after midnight and forced Hsiung to drive
    to the ATM. When they spotted police, Barrios pressed the gun
    to the back of Hsiung’s neck and told him to keep driving. They
    eventually stopped at another ATM and Hsiung tried
    unsuccessfully to withdraw more money. They kept driving until
    Barrios told Hsiung to get out of the car. Hsiung did, but Barrios
    commanded him to get back inside when someone called out to
    them. Hsiung continued driving slowly as police arrived. Barrios
    took off his mask, sunglasses, and gloves. Eventually Hsiung
    stopped when police cars blocked the road.
    2
    Barrios jumped out of the car and ran. He was caught and
    arrested. Officers found a loaded gun in a construction site
    where Barrios was seen discarding it as he fled. Police found
    gloves and $550 in Hsiung’s car.
    A jury convicted Barrios of five felonies: kidnapping to
    commit robbery (§ 209, subd. (b)(1)); possession of a firearm by a
    felon (§ 29800, subd. (a)(1)); unlawful possession of ammunition
    (§ 30305, subd. (a)(1)); robbery (§ 211); and assault with a firearm
    (§ 245, subd. (a)(2)). The jury found true firearm enhancements.
    (§§ 12022.5, subd. (a), 12022.53, subd. (b).) The court found true
    three prior convictions. (§ 667, subds. (a)(1), (b)–(j); § 667.5;
    § 1170.12.)
    In its sentencing brief, the prosecution argued that Barrios
    should be sentenced consecutively for the robbery and kidnapping
    for robbery counts. It relied on Porter and contended Barrios
    committed two crimes: robbing Hsiung of the money in his wallet
    followed by kidnapping him at gunpoint to drive to rob him a
    second time at an ATM. The prosecution pointed out—
    accurately—that jury could not have convicted Barrios of robbery
    based on the conduct at the ATM because the jury was
    specifically instructed it could not find him guilty of robbery
    unless they found he took first the initial $50 before forcing
    Hsiung to drive to the ATM.
    At the sentencing hearing, the trial court agreed with the
    prosecution and imposed consecutive sentencing. It noted “the
    jury made a specific finding that this robbery was separate and
    apart from the robbery that was the subject of the kidnap for
    purposes of count 1,” and it found that the robbery “was
    completed first and before the kidnapping occurred.”
    3
    Barrios was given a third-strike sentence of 75 years to life.
    It was composed of 25 years to life for the kidnapping for robbery
    count plus a 10-year firearm enhancement; a consecutive 25
    years to life for the robbery count plus a 10-year firearm
    enhancement; and a consecutive five years pursuant to section
    667, subdivision (a)(1). The terms for the rest of the counts were
    stayed pursuant to section 654. The consecutive terms for
    robbery and kidnapping for robbery are at issue here.
    Section 654 states in relevant part: “An act or omission
    that is punishable in different ways by different provisions of law
    shall be punished under the provision that provides for the
    longest possible term of imprisonment, but in no case shall the
    act or omission be punished under more than one provision.”
    (§ 654, subd. (a).)
    The majority opinion’s first error occurs when it identifies
    our standard of review as de novo. The case it cites—People v.
    Corpening (2016) 
    2 Cal.5th 307
     (Corpening)—addressed the
    application of section 654 to the single act of forcefully taking a
    vehicle that constituted both carjacking and robbery. The
    question was whether section 654 barred separate punishment
    when “the same action completed the actus reus for [both]
    crimes.” (People v. Corpening, supra, at p. 309.) The court
    explained the application of section 654 requires a two-step
    inquiry. “We first consider if the different crimes were completed
    by a ‘single physical act.’ [Citation.] If so, the defendant may not
    be punished more than once for that act. Only if we conclude
    that the case involves more than a single act—i.e., a course of
    conduct—do we then consider whether that course of conduct
    reflects a single ‘ “intent and objective” ’ or multiple intents and
    objectives.” (People v. Corpening, supra, at p 311.) The issue in
    4
    Corpening only implicated the first step, and because the facts at
    that first step were undisputed, “the application of section 654
    raises a question of law we review de novo.” (Id. at p. 312.)
    To support its standard of review, the majority
    characterizes the issue as whether Barrios committed one act or
    multiple acts and then inexplicably claims that issue is a
    question of statutory interpretation. Nobody has raised those
    issues -- not at the trial court and not on appeal. In fact, the
    parties agree this is not a single-act case. They agree Barrios’s
    actions amounted to a course of conduct: Barrios’s initial act of
    taking Hsiung’s money while standing outside Hsiung’s car, then
    Barrios’s act of getting into the car and forcing Hsiung to drive to
    the ATM. Even Beamon, which the majority treats as dispositive,
    involved a course of conduct, not a single act. (Beamon, supra, 8
    Cal.3d at p. 639.) We are thus confronted only with the second
    step in the application of section 654: whether Barrios’s course of
    conduct reflected multiple intents and objectives. That is not a
    question of the legal meaning of “act” in section 654. As I outline
    below, this is a purely factual question entrusted to the trial
    court in the first instance.
    The majority also relies on Beamon to support a de novo
    standard of review. Beamon did not discuss the standard of
    review. True, it held as a matter of law that a defendant cannot
    be punished for kidnapping for robbery and committing that
    same robbery. That does not tell us much, if anything, about the
    correct standard of review for a trial court’s punishment for
    robbery and kidnapping for a second, later robbery.
    Finally, the majority says de novo review applies because
    the facts are undisputed. I agree the facts surrounding the
    crimes are undisputed, but the issue here is what was going on in
    5
    Barrios’s head at the time of the crimes, which was disputed. We
    wouldn’t be here if the parties agreed on Barrios’s intent and
    objectives in committing the robbery and the kidnapping for a
    second robbery. The majority simply misunderstands what is
    contested.
    The correct standard of review is substantial evidence.
    (People v. Jones (2002) 
    103 Cal.App.4th 1139
    , 1143.) “ ‘ “Whether
    a course of criminal conduct is divisible and therefore gives rise to
    more than one act within the meaning of section 654 depends on
    the intent and objective of the actor. If all the offenses were
    incidental to one objective, the defendant may be punished for
    any one of such offenses but not more than one.” ’ [Citation.] [¶]
    ‘[T]he purpose of section 654 “is to insure that a defendant’s
    punishment will be commensurate with his culpability.” ’
    [Citation.] ‘It is [the] defendant’s intent and objective, not
    temporal proximity of his offenses, which determine whether the
    transaction is indivisible.’ ” (People v. Capistrano (2014) 
    59 Cal.4th 830
    , 885–886, overruled on another ground by People v.
    Hardy (2018) 
    5 Cal.5th 56
    , 104.)
    Thus, “ ‘[t]he defendant’s intent and objective are factual
    questions for the trial court.’ ” (People v. Coleman (1989) 
    48 Cal.3d 112
    , 162; see People v. Jackson (2016) 
    1 Cal.5th 269
    , 354
    [“Intent and objective are factual questions for the trial court,
    which must find evidence to support the existence of a separate
    intent and objective for each sentenced offense.”].) Multiple
    punishments are permissible if there is some “ ‘evidence to
    support [the] finding the defendant formed a separate intent and
    objective for each offense for which he was sentenced.” ’ ” (People
    v. Capistrano, supra, 59 Cal.4th at p. 886.) The court’s finding of
    separate intents, whether express or implied, must be viewed “
    6
    ‘in a light most favorable to the judgment, and [we must]
    presume in support of the court’s conclusion the existence of
    every fact the trier of fact could reasonable deduce from the
    evidence. [Citation.]’ ” (People v. Andra (2007) 
    156 Cal.App.4th 638
    , 640–641.)
    The second flaw in the majority’s reasoning is finding
    section 654 barred separate punishment for robbery and
    kidnapping because it believes the robbery and kidnapping were
    crimes committed with only one intent and objective. The
    majority acknowledges the court in Porter rejected this argument
    in an indistinguishable set of facts, but contends Porter was
    wrong and conflicts with Beamon. I disagree.
    In Porter, the defendant and an accomplice entered the
    victim’s car and robbed him of money and his wallet at
    knifepoint. Finding only $7 or $8, the defendant forced the victim
    to drive to his bank to withdraw more money from an ATM.
    (Porter, supra, 194 Cal.App.3d at p. 36.) The defendant was
    convicted of robbery and kidnapping for robbery, and the trial
    court sentenced him to concurrent terms on the counts. (Id. at
    p. 37.) Recognizing that cases frequently bar punishment for
    both robbery and kidnapping for robbery pursuant to section 654,
    the Court of Appeal nonetheless upheld the dual sentence
    because “[t]he record . . . supports the trial court’s implied finding
    that the two crimes for which appellant was sentenced involved
    multiple objectives, were not merely incidental to each other, and
    were not part of an indivisible course of conduct.” (Id. at p. 38.)
    The court explained: “A reasonable inference from the
    record is that appellant and his companion initially planned only
    to rob the victim of the contents of his wallet, but thereafter came
    up with a new idea: kidnapping the victim to his bank to compel
    7
    him to withdraw money from his account by means of what they
    thought was an automated teller card. . . . What began as an
    ordinary robbery turned into something new and qualitatively
    very different. No longer satisfied with simply taking the
    contents of the victim’s wallet, appellant decided to forcibly
    compel the victim to drive numerous city blocks to a bank where,
    only with the victim’s compelled assistance, could appellant
    achieve a greater reward. The trial court could reasonably treat
    this as a new and independent criminal objective, not merely
    incidental to the original objective and not a continuation of an
    indivisible course of conduct. In the unusual circumstances of
    this case, appellant could be punished both for the robbery he
    committed and the kidnapping for the purpose of a distinctly
    different type of robbery.” (Porter, supra, 194 Cal.App.3d at pp.
    38–39.)
    Barrios’s course of conduct is equally divisible. He knocked
    on Hsiung’s closed car window and demanded money at gunpoint.
    When Hsiung gave him the $50 he had on him, Barrios thought it
    was not enough so he entered his car and forced Hsiung at
    gunpoint to drive to an ATM to withdraw more. This case is even
    stronger than Porter because the jury necessarily found the
    robbery and kidnapping divisible. The jury was instructed that it
    could only convict Barrios of robbery if jurors unanimously
    agreed “the People have proved specifically that the defendant
    committed that offense on October 20, 2017 when cash was taken
    at gunpoint from Mr. Ian Hsiung prior to the events that took
    place at the Bank of the West. Evidence that the defendant may
    have committed the alleged offense on another day or in another
    manner is not sufficient for you to find him guilty of the offense
    charged.” On this record, the trial court could readily infer
    8
    Barrios’s initial plan to rob Hsiung of the money he had on him
    turned into the very different plan to forcibly compel him to drive
    to an ATM to “achieve a greater reward,” that is, commit a second
    robbery. (Porter, supra, 194 Cal.App.3d at p. 39.)
    Porter didn’t hide from or ignore Beamon, as the majority
    implies. Porter cited Beamon for the correct legal standards and
    explained “the application of section 654 to any particular case
    depends upon the circumstances of that case.” (Porter, supra, 194
    Cal.App.3d at p. 38.) The majority criticizes Porter for not
    further distinguishing Beamon. That view is understandable
    because the majority doesn’t think the question is a factual one.
    To me, the differences between Porter and Beamon are obvious.
    In Beamon, the victim parked his work truck to make a delivery
    of liquor to a customer. The truck had approximately $2,500
    worth of merchandise in it. When the victim returned to the
    truck, before he started the motor, defendant entered the truck’s
    cab with a gun. The defendant told the victim to lie face down on
    the floor of the truck’s cab and then took the keys and drove
    away. The two fought and the victim managed to get away. The
    truck had been driven approximately 20 blocks for some 20
    minutes. The truck was later found abandoned.
    The court held section 654 barred punishment for both
    “kidnaping for the purpose of robbery and for the commission of
    that very robbery,” because “both crimes were committed
    pursuant to a single intent and objective, i.e, to rob [the victim]
    of the truck or its contents.” (Beamon, supra, 8 Cal.3d at p. 639.)
    Here, in contrast, Barrios demanded money from Hsiung at
    gunpoint while standing outside his car, received it, and then got
    into the car and forced Hsiung to drive to an ATM to withdraw
    more money. The jury expressly found the first robbery was
    9
    completed before Barrios began the kidnapping for a second,
    distinct robbery. Had Barrios simply walked away after taking
    the $50 Hsiung had in his wallet, he could have been charged
    with robbery but not with kidnapping for robbery. The
    asportation element would have been missing. (CALCRIM No.
    1203.) In the words of Beamon, Barrios was not punished for
    “kidnaping for the purpose of robbery and for the commission of
    that very robbery.” (Beamon, supra, 8 Cal.3d at p. 639.) We
    must defer to the trial court’s finding that Barrios harbored
    separate intent and objectives when he committed these distinct
    acts constituting separate crimes.
    Lest any question remain over Porter’s validity, the
    California Supreme Court expressly endorsed this conclusion in
    People v. Latimer (1993) 
    5 Cal.4th 1203
     (Latimer). In Latimer,
    the Court considered whether to overrule Neal v. State of
    California (1960) 
    55 Cal.2d 11
     (Neal), which “established the
    direction multiple-punishment analysis has taken in California”
    under section 654 ever since the case was decided. (Latimer, at
    p. 1205.) The Latimer court did not embrace Neal, but declined
    to overrule it largely for reasons of stare decisis. (Latimer, at
    p. 1206.)
    In explaining how courts have limited the reach of Neal,
    the Latimer court cited a series of cases that had “found separate,
    although sometimes simultaneous, objectives under the facts.”
    (Latimer, 
    supra,
     5 Cal.4th at p. 1212.) Porter was among the
    cases cited. The court explained in a parenthetical that Porter
    held “robbery and kidnapping the same victim for a later,
    additional, robbery had separate objectives.” (Latimer, at
    p. 1212.) At the end of the Latimer opinion, the court wrote:
    “We also stress that nothing we say in this opinion in intended to
    10
    cast doubt on any of the later judicial limitations of the Neal rule.
    For example, we do not intend to question the validity of
    decisions finding consecutive, and therefore separate, intents,
    and those finding different, if simultaneous, intents. (See pt. II,
    A., ante, last three paragraphs.) Multiple punishment in those
    cases remains appropriate.” (Id. at p. 1216.) The favorable
    citation of Porter is contained in those “last three paragraphs” of
    part II, A. of the Latimer opinion.
    Porter remains good law, specifically endorsed by the
    California Supreme Court. I would uphold the trial court’s
    sentencing decision in the face of this section 654 challenge
    because it is supported by substantial evidence. (People v. Jones,
    supra, 103 Cal.App.4th at p. 1143.) As in Porter, the evidence,
    along with the jury’s finding that the robbery occurred before the
    kidnapping, amply supported a conclusion Barrios harbored two
    distinct intents: to rob Hsiung of the cash on him, and when the
    money he had was not enough, to then kidnap him to drive to
    another location to rob him of more money at the ATM. Barrios’s
    separate punishment under section 654 was valid.
    BIGELOW, P. J.
    11
    

Document Info

Docket Number: B302847

Filed Date: 2/23/2021

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 2/23/2021