People v. Calles

In People v. Calles (2012) 209 Cal.App.4th 1200, the defendant, while high on nitrous oxide, ran his car into a group of pedestrians, killing two of them and severely injuring another. (Calles, at pp. 1205, 1207-1208.) He was convicted of, inter alia, three counts of leaving the scene of an accident, one for each victim. (Id. at p. 1204.) The Calles court held that the trial court incorrectly stayed execution of sentence on the three counts of leaving the scene of an accident. The court stated there could be only one conviction for leaving the scene because there was only one act of leaving the scene. (Id. at p. 1217.) Calles does not stand for the broad proposition suggested by defendant, i.e., that the issue of whether leaving the scene carries a separate intent is to be decided on a case-by-case basis. Rather, Calles demonstrates only that in a case where there are multiple victims as a result of negligent driving by one perpetrator, there can be only one act of leaving the scene.