People v. Islas

In People v. Islas (2012) 210 Cal.App.4th 116, the defendants were convicted of burglary and five counts of false imprisonment by violence or menace. The trial court sentenced the defendants to concurrent terms on each of the false imprisonment counts. The defendants initially argued that at most the false imprisonment charges were misdemeanors. The Court of Appeal rejected that argument, concluding that sufficient evidence supported felony false imprisonment by menace. (Id. at pp. 124-128.) Instead it concluded that the concurrent terms for the five false imprisonments should have been stayed under section 654. The two defendants, Islas and Giron, were gang members hanging out in front of a local stronghold. When police arrived, the defendants ran into the building, climbed up a ventilation shaft and entered a bathroom occupied by a young woman and her four daughters aged four to 13. The court's description continued: "Islas and Giron were shirtless with their gang tattoos exposed; their heads were shaved and they wore baggy pants. One put his finger to his mouth and told the mother to hide them from the police. Giron turned off the lights in the apartment. The mother and her daughters huddled together while Islas stood and Giron sat on a couch six feet from them. When the mother said she was scared, Islas and Giron told her they were not going to harm her. After 15 minutes, police officers knocked on the door. Islas told the mother to pretend she was Giron's aunt. Giron answered the door and was pulled from the apartment by the officers. Islas was found hiding under a pile of clothes." (Islas, supra, 210 Cal.App.4th at p. 119.) In rejecting separate punishments, the appellate court first concluded that the burglary was committed "entirely on entry with the intent to commit felony false imprisonment." (Islas, supra, 210 Cal.App.4th at p. 130.) As such, there was a single criminal objective and the defendants could not be sentenced for false imprisonment in addition to the burglary. Turning to the act-of-violence-against-multiple-victims exception, the court first concluded burglary without great bodily injury was not an act of violence, citing People v. Centers, supra, 73 Cal.App.4th at page 99. Its only discussion of act of violence and the multiple false imprisonment victims was: "Also, the convictions of felony false imprisonment were based on menace, not violence. Because none of the offenses was a crime of violence, the multiple victim exception does not apply." (Islas, at p. 130.) If the Islas court was stating a rule that false imprisonment by menace cannot be an act of violence for purposes of the section 654 exception.