People v. Mesa

In People v. Mesa (2012) 54 Cal.4th 191, the defendant, an ex-felon and gang member, shot a victim. (Mesa, supra, 54 Cal.4th at p. 193.) The California Supreme Court concluded that the defendant could not be punished for the substantive gang offense ( 186.22, subd. (a)) in addition to being punished for assault with a firearm and possession of a firearm by an ex-felon. (Mesa, at p. 195.) The court said, "Whether multiple convictions are based upon a single act is determined by examining the facts of the case. . . . . . . . . . The only acts shown by the evidence . . . were that defendant possessed the firearm and shot the victim. These two acts resulted in three separate punishments . . . . . . . The defendant's sentence for the substantive gang offense violates section 654 because it punishes defendant a second time either for the assault with a firearm or for possession of a firearm by a felon. . . . . . . Our case law has found multiple criminal objectives to be a predicate for multiple punishments only in circumstances that involve, or arguably involve, multiple acts. The rule does not apply where, as here . . . the multiple convictions at issue were indisputably based upon a single act. . . . . . . . . . Here, the evidence of the shooting or firearm possession offenses committed by defendant was the only evidence of the third element of the substantive gang offense." (Id. at pp. 196-197, 199-200.) The California Supreme Court called attention to People v. Mendoza (1997) 59 Cal.App.4th 1333, 1346, in which "'the parties agreed that the defendant's two convictions arose from a single act'" and People v. Louie (2012) 203 Cal.App.4th 388, 397, holding, "'A single criminal act, even if committed incident to multiple objectives, may be punished only once.'" (Mesa, at p. 199.)