People v. Coronado (1995)

In People v. Coronado (1995) 12 Cal.4th 145, the defendant suffered a prior conviction and served a prison term for felony drunk driving. (Veh. Code, 23152, subd. (a).) He was convicted for another incident of drunk driving (Veh. Code, 23152, subd. (a)) and admitted three prior prison terms. One of the prior prison terms was the prior felony drunk driving conviction. This conviction was used to elevate the current conviction to a felony pursuant to Vehicle Code section 23550 (formerly 23175), and was also used as an enhancement to increase the defendant's sentence by one year pursuant to section 667.5, subdivision (b). The defendant argued that the dual use of the prior conviction violated section 654. First, the Supreme Court distinguished between sentence enhancements which go to the nature of the offender and reflect the defendant's status as a repeat offender, and those which go to the nature of the offense and reflect what the defendant did when the current crime was committed. ( People v. Coronado, supra, 12 Cal.4th at pp. 156-157.) The Supreme Court stated that the section 667.5, subdivision (b) enhancement fell into the first category and specifically limited its analysis to determining whether section 654 barred the enhancement in the case before it. ( People v. Coronado, supra, at pp. 156-157.) The Supreme Court concluded that section 654 was inapplicable in Coronado. ( People v. Coronado, supra, 12 Cal.4th at p. 158.) The Supreme Court noted there are two types of sentence enhancements: (1) those which go to the nature of the offender, and (2) those which go to the nature of the offense. (Id. at p. 156.) Coronado declined to resolve the question of whether section 654 applied to enhancements generally, but concluded that section 654 obviously had no application to an enhancement that was based solely on the status of the offender (i.e., a prior conviction). (Coronado, supra, at pp. 156-159.) The court concluded that a single prior conviction and resulting prison term could be used both to elevate a violation of Vehicle Code section 23152 to a felony and to enhance the sentence "without violating section 654's bar against multiple punishment of an act or omission." (Coronado, supra, at p. 159, fn. omitted.)