People v. Roman CA4/1

INTRODUCTION

A jury found Joshua Roman guilty of felony child abuse (Pen. Code,1 § 273a, subd. (a)), after he violently shook his two-month-old son, causing the infant to suffer from life-threatening brain bleeding and spinal injuries. The jury also found true a sentencing enhancement allegation that Roman personally inflicted great bodily injury on his son (§ 12022.7, subd. (d)). The trial court found three aggravating factors to be true, struck the punishment for the great-bodily-injury enhancement, and sentenced Roman to state prison for the midterm of four years. Roman appeals the judgment of conviction. He contends the trial court improperly violated the ban on dual use of facts when it imposed the midterm for the felony child abuse conviction, rather than the low term. In particular, he claims the court erroneously imposed the midterm based, in part, on two aggravating factors that overlapped with elements of the offense of felony child abuse, the great-bodily-injury enhancement, and the third aggravating factor. We reject this argument and affirm the judgment. II

BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background Roman and A.V. both served in the military. They got married and, a few…