Sanchez

Eliazar Sanchez appeals after a jury convicted him of two counts of robbery. He asserts the case must be remanded for resentencing because the trial court failed to state reasons for imposing consecutive, rather than concurrent, sentences. We affirm.

Jatindergit Singh testified that on February 15, 1992, he was working at a Quik Stop Store on Leland Road in Pittsburg. He stated that two men — one African-American, one Latino — came into the store and took beer from the cooler. When Singh asked for money, the African-American man displayed a gun and asked, "[y]ou want money or you want...." The men then left the store without paying. Singh identified appellant as one of the men. The incident was videotaped.

Airon Gauff testified that he too was robbed by an African-American man and a Latino man while working in a store on February 15, 1992. He testified that he was suspicious the men were attempting to steal beer and was watching them. Appellant came up behind Gauff, pulled out a gun and said, "Give me the money." As the men left, appellant warned, "[i]f you call anybody or if you come after me, I'm going to get you." This incident also was videotaped;…

*1682 Opinion

Eli azar Sanchez appeals after a jury convicted him of two counts of robbery. He asserts the case must be remanded for resentencing because the trial court failed to state reasons for imposing consecutive, rather than concurrent, sentences. We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

Jatindergit Singh testified that on February 15, 1992, he was working at a Quik Stop Store on Lei and Road in Pittsburg. He stated that two men—one African-American, one Latino—came into the store and took beer from the cooler. When Singh asked for money, the African-American man displayed a gun and asked, “[y]ou want money or you want. . . .” The men then left the store without paying. Singh identified appellant as one of the men. The incident was videotaped.

Airón Gauff testified that he too was robbed by an African-American man and a Latino man while working in a store on February 15, 1992. He testified that he was suspicious the men were attempting to steal beer and was watching them. Appellant came up behind Gauff, pulled out a gun and said, “Give me the money.” As the men left, appellant warned, “[i]f you call anybody or if you come after me, I’m going to get you.” This incident…

“In law, as in life, lines have to be drawn. But the fact that a line has to be drawn somewhere does not justify its being drawn anywhere. The line must follow some direction of policy, whether rooted in logic or experience.” (Pearce v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue Service (1942) 315 U.S. 543, 558 [ 86 L.Ed. 1016, 1025 , 62 S.Ct. 754 ] (dis. opn. of Frankfurter, J.).) The constrictive standard followed by the majority in this case draws an arbitrary line that serves no sound policy and defies both logic and experience.

The majority says, in effect, that the benefit of requiring a trial court to confirm whether it genuinely intended to impose a year or more of state prison time is not worth the 15 minutes it would take to do so—even where, as here, the trial court not only failed to state reasons for the sentence imposed, as required by statute (Pen. Code, § 1170, subd, (c)), but also revealed both a desire to accord leniency and a misunderstanding of its sentencing authority. 1 It is only when an appellate court is subjectively satisfied reconsideration would “probably” result in a lesser sentence that remand for resentencing is required. This grudging conception of the role…