People v. Heath CA4/1

DISCUSSION

A. Possession of Ammunition

Heath contends the trial court erred in not staying the sentence for unlawful

possession of ammunition (count 8) under section 654 because it was part of an

indivisible course of conduct and incidental to his unlawful possession of the firearm as

charged in count 7.

Section 654 "prohibits multiple punishment for a single physical act that violates

different provisions of law." (People v. Jones (2012) 54 Cal.4th 350, 358; People v.

Sanders (2012) 55 Cal.4th 731, 743-744.) Its protection has been extended to cases in

which there are several offenses committed during "a course of conduct deemed to be

indivisible in time." (People v. Beamon (1973) 8 Cal.3d 625, 639 (Beamon).) "Whether

a course of criminal conduct is divisible and therefore gives rise to more than one

act . . . depends on the intent and objective of the actor. If all of the offenses were

incident to one objective, the defendant may be punished for any one of such offenses but

not for more than one. " (Neal v. State of California (1960) 55 Cal.2d 11, 19.)

However, if a defendant harbored " ' "multiple criminal objectives" which were

independent of and not…