Reyes-Tornero

INTRODUCTION

Defendant/appellant Jose Manuel Reyes-Tornero approached four men at an outdoor card game. He pointed a gun at each of them and demanded their wallets. One of the men, Efren Cisneros,1 refused to surrender his wallet and a struggle ensued wherein defendant shot Efren, causing great bodily injury. None of the other three card players were injured. Defendant was convicted of four counts of assault with a firearm, among other crimes. The jury found true allegations that defendant had inflicted great bodily injury (GBI) on Efren specifically with respect to each of the four assaults. Defendant contends that Penal Code section 6542 prohibits multiple punishment on multiple great bodily injury enhancements relating to the same injuries to the same individual. Citing People v. Oates (2004) 32 Cal.4th 1048 (Oates), the Attorney General responds that the “multiple victim” exception to section 654 applies because there were multiple victims of the several assaults to which the GBI enhancements were attached. Under Oates, the relevant “act[s] or omission[s]” are the assaults and the GBI enhancements “simply follow from” those assaults. And because there were multiple victims of…