Reed

On January 24, 2004, two San Francisco police officers found defendant, Vincent Reed, a convicted felon, in possession of a loaded and concealed .25-caliber automatic pistol. In addition to other crimes not relevant here, he was charged with and convicted of (1) being a felon in possession of a firearm (Pen. Code, § 12021, subd. (a)(1)), 1 (2) carrying a concealed firearm (§ 12025, subd. (a)(2)), and (3) carrying a loaded firearm while in a public place (§ 12031, subd. (a)(2)(A)). The court sentenced him to prison for three years on the first count, including a prior prison term enhancement, and stayed the sentences on the remaining weapons counts. The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment. Defendant contends he was improperly convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm in addition to the other weapons crimes.

In general, a person may be convicted of, although not punished for, more than one crime arising out of the same act or course of conduct. “In California, a single act or course of conduct by a defendant can lead to convictions ‘of any number of the offenses charged.’ (§ 954, italics added; People v. Ortega (1998) 19 Cal.4th 686, 692 [ 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 489…

I disagree with the majority’s view that a court never should consider the language of the accusatory pleading in deciding whether multiple convictions are proper. But I reach the same result as the majority in the present case, because the parties agree that defendant’s status as a convicted felon is not an element of the crimes of carrying a concealed firearm and possessing a loaded firearm in public and, thus, the allegations in those counts that defendant was a felon should not be considered in determining whether multiple convictions are proper.

“[T]his court has long held that multiple convictions may not be based on necessarily included offenses.” (People v. Pearson (1986) 42 Cal.3d 351, 355 [ 228 Cal.Rptr. 509 , 721 P.2d 595 ].) In determining whether a defendant properly may be convicted of two crimes based upon a single act or course of conduct, we examine both “the elements of the offenses and the language of the accusatory pleading.” (People v. Ortega (1998) 19 Cal.4th 686, 698 [ 80 Cal.Rptr.2d 489 , 968 P.2d 48 ].) We emphasized this point: “The determination of whether an offense cannot be committed without necessarily committing the included offense must be based .…