Francis
People v. Francis
Opinion
lead Opinion
Lavin, J.
*879 INTRODUCTION
The Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act (the STEP Act) imposes an additional penalty on any defendant who commits a felony to benefit a criminal street gang. The length of the sentence enhancement depends on whether the felony is serious, violent, or non-serious and nonviolent. Defendant Trevaun Ian Francis *658 1 was convicted of a serious felony with gang and gun enhancements. Thus, the gang enhancement for serious felonies applied. Under the circumstances of this case, however, the court could not impose both the gun enhancement and *880 the serious-felony gang enhancement. ( People v. Le (2015) 61 Cal.4th 416 , 189 Cal.Rptr.3d 166 , 351 P.3d 295 ( Le ).) Instead of staying or striking the prohibited enhancement, the court imposed the "other felonies" gang enhancement.
We conclude, based on the plain language of the statute, that the gang enhancement for "other felonies" cannot be appended to a serious or violent felony because serious and violent felonies fall within that provision's excepting clause. We therefore modify the judgment to reflect the serious-felony gang enhancement, stay the enhancement, and affirm as modified.