People v. Williams CA4/1

INTRODUCTION

A jury convicted Desmond Alejandro Williams of the crimes of torture

(Pen. Code,1 § 206) and simple mayhem (§ 203). The trial court sentenced him to a term of life imprisonment for the torture count, and imposed and stayed a concurrent term of four years on the mayhem count. On appeal, he contends there is insufficient evidence to support the torture conviction and asserts two sentencing errors. We agree with his contention the court erred in imposing a concurrent term on the mayhem count after finding section 654 applied. We shall modify the judgment to strike the trial court’s statement in its oral imposition of sentence that the sentence on count 2 is concurrent. As modified, we affirm the judgment.

BACKGROUND

Williams was a transient who stayed in the riverbed area of the San Diego River in Mission Valley. One night in November 2010, Williams returned to his tent to find that “everything was slashed with knives, ripped open, [and] broken.” Items were stolen, including Williams’s “bong.” It appeared “the place had been ransacked.” Williams concluded another transient named Kenneth P. was the culprit. He was angry. In the transient community, damaging a person’s…