California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from The People v. Gordy, No. B214881, No. BA296668 (Cal. App. 2010):
Section 654 prohibits punishment for more than one offense arising from the same act or from an indivisible course of conduct. (People v. Latimer (1993) 5 Cal.4th 1203, 1216.) Whether a course of conduct is divisible depends on the intent and objective of the actor. (Id. at p. 1208.) If all the offenses were incident to one objective,
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the defendant may only be punished for one offense. (Ibid.) If the defendant had multiple independent criminal objectives, he may be punished for each offense. When, as here, the trial court does not state any reasons for its section 654 ruling, we will deem the court to have made an implied finding that the offenses had a separate objective. (See People v. Blake (1998) 68 Cal.App.4th 509, 512.) Application of section 654 is a question of fact for the trial court, whose finding will be upheld if supported by substantial evidence. (People v. Tarris (2009) 180 Cal.App.4th 612, 626-627.)
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