Can a defendant be punished for multiple violations under section 654 of the California Criminal Code?

Section 654, subdivision (a) provides in relevant part, "An act or omission that is punishable in different ways by different provisions of law shall be punished under the provision that provides for the longest potential term of imprisonment, but in no case shall the act or omission be punished under more than one provision." The purpose of this statute "is to insure that a defendant's punishment will be commensurate with his culpability. [Citation.]" (People v. Perez (1979) 23 Cal.3d 545, 551.) Section 654 "prohibits multiple sentences where the defendant commits different acts that violate different statutes but the acts comprise an indivisible course of conduct engaged in with a single intent and objective. [Citation.]" (People v. Alvarado (2001) 87 Cal.App.4th 178, 196.) But where a defendant acts with "multiple criminal objectives that [a]re independent of and not merely incidental to each other, then he may be punished for the independent violations committed in pursuit of each objective even though the violations were parts of an otherwise indivisible course of conduct. [Citation.]" (Ibid.)

"Whether section 654 applies in a given case is a question of fact for the trial court, which is vested with broad latitude in making its determination. [Citations.] Its findings will not be reversed on appeal if there is any substantial evidence to support them. [Citations.] We review the trial court's determination in the light most favorable to the respondent and presume the existence of every fact the trial court could reasonably deduce from the evidence. [Citation.]" (People v. Jones (2002) 103 Cal.App.4th 1139, 1143.)