California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Scott, E041908 (Cal. App. 9/6/2007), E041908 (Cal. App. 2007):
Penal Code section 654 provides that a trial court may not punish a defendant under more than one provision of the Penal Code if the defendant's crimes result from an indivisible course of conduct. (People v. Siko (1988) 45 Cal.3d 820, 823.) Whether a course of conduct is divisible and, therefore, punishable by more than one section of the Penal Code is determined by the intent and objective of the defendant at the time of the offense; if all of the offenses were incident to one objective, the defendant may be punished under only one section of the Penal Code. (People v. Hawkins (2002) 98 Cal.App.4th 1428, 1442-1443.)
It is the duty of the trial court to determine if a defendant has multiple criminal objectives at the time of the offense; if the court determines a defendant has more than one objective, then that finding will be upheld on appeal if supported by substantial evidence. (People v. Saffle (1992) 4 Cal.App.4th 434, 438.)
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