Can a person be convicted of more than one crime arising out of the same act or course of conduct?

In general, a person may be convicted of, although not punished for, more than one crime arising out of the same act or course of conduct. In California, a single act or course of conduct by a defendant can lead to convictions of any number of the offenses charged. [Citations.]' [Citation.] Section 954 generally permits multiple conviction. Section 654 is its counterpart concerning punishment. It prohibits multiple punishment for the same act or omission.' When section 954 permits multiple conviction, but section 654 prohibits multiple punishment, the trial court must stay execution of sentence on the convictions for which multiple punishment is prohibited. (People v. Reed (2006) 38 Cal.4th 1224, 1226-1227.) A judicially created exception to the general rule permitting multiple conviction prohibits multiple convictions based on necessarily included offenses.' [Citation.] [I]f a crime cannot be committed without also necessarily committing a lesser offense, the latter is a lesser included offense within the former.' (Id. at p. 1227.)

To ascertain whether one crime is necessarily included in another, courts may look either to the accusatory pleading or the statutory elements of the crimes. When, as here, the accusatory pleading incorporates the statutory definition of the charged offense without referring to the particular facts, a reviewing court must rely on the statutory elements to determine if there is a lesser included offense. [Citations.] The elements test is satisfied if the statutory elements of the greater offense include all of the statutory elements of the lesser offense, such that all legal elements of the lesser offense are also elements of the greater. [Citation.] In other words, [i]f a crime cannot be committed without also necessarily committing a lesser offense, the latter is a lesser included offense within the former.' ' [Citation.] Nevertheless, if the same evidence is required to support all elements of both offenses, there is no lesser included offense. [Citation.] Each is its own offense, based on different statutes that apply to the same conduct; neither can be said to be a lesser of the other. (People v. Robinson (2016) 63 Cal.4th 200, 207.)