Does section 654, subdivision (a) of the California Criminal Code apply in cases where there are multiple violations arising out of the same act or omission?

Section 654, subdivision (a), provides, in pertinent part, that 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 statute literally applies only where such punishment arises out of multiple statutory violations produced by the same act or omission. (People v. Harrison (1989) 48 Cal.3d 321, 335.) However, because the statute is intended to ensure that defendant receives punishment commensurate with his culpability, the courts have interpreted its protection to extend to cases in which there are several offenses committed during a course of conduct deemed to be indivisible in time. (Ibid.) It is the defendant's intent and objective, not the temporal proximity of his offenses, which determine whether the transaction is indivisible, however. (Ibid.) If all of the offenses were merely incidental to, or were the means of accomplishing or facilitating one objective, defendant may be found to have harbored a single intent and therefore may be punished only once. (Ibid.) If, on the other hand, defendant harbored multiple criminal objectives, which were independent of and

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not merely incidental to each other, he may be punished for each statutory violation committed in pursuit of each objective, even though the violations shared common acts or were parts of an otherwise indivisible course of conduct. (Ibid.) Whether section 654 applies is a factual question for the trial court, and the trial court's factual determination, express or implied, must be upheld on appeal if it is supported by substantial evidence. (People v. Osband (1996) 13 Cal.4th 622, 730-731.)