Does the non-violent crime of unlawful driving or taking a vehicle trigger a longer sentence under the Three Strikes Act?

By its very terms, any felony triggers a longer sentence under the Three Strikes law as long as the defendant has sustained at least one strike.³⁸ Since the express intent of the Three Strikes law is "to ensure longer prison sentences" for any defendant who has a qualifying strike and subsequently commits "a felony,"³⁹ the nonviolent or nonthreatening nature of the felony cannot alone take the crime outside the spirit of the law. (People v. Gaston, supra, 74 Cal.App.4th at p. 321 [while the current offense -- unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle -- was not defined as serious under Three Strikes law, "it is far from trivial"].) To conclude otherwise would rewrite the statute to only trigger a longer prison sentence for those defendants who commit a violent or threatening felony after having committed at least one strike. That is not the law's letter or spirit.