Can a defendant be punished for either kidnapping for robbery or kidnapping for kidnapping under section 654 of the California Criminal Code?

As pertinent, section 654 provides: "An act or omission which is made punishable in different ways by different provisions of this code may be punished under either of such provisions, but in no case can it be punished under more than one...." The parties agree that under our interpretation of this provision, the defendants may be punished for either the kidnapping for robbery or the robbery, but not both. (See generally People v. Latimer (1993) 5 Cal.4th 1203, 23 Cal.Rptr.2d 144, 858 P.2d 611.) Where two such counts are involved, the proper procedure is to impose sentence for both of [13 Cal.4th 14] the counts, and stay sentence for one of them. (People v. Pearson (1986) 42 Cal.3d 351, 359-361, 228 Cal.Rptr. 509, 721 P.2d 595.) That is what the trial court did. The sole issue here is whether the court had discretion to impose only the lesser sentence and stay the greater.