California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Tolivert, E065164 (Cal. App. 2017):
In count 1, defendant assaulted J.W. by chasing her with a baseball bat and swinging it at her, and in count 3, he threatened to kill her and D.S. as he swung the bat. The intent of the assault with a deadly weapon was to inflict immediate physical injury and the intent of the criminal threat was to put the victim in sustained fear of her lifedifferent criminal objectives. In People v. Solis (2001) 90 Cal.App.4th 1002, 1022, the defendant made a similar argument in a case in which the defendant left threatening messages on his girlfriend's answering machine, and then an hour later came to her house and set it on fire. On appeal, the defendant argued that "the arson and two counts of making terrorist threats[] were committed pursuant to the same objective of threatening and scaring [the victim] so that it was improper to sentence him on all of them." (Ibid.) The court held that the crimes were divisible, and had distinct objectives and section 654 was not violated by sentencing defendant on both the arson and terrorist threat convictions.
The above passage should not be considered legal advice. Reliable answers to complex legal questions require comprehensive research memos. To learn more visit www.alexi.com.