California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Dicharry, D050455 (Cal. App. 7/9/2007), D050455 (Cal. App. 2007):
The trial court instructed the jury that to find Dicharry guilty of possessing a firearm while under the influence of a controlled substance, the jury had to find that he had a loaded, operable firearm under his immediate personal possession, meaning the "firearm must be near by and quickly and directly available to him." In contrast, the firearm enhancement connected to the false imprisonment count required the jury to find that Dicharry "personally used a firearm," meaning he "intentionally displayed a firearm in a menacing manner, intentionally fired it, or intentionally struck or hit a human being with it." Accordingly, the verdicts were not inconsistent because the crimes contained different elements. (People v. Allen (1974) 41 Cal.App.3d 821, 826 [verdicts are not invalid for inconsistency unless they are rendered upon charges that have identical elements].)
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