California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Ashurst, H040995 (Cal. App. 2016):
provides for the longest potential term of imprisonment, but in no case shall the act or omission be punished under more than one provision." ( 654, subd. (a).) Thus, section 654 prohibits multiple punishment for a single act or indivisible course of conduct. (People v. Hicks (1993) 6 Cal.4th 784, 789.)
" ' "Whether a course of criminal conduct is divisible and therefore gives rise to more than one act within the meaning of section 654 depends on the intent and objective of the actor. If all of the offenses were incident to one objective, the defendant may be punished for any one of such offenses but not for more than one." ' [Citation.] [] . . . 'It is [the] defendant's intent and objective, not temporal proximity of his offenses, which determine whether the transaction is indivisible.' [Citation.] ' "The defendant's intent and objectives are factual questions for the trial court; [to permit multiple punishments,] there must be evidence to support [the] finding the defendant formed a separate intent and objective for each offense for which he was sentenced." ' [Citation.]" (People v. Capistrano (2014) 59 Cal.4th 830, 885-886.)
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