What is the test under section 654 of the California Criminal Code for sentencing a defendant to two separate sentences for conduct asserted to be indivisible?

Section 654, subdivision (a), provides in pertinent party that "[a]n act or omission that is punishable in different ways by different provisions of law shall be punished under the provision that provides for the longest potential term of imprisonment, but in no case shall the act or omission be punished under more than one provision." In reviewing a challenge to the trial court's imposition of separate sentences for conduct asserted to be indivisible, we engage in a two-step test. (People v. Corpening (2016) 2 Cal.5th 307, 311-312 (Corpening).

The two-step test under section 654 based on the recognition that the statute's "reference to an 'act or omission' may include not only a discrete physical act but also a course of conduct encompassing several acts pursued with a single objective." (Corpening, supra, 2 Cal.5th 307.) "We first consider if the different crimes were completed by a 'single physical act.' ([People v.] Jones [(2012)] 54 Cal.4th [350,] 358.) If so, the defendant may not be punished more than once for that act. Only if we conclude that the case involves more than a single acti.e., a course of conductdo we then consider whether that course of conduct reflects a single 'intent and objective' or multiple intents and objectives. (Id. at p. 359; see also People v. Mesa (2012) 54

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