Title: P. v. Ceja

State: california

Issuer: California Supreme Court

Document:

Filed 5/17/10 
 
 
 
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 
 
THE PEOPLE, 
) 
 
 
) 
 
Plaintiff and Respondent, 
) 
 
 
) 
S157932 
 
v. 
) 
 
 
) 
Ct.App. 4/1 D049566 
RAFAEL CEJA, 
) 
 
 
) 
San Diego County 
 
Defendant and Appellant. 
) 
Super. Ct. No. SCE262242 
 
____________________________________) 
 
The Penal Code specifies that a defendant may not be convicted of stealing 
and receiving the same property.  (Pen. Code, § 496, subd. (a).)1  In this case, the 
trial court failed to instruct on this point, and the jury convicted defendant of both 
petty theft and receiving the property he had stolen.  A divided Court of Appeal 
reversed the petty theft conviction.  The majority reasoned that the “greater” 
felony offense of receiving stolen property took precedence over the “lesser” 
misdemeanor theft offense. 
Section 496(a) itself is inconclusive as to which conviction should stand 
when a defendant is erroneously convicted of theft and receiving stolen property.  
However, the rule against dual convictions, which was in effect long before its 
codification in 1992, is based on the premise that a theft conviction operates as a 
bar to a receiving conviction.  California courts have consistently reversed the 
                                              
1  
Further unspecified statutory references are to the Penal Code.  Hereafter, 
section 496, subdivision (a) is referred to as section 496(a). 
2 
conviction on the receiving charge in cases of improper dual convictions.  Because 
the Legislature gave no indication it meant to change this established practice, we 
conclude that it continues to apply under section 496(a).  Accordingly, we reverse 
the judgment of the Court of Appeal. 
I.  BACKGROUND 
The facts are undisputed, and we accept the Court of Appeal‟s summary.2    
Around 3:30 a.m. on June 18, 2006, a La Mesa police officer responded to a report 
of suspicious behavior in an apartment complex parking lot.  He saw two men 
matching the suspects‟ description.  Defendant was carrying a speaker box, which 
he dropped as he ran away.  He was found hiding under a pickup truck.  The 
speaker box had been removed from a nearby vehicle. 
After a jury trial, defendant was convicted of misdemeanor petty theft and 
felony receipt of stolen property.3  The court sentenced defendant to two years in 
prison on the receiving count, with an additional year for a prior conviction.  It 
stayed a 180-day jail term on the theft conviction.  As noted above, the Court of 
Appeal reversed the theft conviction and allowed the receiving conviction to stand.  
The majority acknowledged that theft is not a necessarily included offense of 
receiving stolen property, but relied by analogy on the rule that when a defendant 
is convicted of both a greater and a lesser included offense, sentence is imposed on 
the greater offense.  (People v. Moran (1970) 1 Cal.3d 755, 763.)  The dissenting 
justice reasoned that the common law origins of the rule against convictions for 
stealing and receiving the same property establish that once a defendant has been 
                                              
2  
California Rules of Court, rule 8.500, subdivision (c)(2). 
3  
There was no evidence of the speaker box‟s value.  The court dismissed 
charges of unlawful taking and receiving a stolen vehicle, due to lack of evidence 
that defendant ever had possession of the vehicle from which the box was taken.  
A burglary charge was also dismissed, because the vehicle was unlocked. 
3 
convicted of theft, there is no basis for a receiving conviction.  The dissent has the 
better argument. 
II.  DISCUSSION 
In 1992, the Legislature amended the statutory definition of receiving 
stolen property to add this declaration:  “A principal in the actual theft of the 
property may be convicted pursuant to this section.  However, no person may be 
convicted both pursuant to this section and of the theft of the same property.”  
(§ 496(a), as amended by Stats. 1992, ch. 1146, § 1, p. 5374; see People v. Allen 
(1999) 21 Cal.4th 846, 857 (Allen).)  The rule against dual convictions was 
originally a creature of the common law, founded on the notion that it is “logically 
impossible for a thief who has stolen an item of property to buy or receive that 
property from himself.”  (Allen, at p. 854.) 
In the case law, the rule had sometimes been applied narrowly, to prohibit 
only convictions of the two offenses, and sometimes more broadly, to preclude a 
conviction of receiving stolen property when there was evidence implicating the 
defendant in the theft.  (Allen, supra, 21 Cal.4th at p. 853.)  The broader 
application led to a number of problems,4 and was largely abandoned by the time 
the Legislature addressed the rule.  (Id. at pp. 853-857; see People v. Price (1991) 
1 Cal.4th 324, 464 [receiving conviction is proper “even though the evidence also 
strongly suggests that it was the defendant who stole the property”].)  The 1992 
amendment of section 496(a) effectively abrogated the broad form of the common 
law rule, and adopted the narrow form barring only dual convictions.  (Allen, at p. 
857.) 
                                              
4  
Among other complications, defendants found room to argue that a 
conviction for receiving stolen property required proof that they did not commit 
the theft.  (Allen, supra, 21 Cal.4th at p. 853.) 
4 
The statute is silent on the question before us:  when a defendant has been 
improperly convicted of stealing and receiving the same property, what is the 
appropriate remedy?  On its face, section 496(a) is neutral as to which of the 
convictions should survive.  Either is permissible, so long as the other is not 
allowed to stand.  The Attorney General contends that because the Legislature 
indicated no preference for one conviction over the other, the Court of Appeal 
majority was properly guided by the general policy of holding defendants liable 
for the greatest offense they commit.  Like the majority below, the Attorney 
General refers to the rule that conviction of a greater offense subsumes a 
necessarily included lesser offense, a principle we reaffirmed in People v. Medina 
(2007) 41 Cal.4th 685, 701 (Medina).  The Attorney General also points to section 
654, which provides:  “An 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.” 
The Attorney General‟s arguments are superficially appealing, but do not 
withstand close examination.  The rule against multiple convictions of greater and 
lesser included offenses is based on considerations quite distinct from those 
supporting the rule against dual convictions of theft and receiving stolen property.  
The history of the rule now found in section 496(a) shows that the theft conviction 
has taken precedence, regardless of which offense carries the greater penalty.  
Section 654 requires no different result.  It does not bar multiple convictions, but 
applies only to sentencing.  Although section 654‟s proscription against multiple 
punishment was in some cases confused with the rule against convictions for 
stealing and receiving the same property, decisions of this court have rejected the 
attempt to conflate the two doctrines. 
5 
We first address the analogy to greater and lesser included offenses, which 
the Court of Appeal majority found persuasive.  Convictions of a greater and a 
lesser included offense are barred because the defendant cannot commit the 
greater offense without also committing the lesser.  Conviction on both counts 
would effectively permit two convictions for the lesser offense.  (Medina, supra, 
41 Cal.4th at p. 702.)  As the court below recognized, theft is not a lesser included 
offense of receiving stolen property.  (In re Greg F. (1984) 159 Cal.App.3d 466, 
469.)  What the court failed to note is that the rationale of the rule against dual 
convictions of theft and receiving has nothing to do with double punishment.  
Rather, it evolved from the premise that  “a thief cannot receive from himself.”  
(People v. Stewart (1986) 185 Cal.App.3d 197, 204 (Stewart); see Allen, supra, 21 
Cal.4th at p. 854.)  By this logic, commission of the theft excludes the possibility 
of a receiving conviction.  (Allen, at p. 851; People v. Jaramillo (1976) 16 Cal.3d 
752, 759 (Jaramillo); Stewart, at p. 206.)5 
The narrow form of the common law rule now found in section 496(a) 
permits a “thief in fact” to be convicted of receiving the stolen property, so long as 
he or she is not also convicted of the theft.  However, this bar against dual 
convictions includes no consideration of which offense is “greater” or “lesser.”  
As the Stewart court explained:  “[T]heft or theft-related offenses and receiving 
stolen property are not mutually exclusive offenses; it is the theft or theft-related 
offense which has the preclusive effect.  Thus, if the defendant is found to be the 
thief he cannot be convicted of receiving the same property, and where he is so 
                                              
5  
Exceptions were recognized when there was “complete divorcement 
between the theft and a subsequent receiving . . . in a transaction separate from the 
original theft,” and in cases of conspiracy between thief and receiver.  (Jaramillo, 
supra, 16 Cal.3d at p. 759, fn. 8.) 
6 
convicted it is the receiving conviction which is improper.  For this reason it is 
always the receiving conviction which cannot stand, regardless whether it is the 
lesser or the greater offense.”  (Stewart, supra, 185 Cal.App.3d at p. 209, italics 
added.) 
The Attorney General contends Stewart is inapposite because it applied the 
broad form of the common law rule, which permitted evidence of theft to operate 
as a bar against a receiving conviction.  Not so.  Stewart involved improper dual 
convictions, not merely evidence of theft, and its analysis accurately describes the 
common law rationale for upholding the theft conviction.  Although that rationale 
grew from the idea that an actual thief could not be convicted of receiving, the 
same reasoning has guided the courts in determining which of the two convictions 
takes precedence, even after codification of the narrow form of the common law 
rule.  (See, e.g., People v. Recio (2007) 156 Cal.App.4th 719, 723 (Recio); People 
v. DeRouen (1995) 38 Cal.App.4th 86, 93.) 
The Attorney General argues that permitting the court to impose the longest 
available sentence for theft or receiving would serve the same policies as the rule 
governing greater and lesser included offenses:  providing the jury with “a choice 
from the full range of crimes established by the evidence” and “assur[ing] that the 
defendant is convicted of the greatest crime a jury believes he committed.”  The 
Attorney General reasons that a different rule would discourage prosecutors from 
charging theft and receiving in the alternative, and instead motivate them to  
charge only the most serious offense.  However, it is section 496(a) itself that 
limits the jury‟s choice to a single conviction.  And whether theft or receiving is 
the “greater” or “lesser” crime is a matter that the Legislature has generally 
committed to the discretion of the prosecutor.  Receiving stolen property may 
7 
ordinarily be charged either as a misdemeanor or a felony, at the prosecutor‟s 
election.6  In any case, the prosecutor has the discretion to decide which offenses 
to charge.  The courts do not generally supervise these “purely prosecutorial 
function[s].”  (People v. Adams (1974) 43 Cal.App.3d 697, 707; see People v. 
Birks (1998) 19 Cal.4th 108, 134.) 
 To find additional support for a rule favoring whichever conviction carries 
the greater punishment, the Attorney General turns to the provision of section 654 
calling for imposition of the longest potential sentence when an act or omission is 
punishable in different ways.  Again, however, the analogy is faulty and the case 
law contrary.  Section 654 presumes multiple convictions but precludes multiple 
punishment.  Section 496(a), on the other hand, precludes multiple convictions, 
making multiple punishment impossible.  The provision of section 654 requiring 
the longest available term of imprisonment was added by the Legislature in 
response to a judicial decision permitting trial courts to choose a lesser sentence.  
(See People v. Kramer (2002) 29 Cal.4th 720, 722-723; Stats. 1997, ch. 410, § 1, 
p. 2753.)  The amendment was intended to require punishment commensurate with 
culpability, and avoid the anomaly of a lesser sentence being imposed because the 
defendant had been convicted of two crimes instead of one.  (Kramer, at pp. 723-
724.) 
The Attorney General asserts that it is similarly anomalous to allow a 
defendant to escape liability for a felony offense of receiving stolen property 
simply because he was also convicted of a misdemeanor petty theft.  But that 
                                              
6  
Section 496(a); but see section 496d.  Similarly, most grand thefts are 
“wobblers.”  (§ 489.)  We note that when theft and receiving offenses are both 
felonies, the punishment is the same.  The issue of which is “greater” assumes 
practical significance only when, as here, the prosecutor decides to charge one 
offense as a misdemeanor and the other as a felony. 
8 
scenario of dual convictions is prohibited by section 496(a).  Unlike section 654, 
section 496(a) does not contemplate a choice of sentences.  The statutory 
proscription against convictions for stealing and receiving the same property was 
driven not by sentencing concerns, but by practical problems with the prosecution 
of receiving offenses.  (See Allen, supra, 21 Cal.4th at pp. 853-858.)  Furthermore, 
the Legislature was aware of the common law rule that a theft conviction 
precludes a further conviction for receiving the stolen property.7   
The Attorney General relies on People v. Black (1990) 222 Cal.App.3d 
523, in which the defendant was convicted of stealing and receiving the same 
truck.  The court stated:  “[F]or the sake of judicial economy reviewing courts 
faced with the problem raised here have reversed the conviction of a lesser offense 
and let the conviction of the greater offense stand.  (E.g., People v. Lawrence 
(1980) 111 Cal.App.3d 630, 640.)”  (Black, at p. 525.)  However, the only 
authority for this dictum was based on the erroneous notion that “[t]he rule against 
                                              
7   
A legislative committee analysis of the 1992 amendment to section 496(a) 
discusses and agrees with the holding in People v. Price, supra, 1 Cal.4th 324, 
then notes:  “the bill permits a person who steals property to be convicted of 
receiving or concealing the same property only in those cases where there is no 
conviction for the theft of the property.”  (Assem. Com. on Public Safety, Analysis 
of Assem. Bill No. 3326 (1991-1992 Reg. Sess.) for hearing March 24, 1992, p. 2, 
italics added.) 
 
The legislative history reflects a preoccupation with making sure that a 
prosecution for receiving stolen property can be pursued after the statute of 
limitations for theft has expired.  In Allen, we held that section 496(a) is not 
limited to that circumstance, but also permits prosecutions for either offense 
within the period of the statute of limitations for theft.  (Allen, supra, 21 Cal.4th at 
pp. 860-861.) 
9 
twin-convictions announced in Jaramillo, supra, is based upon Penal Code section 
654.”  (Lawrence, at p. 640.)8 
To the contrary, “we clarified in Jaramillo . . . that the common law rule at 
issue here is wholly distinct from the double punishment prohibition” of 
section 654.  (Allen, supra, 21 Cal.4th at p. 855, fn. 6.)  Jaramillo held that the 
trial court erred in an apparent attempt to comply with section 654 by staying 
sentence on a Vehicle Code section 10851 conviction, which could have been 
based either on vehicle theft or mere driving, and sentencing the defendant on the 
“greater” conviction of receiving stolen property.  (Jaramillo, supra, 16 Cal.3d at 
p. 757.)  “This treatment overlooks . . . the basic problem of whether defendant 
may properly be convicted of both charges, it being a fundamental principle that 
one may not be convicted of stealing and of receiving the same property.  
[Citations.]”  (Ibid.)  The same error occurred in this case.  After defendant was 
improperly convicted on both charges, the trial court stayed sentence on the lesser 
offense in an attempt to comply with section 654.  
The Court of Appeal here broke new ground when it reversed defendant‟s 
theft conviction in order to preserve a longer sentence on the receiving conviction.  
The predominant practice in California courts, both before and after codification 
of the common law rule, has been to reverse the receiving conviction and allow 
the theft conviction to stand, without regard to penalty, often without discussion, 
and sometimes on the People‟s stipulation.9  This practice was well established 
                                              
8  
In both Black and Lawrence, the receiving conviction carried the lesser 
penalty, and the theft conviction was allowed to stand.  (People v. Black, supra, 
222 Cal.App.3d at p. 525; People v. Lawrence, supra, 111 Cal.App.3d at p. 640.) 
9  
E.g., People v. Smith (2007) 40 Cal.4th 483, 522; People v. Love (2008) 
166 Cal.App.4th 1292, 1300; Recio, supra, 156 Cal.App.4th 719, 726; People v. 
DeRouen, supra, 38 Cal.App.4th at page 93; People v. Stephens (1990) 218 
Cal.App.3d 575, 586; Stewart, supra, 185 Cal.App.3d at page 209; People v. 
 
(footnote continued on next page) 
10 
when section 496(a) was amended in 1992, and the Legislature gave no indication 
that a change was intended. 
 “As a general rule, „[u]nless expressly provided, statutes should not be 
interpreted to alter the common law, and should be construed to avoid conflict 
with common law rules.  [Citation.]  “A statute will be construed in light of 
common law decisions, unless its language „ “clearly and unequivocally discloses 
an intention to depart from, alter, or abrogate the common-law rule concerning the 
particular subject matter . . . .”  [Citations.]‟  [Citation.]” ‟  [Citation.]   
Accordingly, „[t]here is a presumption that a statute does not, by implication, 
                                                                                                                                      
 
(footnote continued from previous page) 
 
Jackson (1978) 78 Cal.App.3d 533, 539; People v. Taylor (1935) 4 Cal.App.2d 
214, 219.  The opinions in a number of the older Court of Appeal cases were 
disapproved in Allen, supra, 21 Cal.4th at page 866, to the extent they held that a 
burglary conviction bars conviction of receiving stolen property.  Burglary does 
not require a theft.  However, the courts‟ rulings on the remedial issue before us 
are unaffected by the disapproval in Allen. 
 
For a time some courts, following Milanovich v. United States (1961) 365 
U.S. 551, held that both convictions were subject to reversal.  (E.g., People v. 
Morales (1968) 263 Cal.App.2d 211, 214; but see, e.g., People v. Perez (1974) 40 
Cal.App.3d 795, 800-801.)  However, in United States v. Gaddis (1976) 424 U.S. 
544, 549, the United States Supreme Court distinguished Milanovich and held that 
a theft conviction supported by substantial evidence may be affirmed and the 
receiving conviction reversed.  (See Jaramillo, supra, 16 Cal.3d at p. 760, fn. 11.) 
 
In cases where there was a question whether the theft conviction was 
actually based on theft, as opposed to merely driving a vehicle, courts sometimes 
reversed both convictions, gave the People the option of retrying the defendant on 
both charges, and specified that otherwise the theft/driving conviction was to be 
reinstated.  (Jaramillo, supra, 16 Cal.3d at p. 760; People v. Briggs (1971) 19 
Cal.App.3d 1034, 1037.)  In People v. Garza (2005) 35 Cal.4th 866, 882, we 
reached a different disposition on facts similar to those of Jaramillo, reasoning 
that Jaramillo‟s harmless error analysis “may have been influenced by the then-
prevailing uncertainty about the scope of the common law prohibition.”  However, 
nothing in Garza casts doubt on Jaramillo‟s reasoning as to which of the improper 
convictions would be allowed to stand. 
11 
repeal the common law.  [Citation.]  Repeal by implication is recognized only 
where there is no rational basis for harmonizing two potentially conflicting laws.‟  
[Citation.]”  (California Assn. of Health Facilities v. Department of Health 
Services (1997) 16 Cal.4th 284, 297; see also, e.g., People v. Chun (2009) 45 
Cal.4th 1172, 1184; People v. Jackson, supra, 78 Cal.App.3d at p. 539.) 
Maintaining the practice of reversing a receiving stolen property conviction 
when the defendant is also convicted of stealing the property harmonizes the terms 
of section 496(a) with the common law origins of the rule against dual 
convictions. 
Defendant notes that the Recio court stated:  “Where a defendant is charged 
with stealing and receiving the same property, the court should instruct the jury to 
determine the defendant‟s guilt on the theft count first, and if it finds the defendant 
guilty of the theft, to return the receiving verdict unsigned.”  (Recio, supra, 156 
Cal.App.4th at p. 726; see also Stewart, supra, 185 Cal.App.3d at p. 207, fn. 6.)  
This is the prescribed practice in the federal courts.  (United States v. Gaddis, 
supra, 424 U.S. 544, 550.)  As defendant correctly observes, the instructional issue 
is not before us in this case.  However, we briefly address it to provide guidance to 
the trial courts. 
 
We agree with the Recio and Stewart courts that juries should be instructed 
to reach a verdict on the theft charge first when the defendant is also charged with 
receiving the stolen property.  A guilty verdict on the theft charge makes it 
unnecessary to consider the receiving charge.  This practice is consistent with our 
analysis in this case, promotes efficiency in the jury‟s deliberations, and will 
ensure that the statutory ban against dual convictions is applied. 
12 
 
 
III.  DISPOSITION 
We reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CORRIGAN, J. 
 
WE CONCUR: 
 
GEORGE, C.J. 
KENNARD, J. 
BAXTER, J. 
WERDEGAR, J. 
CHIN, J. 
MORENO, J. 
 
 
See next page for addresses and telephone numbers for counsel who argued in Supreme Court. 
 
Name of Opinion People v. Ceja 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Unpublished Opinion 
Original Appeal 
Original Proceeding 
Review Granted XXX 155 Cal.App.4th 1246 
Rehearing Granted 
 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Opinion No. S157932 
Date Filed: May 17, 2010 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Court: Superior 
County: San Diego 
Judge: Christine K. Goldsmith 
 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Attorneys for Appellant: 
 
Richard De La Sota, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant. 
 
 
 
 
__________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
Attorneys for Respondent: 
 
Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. 
Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Lynne McGinnis, Teresa Torreblanca, Barry Carlton and Donald W. 
Ostertag, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Counsel who argued in Supreme Court (not intended for publication with opinion): 
 
Richard De La Sota 
P.O. Box 77757 
Corona, CA  92877 
(310) 406-5752 
 
Donald W. Ostertag 
Deputy Attorney General 
110 West A Street, Suite 1100 
San Diego, CA  92101 
(619) 645-3160