Court Opinion

ID: 9600544
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:28:11.055832+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:10.921298
License: Public Domain

BIRD, C. J.
I concur in the judgment of the court and in parts 1, 3 and 4 of its opinion. However, I disagree with the majority’s holding, in part 2 of the opinion, that enhancement allegations may not be considered in determining which uncharged offenses, if any, are necessarily included in the charged offense. In my view, such allegations should be treated as part of the accusatory pleading. To hold otherwise would be to treat a significant factual allegation which appears on the face of the pleading as if it did not exist.
A necessarily included offense is one which is embraced within the legal definition of the greater, charged offense. (People v. Marshall (1957) 48 Cal.2d 394 [309 P.2d 456].) As the majority recognize, the “legal definition” of the charged offense includes not only the definition set out in the relevant statute, but also the offense specifically described in the complaint, indictment or information. Thus, in Marshall this court held that an offense is necessarily included in a charged offense if it is encompassed within the “specific language of the accusatory pleading.” (Ibid.)
That holding was based “upon considerations of fairness . . . .” (Ibid.) The touchstone of fairness is whether the accused has adequate notice of the charges against him so that he will “ ‘not be taken by surprise by evidence offered at his trial.’ ” (People v. West (1970) 3 Cal.3d 595, 612 [91 Cal.Rptr. 385, 477 P.2d 409], quoting In re Hess (1955) 45 Cal.2d 171, 175 [288 P.2d 5].) As this court emphasized in People v. Lohbauer (1981) 29 Cal.3d 364, 368-369 [173 Cal.Rptr. 453, 627 P.2d 183], “[a]s to a lesser included offense, the required notice is given when the specific language of the accusatory pleading adequately warns the defendant that the People will seek to prove the elements of the lesser offense. ” (Italics added, citing Marshall, supra, 48 Cal.2d at p. 405; see also West, supra, 3 Cal.3d at p. 612.)
In Marshall, the information charged the accused with robbery and included language alleging that he “ ‘did willfully, unlawfully, feloniously and forcibly take from the person and immediate presence of Jack J. Martens . . . Seventy Dollars . . . and an automobile. . . .’” (48 Cal.2d at p. 396.) At trial, Marshall was convicted of theft of an automobile as “ ‘a lesser but *111necessarily included offense.’” (Ibid.; former Veh. Code, § 503, see current Veh. Code, § 10851.) Since the information charged the accused with taking an automobile, the court noted that he had been “put on notice that he should be prepared to defend against a showing that he took that particular kind of personal property.” (48 Cal.2d at p. 405.) And, “[b]ecause the information charged that the automobile was taken by robbery, [he] was put on notice that he should be prepared to defend against evidence showing the elements of that crime.” (Ibid.) Thus, the court concluded that Marshall’s conviction of the uncharged auto theft offense was proper, since the information specifically alleged that the property taken was “an automobile. ”
Under Marshall and its progeny, the proper inquiry is whether every element necessary to the uncharged offense has been alleged in related portions of the accusatory pleading. If every necessary element appears on the face of the pleading, the accused is “adequately warn[ed] . . . that the People will seek to prove the elements of the lesser offense.” (See People v. Lohbauer, supra, 29 Cal.3d at pp. 368-369; see also In re Robert G. (1982) 31 Cal.3d 437, 440 [182 Cal.Rptr. 644, 644 P.2d 837].)
In this case, the prosecution alleged under Penal Code section 12022.51 that Johnston used a firearm in the commission of the offense. This accusatory pleading surely put him on notice that the prosecution would seek to prove that he used a gun. The only question to resolve is whether that factual allegation, combined with the robbery charge, also put him on notice that the state would seek to prove he had committed an assault with a deadly weapon.
In addition to Marshall and its progeny, there is direct statutory support for concluding that all allegations must be considered in determining necessarily included offenses where, as here, the accusatory pleading contains a gun-use allegation. Section 969d provides in relevant part: “Whenever [the] defendant used a firearm as recited in section 12022.5, the fact that the defendant used a firearm may be charged in the accusatory pleading. This charge, if made, shall be added to and be a part o/the count or each of the counts of the accusatory pleading which charged the offense.” (Italics added.) Thus, section 969d makes the use allegation a part of the substantive criminal charge pleaded.
The majority argue that necessarily included offenses cannot be premised on the elements of a firearm-use allegation because that allegation “becomes relevant only if the defendant is convicted of the substantive crime.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 101.) However, the truth of the section 12022.5 allegation *112is decided at the same proceeding as the substantive crime. Proof of firearm use does not await a jury determination on the underlying crime. Rather, the evidence is presented all at once. And, if the accused has evidence to refute the allegation, that evidence can only be presented before he rests his case—that is, at the same time as he presents evidence to refute the substantive charge.
Moreover, by charging firearm use, the prosecution has informed the accused that it will seek to prove the elements of that enhancement. Therefore, regardless of when the allegation comes into play, the accused is on notice that the prosecution will seek to prove firearm use at the guilt phase of the trial. If the prosecution is successful—i.e., if the accused is found guilty and the firearm-use allegation is found to be true—the accused could not successfully challenge the enhancement by arguing that he had no notice that the state would seek to prove he used a gun. Since notice is the touchstone of any necessarily included offense analysis, it is irrelevant that the jury does not actually decide the enhancement until it convicts the accused of the underlying offense.
The majority also attempt to buttress their holding with the fact that “ ‘section 12022.5 does not prescribe a new offense but merely additional punishment for an offense in which a firearm is used.’” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 100.) However, this rationale flatly conflicts with our recent decision in People v. Superior Court (Mendella) (1983) 33 Cal.3d 754 [191 Cal.Rptr. 1, 661 P.2d 1081]. In Mendella, this court held that a section 995 motion to set aside an indictment or information may be used to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support an enhancement allegation as well as a substantive crime. (Id., at p. 764.) Clearly, enhancement allegations are to be treated just like the other allegations of an accusatory pleading for section 995 purposes. The majority opinion offers no logical reason to reach a different result in the present context.
Once it is acknowledged that the use allegation must be considered part of the accusatory pleading, it is unnecessary to analyze, as the majority do, whether simple assault is a necessarily included offense of simple robbery. Under the correct view of the accusatory pleading test, the conclusion that simple assault is not necessarily included in simple robbery would not logically preclude the possibility that assault with a deadly weapon is a necessarily included offense of robbery with firearm use. All that is required by the analysis is to examine the accusatory pleading to see whether the elements of the robbery with a firearm use charge also necessarily encompass the crime of assault with a deadly weapon.
However, I do not disagree with the result reached by the majority since, even under my analysis, assault with a deadly weapon is not a necessarily *113included offense of robbery with a use allegation. As the majority note, robbery with the use of a firearm can be committed without necessarily committing an assault with a deadly weapon. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 101-102.)
I join in the judgment of the court,2 but I must vigorously dissent from the legal analysis set out in part 2. To hold, as the majority do, that enhancement allegations may not be considered in defining necessarily included offenses is contrary to statute and to the spirit, if not the holding, of Marshall and subsequent opinions of this court.

All statutory references hereafter are to the Penal Code.

I cannot, however, agree with footnote 2 of the majority opinion, which characterizes the inquiry required of the trial court in determining necessarily included offenses as excessively burdensome.
Superior court judges are currently required to make far more burdensome determinations in other contexts. For example, when asked by the prosecution to add charges or enhancements to an information, the judge must review all the evidence at the preliminary hearing to determine whether the facts show the accused has received due “notice by proof” that the state may seek to prove the additional charge or enhancement. (People v. Manning (1982) 133 Cal.App.3d 159, 165 [183 Cal.Rptr. 727]; Talamantez v. Superior Court (1981) 122 Cal.App.3d 629, 634 [176 Cal.Rptr. 800]; People v. Hall (1979) 95 Cal.App.3d 299, 314 [157 Cal.Rptr. 107]; People v. Grigsby (1969) 275 Cal.App.2d 767, 771-772 [80 Cal.Rptr. 294].)
Surely this “burden” of gleaning necessarily included offenses from the face of an accusatory pleading is substantially less onerous than examining an entire preliminary hearing transcript.