Court Opinion

ID: 9720007
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:12:43.060383+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:12.224966
License: Public Domain

TURNER, P. J.
I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion that directs dismissal of the grand theft of an automobile count.1
The contention that the court should have dismissed the grand theft of an automobile count because it was a lesser-included offense of the robbery is *194without merit. The trier of fact reasonably could have concluded that two separate acts of larceny occurred. A robbery occurs when property is taken from a victim even though the property is possessed by the perpetrator of the crime only momentarily. (People v. Tijerina (1969) 1 Cal.3d 41, 47 [81 Cal.Rptr. 264, 459 P.2d 680]; People v. Massie (1967) 66 Cal.2d 899, 908 [59 Cal.Rptr. 733, 428 P.2d 869]; People v. Meyer (1888) 75 Cal. 383, 384-385 [17 P. 431]; People v. Post (1946) 76 Cal.App.2d 511, 514 [173 P.2d 48]; People v. Quiel (1945) 68 Cal.App.2d 674, 679 [157 P.2d 446]; People v. Khoury (1980) 108 Cal.App.3d Supp. 1, 4 [166 Cal.Rptr. 705].) When defendant took possession of the victim’s money as he drove across the parking lot, a robbery occurred. After giving the money to defendant, the victim showed her wallet to him. Defendant then said to “give him the purse.” After completely traversing the parking lot, defendant told the victim to “get out” of her car because he was “just going around the corner.” Defendant then drove off in the car. An act is essential for the existence of a crime. (Perkins, Criminal Law (3d ed. 1982) p. 605.) One commentator has noted, “The word ‘act’ might be defined . . . in a narrow sense to mean only voluntary bodily movement.” (1 LaFave & Scott, Substantive Criminal Law (1986) § 3.2(c), p. 275.) In People v. Green (1980) 27 Cal.3d 1, 53 [164 Cal.Rptr. 1, 609 P.2d 468], the Supreme Court held, “Under [Penal Code] section 20, the defendant’s wrongful intent and his physical act must concur in this sense that the act must be motivated by the intent.” There is substantial evidence which supports the conclusion that the taking of the money at knife point, a robbery, was a separate act from the subsequent grand theft of an automobile.
Also, the grand theft charged in count three of the information was not a lesser and necessarily included offense of the robbery charged in count two. As defendant correctly notes, a conviction for both a greater and a lesser and necessarily included offense is improper under California decisional law. (People v. Toro, supra, 47 Cal.3d at p. 971.) The test for determining whether separate counts charge both a greater and lesser offense is that when a crime cannot be committed without necessarily committing a less serious offense, the lesser charge is a necessarily included offense. (People v. Lohbauer (1981) 29 Cal.3d 364, 369 [173 Cal.Rptr. 453, 627 P.2d 183].) The robbery, as charged in count two, can be committed without committing the grand theft of an automobile. The essential element of the less serious offense, the taking of an automobile, is not an element of the greater offense of robbery. Division Three of the Fourth Appellate District has held that the unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, a violation of Vehicle Code section 10851, subdivision (a) is not a necessarily included crime of robbery. (People v. Aho (1984) 152 Cal.App.3d 658, 663-664. [199 Cal.Rptr. 671]) I conclude that the court in Aho correctly resolved the issue. Accordingly, defendant’s *195contention that the conviction for grand theft of an automobile should be reversed and dismissed is without merit.
Defendant’s reliance on People v. Cole (1982) 31 Cal.3d 568, 582 [183 Cal.Rptr. 350, 645 P.2d 1182], is misplaced. In Cole, the Attorney General conceded that the grand theft charge was a lesser and necessarily included offense of the robbery charge. In Cole, the robbery consisted of the taking of the victim’s firearms by means of force or fear. The theft of the guns was the apparent sole basis of the grand theft charge because larceny of a firearm is grand theft pursuant to Penal Code section 487, subdivision 3. In other words, the guns taken in connection with the grand theft were the same firearms which served as the basis for the robbery charge. By contrast, in the present case, the taking of the cash may properly serve as a robbery as charged in count two while the subsequent theft of the automobile may serve as the basis for a grand theft conviction as found by the jury in count three. Therefore, the Attorney General’s concession which served as the basis of the analysis in Cole does not warrant this court in directing the dismissal of count three of the information in the present case.
Defendant’s argument that since the trial court stayed the sentence under count three pursuant to Penal Code section 654 he is entitled to a dismissal is without merit. The Attorney General is correct in contending that the order staying the sentence as to count three is entirely irrelevant in terms of whether defendant may be convicted of violating both Penal Code sections 211 and 487, subdivision 3. In People v. Aho, supra, 152 Cal.App.3d at pages 663-664, the Court of Appeal held that the proper procedure to follow when there is a conviction for unlawfully taking an automobile and robbery is to stay the sentence for violating Vehicle Code section 10851, subdivision (a) pursuant to Penal Code section 654—precisely what was done in the present case. In People v. Bauer (1969) 1 Cal.3d 368, 377 [82 Cal.Rptr. 357, 461 P.2d 637, 37 A.L.R.3d 1398], the Supreme Court held that when a trial court determines that separate thefts constitute “a course of conduct comprising an indivisible transaction,” Penal Code section 654 prohibits multiple sentencing. In the present case, the trial court’s order staying the sentence for grand theft was a sentencing choice made in full compliance with Bauer, not a factual finding that the car theft charge was included within the robbery allegation.
I also respectfully disagree with defendant’s reliance on felony-murder rule cases which hold that a robbery is complete only when the robber reaches a place of safety. (People v. Laursen (1972) 8 Cal.3d 192, 199-200 [104 Cal.Rptr. 425, 501 P.2d 1145]; People v. Carroll (1970) 1 Cal.3d 581, 585 [83 Cal.Rptr. 176, 463 P.2d 400].) There is no felony-murder rule issue in the present case—the question is whether separate crimes were *196committed. The felony-murder rule is a “ ‘highly artificial concept’ ” (People v. Satchell (1971) 6 Cal.3d 28, 34 [98 Cal.Rptr. 33, 489 P.2d 1361, 50 A.L.R.3d 383]) and no California case purports to hold that robbery as defined in Penal Code section 211 is the precise same concept as the “perpetration of. . . robbery’’ element of Penal Code section 189. If the two different concepts are the same, then the definition of a completed robbery in People v. Massie, supra, 66 Cal.2d at page 908 is in conflict with defendant’s interpretation of Penal Code section 189.

I wish to emphasize that I do not believe this issue is properly before this court. No objection to the purported lesser included nature of the grand theft charge was raised in the trial court. Therefore, in my view, the issue has not been preserved for appellate purposes. (In re Marriage of Arceneaux (1990) 51 Cal.3d 1130, 1138 [275 Cal.Rptr. 797, 800 P.2d 1227]; Doers v. Golden Gate Bridge etc. Dist. (1979) 23 Cal.3d 180, 184-185, fn. 1 [151 Cal.Rptr. 837, 588 P.2d 1261].) The prior decisions of the California Supreme Court which have held that a defendant may not be convicted of a greater and lesser offense have not addressed the issue of waiver when no objection was interposed in the trial court to the conviction of both the greater and lesser included crimes. Therefore, in the absence of a specific Supreme Court directive that this issue can be raised on appeal despite the failure to object in the trial court, I believe the general waiver rule and policy enunciated in In re Marriage of Arceneaux, supra, 51 Cal.3d at page 1138 and Doers v. Golden Gate Bridge etc. Dist., supra, 23 Cal.3d at pages 184-185, footnote 1, should apply. Had the issue been timely presented in the present case, the prosecution could have amended the information to charge defendant with driving the victim’s car without her consent, a felony violation of Vehicle Code section 10851, subdivision (a). Defendant was apprehended two days later driving the victim’s car. His act of driving the car would have been a felony and no doubt would not have been included within the prior robbery. This is a classic case where the waiver doctrine ought to apply so as to allow the court and the parties to correct the error in the trial court.
In People v. Toro (1989) 47 Cal.3d 966, 973-975 [254 Cal.Rptr. 811, 766 P.2d 577], our Supreme Court held that a defendant could, by failure to object, waive the right to litigate on appeal the correctness of a conviction of a nonlesser included offense. In Toro, the waiver rule applied to a defendant’s due process rights to notice of the charges. (Id. at p. 973.) If the defendant in Toro waived, by failure to object in superior court, his right to raise an issue concerning his conviction of a nonlesser included offense on appeal, then defendant in this case waived his right to raise the issue on appeal that he was convicted of a purportedly lesser included offense.