People v. Hall

168 Cal. App. 3d 624, 214 Cal. Rptr. 289, 1985 Cal. App. LEXIS 2122
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 22, 1985
DocketCrim. 15928
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 168 Cal. App. 3d 624 (People v. Hall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Hall, 168 Cal. App. 3d 624, 214 Cal. Rptr. 289, 1985 Cal. App. LEXIS 2122 (Cal. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

*626 Opinion

LEWIS, J.

A jury found Norman Hall guilty of first degree burglary of a residence (Pen. Code, 1 §§ 459, 460) grand theft of a firearm (§ 487, subd. 3) and possession of a concealable firearm by an ex-felon (§ 12021), with four prior felony convictions (§ 667.5, subd. (b)) and two serious prior felony convictions (§§ 667, subd. (a), 1192.7, subd. (c)(18)). Hall appeals after the trial court sentenced him to eighteen years in prison as follows: six years for the burglary of a residence, two years for two of the prior felony convictions and ten years for the two serious prior felony convictions. 2

On September 20, 1983, one day after he was released from prison, Hall entered the Pacific Beach home of San Diego Deputy Marshal Michael Burke, and stole a stereoamplifier, cassette tape player and the officer’s revolver. After witnesses saw Hall with the loot a few blocks from Burke’s home, police arrested Hall.

Hall’s defense was he found the loot on the sidewalk, thought he could get away with it, carried it for awhile, then returned it to the spot where he first saw it. He admitted possessing the gun in his waistband for a time.

I

Hall contends the trial court committed prejudicial error in failing to instruct sua sponte on the lesser offense of possession of stolen property.

The duty to instruct sua sponte on lesser offenses extends only to those offenses which are necessarily included in the offense charged. (See People v. Wickersham (1982) 32 Cal.3d 307, 323-324 [185 Cal.Rptr. 436, 650 P.2d 311]; cf. People v. Geiger (1984) 35 Cal.3d 510, 526 [199 Cal.Rptr. 45, 674 P.2d 1303], re duty to instruct, when requested, on lesser related offenses.) Receiving stolen property is not a lesser necessarily included offense of burglary (People v. Tyler (1968) 258 Cal.App.2d 661, 667 [65 Cal.Rptr. 907]) or of theft (In re Stanley (1928) 90 Cal.App. 132, 135-136 [265 P. 561]). Accordingly, there was no duty on the trial court to instruct, sua sponte, on the offense of receiving stolen property.

II

Hall contends his case must be remanded for resentencing to allow the trial court to exercise its discretion and strike one or more of his prior felony *627 convictions. Hall bases his argument on the fact that after the trial court denied probation, imposed the upper term and added the enhancements for the prior felonies, all totaling 18 years, it said: “I have to give reasons for imposing those priors, but I would say that I have some real concern about five-year priors added one on another and whether the people really contemplated all that they were doing when they provided for that.

“But here we have a case—here we have—the problem with people fixing sentences is that they fix mínimums while thinking about máximums. They think about the most horrendous example of a phenomenon, and then they decide to up the minimum without ever considering what the minimum example might be. It’s a human failing, it seems to me.

“But I have kind of an idea that when the people thought about this case, or this particular problem, they were thinking of Mr. Hall and Mr. Hall’s problem. And just as I told Mr. Peckham not to get mad at him, I’m not mad at him, either. He really can’t help it. And if it were different—and maybe in a hundred years we will regard it as a form of insanity, and we will know how to treat him.

“Today we don’t. Today we exempt it from our definitions of mental illness, because if we recognize it as a mental illness, it would be a license to crime because the illness is criminality. We deal with this kind of criminality by imposing sentences that will keep people out of circulation, and it really doesn’t hurt Mr. Hall, because in his present condition and in his foreseeable condition, the only difference it would make would be that he’d have to go through some courthouse more often if I gave him a shorter sentence, and that doesn’t do him or anybody else any good. He’s the one that the people meant to keep out of circulation.

“And, actually, he’s institutionalized. It’s not that big a thing for him, either. But for us, it’s a big thing. The people have spoken. They met Mr. Hall, and so he gets all these priors added on. It makes 18 years.”

Hall characterizes the court’s statements as expressing reservations about adding the five-year terms for the serious prior felony convictions and as giving the appearance the court felt it had no discretion but to impose the full, consecutive five-year terms.

Hall mischaracterizes the trial court’s statements, failing to consider the court’s view that Hall is “the one that the people meant to keep out of circulation” by adopting section 667 in Proposition 8. From this statement, it is clear the court would not have exercised discretion to strike the priors *628 even if it had that discretion 3 and Hall had moved to strike those priors. Accordingly, no reversible error is present in this aspect of Hall’s case. (People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836 [299 P.2d 243]; see People v. Jackson (1985) 37 Cal.3d 826, 839 [210 Cal.Rptr. 623, 694 P.2d 736].)

Ill

Hall contends his sentence was improper because it violated the double base term limitation of section 1170.1, subdivision (g). 4

In recent cases, the Supreme Court concluded, contrary to Hall’s contention, “enhancements for serious felonies under section 667 were not intended to be subject to the double base term limitation of section 1170.1, subdivision (g). To carry out the intention of the enactment, we read section 1170.1, subdivision (g), as if it contained an exception for enhancements for serious felonies pursuant to section 667, comparable to the explicit exception for enhancements for violent felonies under [subdivisions (a) and (c) of] section 667.5.” (People v. Jackson, supra, 37 Cal.3d at p. 838; italics added; see also People v. O’Bryan (1985) 37 Cal.3d 841, 845 [210 Cal.Rptr. 450, 694 P.2d 135].) A footnote to the last sentence attributes Proposition 8’s failure to amend section 1170.1, subdivision (g), to “draftsman’s oversight.” (37 Cal.3d at p. 838, fn. 15.)

It is thus clear, based on the enhancement “without limitation” language of Proposition 8, 5

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
168 Cal. App. 3d 624, 214 Cal. Rptr. 289, 1985 Cal. App. LEXIS 2122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-hall-calctapp-1985.