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Name: People v. Cantrell
Case #: E045149
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 4 DCA
Division: 2
Opinion Date: 06/05/2009
Summary

The court corrected an unauthorized sentence where the sentence could not be consecutive as well as stayed. Cantrell was sentenced to four years for count one, residential burglary, doubled to eight years because of a prior strike. The court also sentenced him to one year consecutively for a prior prison term, for a total of nine years on count one. On count two, the court orally pronounced the judgment as one year consecutive doubled, stayed pursuant to section 654. The minute order and the abstract of judgment reflected that the low term was imposed and stayed. The trial court erred in its oral pronouncement because the low term was eighteen months, and it could not be both consecutive and stayed. On appeal, Cantrell argued that because the subordinate term was stayed, the sentence on count two should be one-third of the mid term of two years (eight months doubled to sixteen months). Respondent contended that the court should have imposed the low term of 16 months doubled to 32 months and stayed. The appellate court agreed with respondent and corrected the unauthorized sentence. The one-third-the-midterm rule of section 1170.1, subdivision (a) only applies to a consecutive sentence, not a sentence stayed under section 654. A stayed sentence cannot be consecutive to a principal sentence.