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Name: People v. Hernandez
Case #: B180257
Opinion Date: 12/14/2005
Division: 5
Citation: 134 Cal.App.4th 1232
Summary

The trial court erred in ordering two commitments to run concurrently for a defendant twice found not guilty by reason of insanity for one assault on a single victim. After the defendant pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon and admitted a great bodily injury enhancement, the court found that he was not sane at the time of the offense and ordered that he be committed to the state hospital for a maximum term of seven years. The assault victim then died, and the defendant was charged with voluntary manslaughter. He again pled guilty and the court again committed him to the state hospital for a total of twelve years. The court ordered that the prior term for assault run concurrently with the term for manslaughter. The Court of Appeal reversed the order imposing concurrent terms and ordered that the term for assault be stayed. Because the two commitments arose out of a single act of violence directed at a single victim, the trial court did not have the authority to order concurrent commitments.