The offense of gross vehicular manslaughter, Penal Code section 191.5, subdivision (a), is not a lesser included offense of murder because the statutory elements of murder do not include the elements of the lesser offense which require that the homicide have been committed “in the driving of a vehicle” and that the driving was in violation of a specified Vehicle Code provisions prohibiting driving while intoxicated. While manslaughter has, historically, been considered a necessarily included offense within murder, that tradition has not been extended to the more recently enacted forms of vehicular manslaughter that require proof of additional elements. Accordingly, any sentence imposed for the same act, which satisfies the two statutes, should be stayed under Penal Code section 654. [Editor’s note: the court explicitly disapproved People v. Garcia (1995) 41 Cal.App.4th 1832, and distinguished People v. Ortega (1998) 19 Cal.4th 686, which involved robbery and theft.] Justice Mosk concurred separately. Justices Kennard and Brown dissented.
Case Summaries