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Name: People v. Schlager
Case #: C036624
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 3 DCA
Opinion Date: 01/16/2002
Subsequent History: Rev. granted 4/10/02; Rev. dismissed 10/29/03
Summary

Appellant pleaded no contest to attempted murder, arson, receiving stolen property, cultivation of marijuana, and burglary, and was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Several other charges were dismissed. On appeal, he argued a sentencing error in violation of Penal Code section 654, because the punishments for the receiving stolen property counts arose out of an indivisible course of conduct. The Court of Appeal here dismissed the appeal due to appellant’s failure to obtain a certificate of probable cause. Even if section 654 would normally have precluded separate punishment for two counts of receiving stolen property, appellant must be deemed to have agreed at the time of the plea that separate sentences were legal under the terms of his plea agreement. The claim on appeal was a disguised attack on the plea, and could not be made absent a certificate of probable cause.