California v. Brunton
Annotate this CaseA jury found defendant Richard Brunton guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, and found true the allegation that he personally used a deadly weapon in the commission for the force-likely assault. Brunton was accused of the single act of choking his cellmate with a tightly rolled towel. The trial court sentenced Brunton to six years in prison, consisting of four years on the force-likely assault conviction, one year for the deadly weapon enhancement attached to that conviction, and one year for a prison prior. The court imposed, but stayed under Penal Code section 654, a four-year sentence on the assault-with-a-deadly-weapon conviction. On appeal, Brunton argued to the Court of Appeal his force-likely assault conviction should have been vacated because it was merely a different statement of the same offense for which he was also convicted (assault with a deadly weapon). Furthermore, Brunton argued that, because the single offense of which he was convicted included the element that he used a deadly weapon, the Court should strike the deadly weapon enhancement attached to the force-likely assault conviction. After review, the Court agreed one of the duplicative convictions had to be vacated. Accordingly, the Court remanded with directions to the trial court to strike one of the duplicative convictions, to strike the deadly weapon enhancement attached to the force-likely assault conviction, and for resentencing. In all other respects, the Court affirmed the judgment.
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