People v. Todd

Opinion

WERDEGAR, J.

—Defendant appeals from a judgment revoking probation and sentencing him to an aggregate term of five years in prison. He argues that when the Mendocino trial court revoked his probation and sentenced him, it violated Penal Code section 669

1

by ordering his San Diego County sentence to run consecutively to his Mendocino County sentence. We affirm.

Facts and Procedure

In July 1990, defendant was charged with attempted murder (§§ 664, 187), terrorist threats (§ 422), and violation of civil rights (§ 422.6). He entered into a plea agreement whereby he pleaded guilty to assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury (§ 245, subd. (a)(1)), in exchange for dismissal of all other pending charges and suspension of any state prison sentence. The superior court subsequently approved the plea agreement and

[85]

sentenced defendant to the upper term of four years in prison; the court ordered the sentence suspended and placed defendant on five years’ probation.

In July 1992, the Mendocino County Probation Department filed a petition to revoke defendant’s probation on the grounds defendant had been arrested in San Diego County for violating Vehicle Code sections 10851 and 10751, subdivision (a), and Health and Safety Code section 11550. Probation was immediately revoked pending a hearing.

Defendant was thereafter convicted in San Diego County under Vehicle Code section 10851, subdivision (a) (taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent) and received a two-year sentence. He was then brought before the Mendocino County court, which, after reviewing the San Diego abstract of judgment, revoked defendant’s probation. The court imposed the previously stayed four-year term. The court then directed that the San Diego and Mendocino sentences would run consecutively. It designated the Mendocino case as the principal term (four years) and imposed one-third the midterm on the San Diego offense (one year), for an aggregate sentence of five years in prison.