People v. Casica

Filed 1/24/14

CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent, G048097

v. (Super. Ct. No. 10HF2016)

LISA ANN CASICA, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Orange County, Michael J. Cassidy, Judge. Affirmed as modified. Steven A. Brody, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, A. Natasha Cortina, Kelley Johnson and Paige Hazard, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. * * *

Defendant Lisa Ann Casica was convicted of three counts of forgery and three counts of second degree commercial burglary for forging three checks and cashing them on separate occasions. The court sentenced defendant to three years in custody and suspended one year four months on the burglary counts, and sentenced her to three concurrent 16 month terms on the forgery counts. Defendant argues that sentence on the forgery counts should have been stayed pursuant to Penal Code section 654,1 because the forgeries and burglaries were undertaken with a single objective. We agree with defendant and find there is insufficient evidence of separate intent; thus, section 654 should apply. We order defendant’s sentence modified accordingly. I FACTS In July 2011, defendant was charged with three counts of second degree commercial burglary (§ 459, 460, subd. (b), counts one, three and five) and three counts of forgery (§ 470, subd. (d), counts two, four and six). According to the evidence at trial, defendant met Jack McElreath, Jr., at a casino in 2006 or 2007, and they became friends. On May 7, 2008, defendant drove McElreath to Santa Ana in his rental car. She dropped him off at the Orange County Central Justice Center, where he was about to go into custody on a drug diversion program. McElreath left some personal items in his car, including his driver’s license and some checks from a Washington Mutual account. He did not give defendant permission to use his checkbook. McElreath testified at trial that defendant wrote three of McElreath’s checks to herself, forged his signature, and cashed each check. The checks were for $1,800, dated May 9, 2008; for $4,000, dated May 14; and for $1,800, dated May 20. McElreath was in custody on those dates, did not have access to the checks, and did not