People v. Uffelman

Filed 9/8/15 CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Nevada) ----

THE PEOPLE, C072479

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. SF11065)

v.

KEVIN ALEXANDER UFFELMAN,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Nevada County, Thomas M. Anderson, Judge. Affirmed.

Alex Coolman, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Julie A. Hokans and J. Robert Jibson, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Defendant Kevin Alexander Uffelman pleaded guilty to burglary. (Pen. Code, § 459).1 The trial court sentenced him to four years in state prison and ordered him to

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

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pay a “penal fine” of $735, comprised of a $200 fine pursuant to sections 672 and 1205 plus related penalty assessments. Defendant contends the section 672 fine is unauthorized. As we shall explain, we disagree and affirm the judgment. We dispense with a recitation of background facts because they are not relevant to the contention raised on appeal. DISCUSSION Many criminal statutes provide for the imposition of a base fine in addition to a jail or prison sentence. (People v. Sorenson (2005) 125 Cal.App.4th 612, 617.) Where the criminal statute does not prescribe the base fine, section 672 authorizes the trial court to impose a fine. Section 672 provides: “Upon a conviction for any crime punishable by imprisonment in any jail or prison, in relation to which no fine is herein prescribed, the court may impose a fine on the offender not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) in cases of misdemeanors or ten thousand dollars ($10,000) in cases of felonies, in addition to the imprisonment prescribed.” (Italics added.) Section 672 applies to all crimes, not just those set forth in the Penal Code. (People v. Shah (1949) 91 Cal.App.2d 716, 721.) Defendant argues that because section 1202.5 prescribes a mandatory $10 fine for conviction of burglary and other theft offenses, the catch-all provisions of section 672, which apply only where no fine is prescribed for an offense, do not apply in his case. Adhering to our decision in People v. Allen (2001) 88 Cal.App.4th 986, 999 (Allen) and related authorities, we shall affirm. Section 1202.5 provides: “(a) In any case in which a defendant is convicted of any of the offenses enumerated in Section 211, 215, 459, 470, 484, 487, subdivision (a) of Section 487a, or Section 488, or 594, the court shall order the defendant to pay a fine of ten dollars ($10) in addition to any other penalty or fine imposed. If the court determines that the defendant has the ability to pay all or part of the fine, the court shall set the amount to be