People v. Latten

Filed 4/23/21; certified for publication 4/27/21 (order attached)

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

THE PEOPLE, C091889

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 19F014B)

v.

ANGELA MICHELLE LATTEN,

Defendant and Appellant.

Defendant Angela Michelle Latten was convicted of five counts of burglary and sentenced to a term of three years for the first count and four consecutive terms of eight months each for the remaining four counts. All five burglaries occurred on the same night on the same property. Defendant appeals, arguing the burglaries were part of the same course of conduct and thus consecutive sentences were prohibited by Penal Code1 section 654. We disagree and affirm.

1 Further undesignated section references are to the Penal Code.

1

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Defendant and two codefendants drove to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife compound in Lewiston, California. They used a grinder to break the lock to the chain blocking the driveway, drove into the property, and got out of the car. They entered five structures on the property: two evidence trailers, one housing marijuana and the other, oil-extraction tools; the warden’s garage housing an all-terrain vehicle and other tools; the fisheries shop housing metalworking tools and wading gear; and the fisheries mobile home housing offices. The locks on both of the trailers’ doors were cut open by a grinder. The door on the warden’s garage was forced open. Defendant and her codefendants left the door to the fisheries shop open, as well as the door and window to the fisheries mobile home. They also left the cover for an electrical panel on the ground inside the fisheries mobile home. Defendant and one of her codefendants left shoe prints on top of a trailer, which they used to climb through a window to enter the fisheries mobile home. Defendant also left shoe prints in the warden’s garage. A witness, who lived on a property overlooking the compound, heard the grinder and saw a car with the silhouettes of three individuals inside drive into the compound. The witness saw the three silhouettes walk toward a warehouse building on the compound and enter it; he also saw the three silhouettes walk toward an office building. The witness later saw the car leave the compound and communicated that information to a 911 dispatcher when reporting the burglary. Trinity County Sheriff’s Deputy Seth Ruiz received a notice of the call and drove toward the compound. Around 30 minutes after the witness first reported the burglary, Deputy Ruiz stopped a car matching the description provided by the witness which was several hundred yards from the compound. Inside the car were defendant and her codefendants. While identifying the driver, Deputy Ruiz saw dried marijuana on defendant’s and one of her codefendant’s clothes. California Department of Fish and Wildlife Warden Jason Smith, who worked at the compound, came to the traffic stop and