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I'm confused at what you are trying to say. The law you quote, Section 254, appears to refer to inheritance. At the end of your post, however, you say "Scott can do with his half of the community property what he wishes."

I don't know whether in CA the surviving spouse is automatically the heir of all community property. He might be; he might not be. The community is dissolved by the death of one spouse. So there should be no community property at this point. The community might be deemed to be split between the surviving spouse and some other possible heir, such as Laci's parent(s). What belonged to Scott before Laci's death still belongs to Scott.

The earlier sections specify that upon the death of a spouse, one half of community and quasi-community property goes to the dead spouse, and the other half goes to the surviving spouse, unless there are other arrangements made in advance - 60/40, 80/20, etc.

Scott has not been stripped of his rights to his half of the community property, and will not be stripped of those rights unless and until there is a final judgmenet of conviction or a court ruling to that effect. For example, if he sells the diamond ring, and is later convicted, he owes Laci's estate half the value of the ring.