Ellis

INTRODUCTION

A jury convicted Austin Eugene Ellis of thirteen counts of sexual offenses—including nine counts of lewd acts (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a))— committed upon two of his stepdaughters, L.C. and M.C., when they were less than ten years old. For each of the lewd act counts, the jury also found true that Ellis committed the offense against more than one victim under California’s “One Strike” law. (§ 667.61, subds. (c)(4) & (e)(4).) The court sentenced him to an indeterminate prison term of 145 years to life. Ellis raises two issues on appeal. First, relying on People v. Villatoro (2012) 54 Cal.4th 1152 (Villatoro), Ellis claims the court prejudicially erred in failing to engage in an Evidence Code section 352 balancing analysis before instructing the jury that it could consider as evidence of Ellis’ propensity to commit sexual offenses (1) Ellis’ uncharged sexual offenses against L.C. postdating the charged offenses and (2) the charged offenses themselves. (See CALCRIM Nos. 1191A [uncharged offenses] & 1191B [charged offenses].) We disagree. Ellis does not dispute the trial court analyzed the uncharged acts under section 352 before finding them admissible at a pretrial…