Callahan

A jury found appellant Louis Edward Callahan guilty of committing a lewd or lascivious act upon a child under the age of 14 years. (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a).) The child was appellant’s nine-year-old daughter. The jury also found that appellant previously had been convicted of two serious or violent felonies within the meaning of California’s “Three Strikes” law. (Pen. Code, §§ 667, subds. (b)-(i), 1170.12.) The two prior convictions were another Penal Code section 288, subdivision (a) violation and an assault with a deadly weapon (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)(1)). The court sentenced appellant to a term of 35 years to life. This consisted of twenty-five years to life for the current Penal Code section 288, subdivision (a) conviction, plus a five-year enhancement under Penal Code section 667, subdivision (a), for each of his two prior felony convictions. On this appeal he contends (1) various evidentiary rulings made by the trial court deprived him of a fair trial, (2) the trial court erred in excusing one juror for cause and in refusing to excuse another juror, and (3) his sentence of 35 years to life “violates the law in several ways.” As we shall explain, we find no…