Taulton

After a bifurcated trial, defendant Jerry Dean Taulton was convicted of one count of commercial burglary (Pen. Code, §§ 459, 460, subd. (b)). Thereafter the court conducted a bench trial and found defendant had previously been convicted of petty theft with a prior (Pen. Code, §§ 666, 488) and possession of stolen property (Pen. Code, § 496). The only evidence presented at the bench trial consisted of documents constituting a so-called 969b packet. The issue originally raised in this appeal was that the true findings, based solely on documentary evidence, violated defendant’s right to confrontation under the Sixth Amendment as interpreted in Crawford v. Washington (2004) 541 U.S. 36 [ 158 L.Ed.2d 177 , 124 S.Ct. 1354 ] (Crawford).

The trial court imposed an upper term sentence based on a finding “that the defendant has a very substantial criminal record . . . .” In his supplemental brief, defendant argues the court erred in imposing an upper term sentence based on facts that were neither alleged in the information nor proven to a jury, in violation of his rights under the Sixth Amendment as interpreted in Blakely v. Washington (2004) 542 U.S. 296 [ 159 L.Ed.2d 403 , 124…