Guerra

A jury convicted the defendant herein, Rogelio Castro Guerra, of sex crimes against his daughter and another minor. The jurors initially found untrue five enhancement allegations that multiple victims were involved. After the trial court told the jurors that the verdicts were inconsistent and that the jury might wish to “reconsider” them and “should” find the allegations true if it found the predicate fact of multiple victims true, the jury did reconsider the allegations and found them true. Defendant contends on appeal that the trial court invaded the jury’s province. We agree, and we will reverse the tme findings on the enhancement allegations (but otherwise affirm the judgment) and remand the case for resentencing.

BACKGROUND

I. Convictions and Sentence

Because defendant’s appeal pertains only to the trial court’s interactions with the jury following its verdict finding an enhancement allegation untrue, the facts may be briefly summarized. Defendant sexually molested his daughter and another girl. Counts 1 through 7 contained accusations involving his daughter, whereas the eighth count contained an accusation regarding the other girl.

On counts 1 through 7, the…