Coley

The defendant assaulted a bartender and the mother of his son. A jury convicted him of assault with a deadly weapon and other crimes, and the trial court found he suffered two prior felony convictions pertinent to the “Three Strikes” law. Sentenced to state prison for 25 years to life, he appeals. In the published portion of this opinion, we reject his contention the verdicts of the jury and the trial court must be reversed because the trial court lost the exhibits from trial. We hold a defendant must move to have lost exhibits reconstructed before he can contend on appeal that they were insufficient to sustain the verdicts. Accordingly, we affirm the convictions but, for reasons explained in the unpublished portion of this opinion, vacate the sentence and remand for the trial court to exercise its discretion in determining whether to strike the priors.

Facts and Procedure

On the evening of June 20, 1994, the defendant went to T.C.’s Sports Bar in Redding. Later, Marlena Brady entered the bar. She was the mother of the defendant’s 12-year-old son, but the defendant and Brady had not lived together for 12 years and were not friendly. The defendant eventually approached…