Cegers

Herman Cegers (Cegers) was convicted by a jury of assault with a deadly weapon, use of a dangerous and deadly weapon, and intentional infliction of great bodily injury. The court found mitigating circumstances, and utilized concurrent term sentences and stays of the enhancements to impose a lower term sentence of only two years in state prison. Cegers’s principal contention on appeal is that the court committed prejudicial error in excluding certain expert testimony from a psychologist relative to sleep disorders alleged to have influenced Cegers’s behavior. We conclude the court improperly applied the Kelly-Frye test (People v. Kelly (1976) 17 Cal.3d 24 [ 130 Cal.Rptr. 144 , 549 P.2d 1240 ]; Frye v. United States (1923) 54 App.D.C. 46 [ 293 F. 1013 , 34 A.L.R. 145 ]) to evidence which was essentially only ordinary expert testimony and that the exclusion of such evidence was prejudicial. We therefore reverse.

Facts

Cegers and his girlfriend, Willie, lived in an apartment in San Diego. Cegers had been separated from his son, Charles, for many years. When he learned of the adult son’s financial difficulties, he invited the son, the son’s wife, Naomi, and their child,…