Harrah

Certified for Partial Publication [*]

A jury found defendant James Nichol Harrah, Jr., guilty of one count of continual sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, six counts of lewd or lascivious conduct on a child under 14, and one count of lewd and lascivious act on a child by a person at least 10 years older. (Pen.Code, [1] §§ 288.5, 288, subd. (a), 288, subd. (c)(1).) The court sentenced him to prison for a period of 21 years and 8 months. Defendant appeals from the judgment, claiming prosecutorial misconduct, the erroneous exclusion of his expert witness from the courtroom during the victim's testimony, violation of section 288.5, subdivision (c), ineffective assistance of counsel, and sentencing error. We find a violation of section 288.5, subdivision (c) and strike count six in the judgment.

In the absence of any claim of insufficiency of the evidence, we generally summarize the trial testimony, which primarily came from defendant's stepdaughter, Crystal. Crystal's mother, Brenda, married defendant when Crystal was three years old. Brenda gave birth to a son, Kevin, a year after the marriage.

Crystal and defendant appeared to have a loving relationship. The…