People v. Guzman CA4/2

I. INTRODUCTION

A jury found defendant and appellant Jose Wilson Rojas Guzman guilty of

committing five sex offenses against three girls under the age of 14 years, namely, Does

1, 2, and 3. Defendant was sentenced under the “One Strike” law (Pen. Code, § 667.61)

to life without the possibility of parole on count 1 and 25-year-to-life terms on counts

and 5. He was sentenced to four years on count 2 and one year on count 3, both terms to

run consecutive to count 1.

Defendant claims the trial court abused its discretion and violated his due process

rights in allowing the prosecution to amend the information following the close of its

case-in-chief to charge him with assaulting Doe 1 with great bodily injury (§ 245, subd.

(a)(1)) in lieu of her attempted murder, as originally charged. The amendment was

allowed after the court indicated it would grant defendant’s section 1118.1 motion to

dismiss the attempted murder charge based on insufficient evidence of intent to kill. We

find no abuse of discretion or due process violation in the allowance of the amendment.

The evidence adduced at the preliminary hearing adequately notified defendant he could

be charged with…