Torres

1. Introduction

In this case a jury found that defendant Simon Lawrence Torres was guilty of attempting to dissuade a victim or witness from reporting to law enforcement four other alleged crimes that the jurors were not persuaded had occurred. A judge who did not preside at the trial imposed a sentence for a greater offense than was submitted to the jury, which included both a three-year enhancement that the prosecutor had once asked to dismiss and an inapplicable custody credit restriction. The Attorney General acknowledges that defendant deserves relief from this agglomeration of errors.

After trial, a jury convicted defendant of “a violation of Penal Code Section 136.1, Dissuading a Witness from testifying, as charged in Count II. 1 They were unable to reach a verdict on four other charges, namely robbery (§211; count 1), burglary (§ 459; count 3), possession by a felon of a silver revolver (§ 12021, subd. (a)(1); count 4), and possession by a felon of a shotgun (count 5). These charges were ultimately dismissed on a motion of the prosecutor.

*1135 In bifurcated proceedings, the trial court found that defendant had three prior felony convictions, two leading to a…