Arredondo

*953 I. INTRODUCTION

A jury found defendant and appellant, Jason Arron Arredondo, guilty of 14 sex offenses against four girls, namely, his three stepdaughters, F.R., A.J.R., A.M.R., and another girl, M.C., a friend of F.R.'s. 1

*47 Defendant was sentenced to 33 years plus 275 years to life in state prison.

In the published portion of this opinion, we address defendant's claim that his Sixth Amendment right to "face-to-face" confrontation was violated when the trial court allowed a computer monitor on the witness stand to be raised by several inches to allow F.R. (age 18), A.J.R. (age 14), and A.M.R. (age 13), to testify without having to see defendant. We find no confrontation clause violation. The parties agree the matter must be remanded for resentencing on counts 1, 12, and 14. We remand the matter for resentencing and affirm the judgment in all other respects.

*954 II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. Prosecution Evidence

1. General Background

Defendant was born in 1974. For several years, until September 2013, defendant lived with his girlfriend, A.G., her two sons, and her three daughters, F.R., A.J.R., and A.M.R. The three girls, along with F.R.'s best friend M.C., testified…

I respectfully disagree with the majority's conclusion the accommodation during F.R.'s testimony did not violate Arredondo's Sixth Amendment right to face-to-face confrontation. The majority opinion breaks with established Sixth Amendment law. It is the first California appellate decision to approve the use of a physical barrier accommodation, as well as the first to invade the right to face-to-face confrontation to protect a non-disabled adult witness. Potentially more problematic, the majority infers and upholds a finding of necessity based on the slightest evidence I have found in our case law.

The relevant facts from trial span a mere three and a half pages of transcript, from which we can glean only that the court allowed an 18-year-old witness-who already had a support person-to testify behind a monitor that entirely blocked defendant's view of her and vice versa. The court did so to make the witness "more comfortable" because she had become emotional when taking the stand. However, the court did not hear evidence from anyone-medical professionals, for example, or even simply the witness herself-as to the cause and degree of her distress, and the record does not support an…