A Santa Rosa man convicted of plying 16-year-old girls with drugs and making sex videos with them had his 19-year prison sentence cut nearly in half because of a technical error, his lawyer said Wednesday.
John Heglin, 54, appealed a portion of his 2011 conviction on grounds that prosecutors had the wrong drug offense on jury instruction forms.
Despite a unanimous guilty verdict, the state appeals court reversed the conviction, allowing Heglin to be resentenced to 11 years, said his attorney, Bruce Enos.
He will be out sometime in 2015 with credit for time served, Enos said.
A judge on Wednesday was expected to consider Heglin's request to get family photos returned to him that were seized along with pornographic videos.
Prosecutors said Heglin coerced three teenage girls into a drug and sex-filled relationship at his Bennett Valley apartment complex. He was arrested in 2010 after one of the girls told her mother.
Trial testimony suggested he supplied cocaine and methamphetamine to the girls but jury forms mistakenly cited the penal code for other drugs, Enos said.
A three judge panel of the First Appellate Court earlier this year vacated his conviction on those counts.
Contact Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.
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