City News Service

A former Coachella Valley girls soccer coach who molested and propositioned multiple middle-school students was convicted of nearly a dozen felony and misdemeanor charges.

A jury found 29-year-old Juan Manuel Pantoja Troncoso of Salton City guilty of three counts each of forcible lewd acts on a child and contacting a minor for the purpose of perpetrating a sexual offense, four counts of annoying a child and one count of battery, with sentence-enhancing allegations of targeting multiple victims.

Jurors deadlocked on only one misdemeanor count alleging annoyance of a minor.

The verdicts were announced Tuesday, Oct. 28, following about three days of deliberations and several weeks of testimony at the Banning Justice Center. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mark Sing

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