In an unusual outcome, the California Supreme Court split Monday over whether to uphold the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a jewelry store owner during a 1996 robbery in Fresno.

The court generally reaches unanimous decisions in death penalty cases.

With Associate Justices Mariano-Florentino Cuellar and Goodwin Liu dissenting, the court ruled that defendant Vaene Sivongxxay chose not to have a jury decide his case at the outset of his trial and had no right to be advised specifically that a judge would also decide the allegation that he committed murder during the course of a robbery.

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Cuellar and Liu said the trial court failed to explain to Sivongxxay that he was entitled to have a jury decide the allegation that he committed murder in the course of a robbery.

Cuellar and Liu also said the trial court failed to ask Sivongxxay separately whether he waived his right to a jury trial on the allegation.