Where a defendant has entered into a valid plea bargain in which he agrees that he may be sentenced to the upper term, he necessarily admits that his conduct is sufficient to expose him to that punishment and he reserves only the exercise of the court’s discretion in determining whether to impose that sentence. The decision in Blakely v. Washington (2004) 159 L.Ed.2d 403 does not preclude the court’s exercise of discretion in this situation, so long as the sentence imposed is within the range to which the defendant was exposed by virtue of his admissions. Because he agreed that he could be sentenced to the upper term, the defendant’s plea in effect admitted the existence of facts necessary to impose that term.