Castor v. People

57 V.I. 482, 2012 WL 4757503, 2012 V.I. Supreme LEXIS 71
CourtSupreme Court of The Virgin Islands
DecidedSeptember 28, 2012
DocketS. Ct. Criminal No. 2010-0097
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 57 V.I. 482 (Castor v. People) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Castor v. People, 57 V.I. 482, 2012 WL 4757503, 2012 V.I. Supreme LEXIS 71 (virginislands 2012).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

(September 28, 2012)

Cabret, Associate Justice.

In this case, Antoniel Castor appeals his convictions for unlawful sexual contact in the first degree, aggravated rape in the first degree, attempted aggravated rape in the first degree, and child abuse stemming from a series of encounters between Castor and the eleven-year-old daughter of the adult girlfriend with whom he resided, as embodied in a Judgment and Commitment entered by the Superior Court on January 9, 2009. As detailed below, Castor attacks the sufficiency of the People’s evidence to sustain his convictions on the various charges, argues that comments made by the prosecuting attorney during opening statement and closing arguments violated his due process rights, and challenges his concurrent sentences as violating the Double Jeopardy Clause. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm Castor’s convictions, but vacate his sentence and remand the matter to the Superior Court for re-sentencing.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In April 2007 a sixth grade teacher at an elementary school noticed that one of her eleven-year-old students, M.L., appeared to be showing signs of pregnancy. M.L. was sent to the school nurse and admitted being concerned that she might be pregnant. M.L. told the nurse that she believed her stepfather, Castor, was the father of the child because he would come into her room at night and “put[] his penis around her private, her vagina.” (J.A. 64.) M.L.’s statements were immediately reported to the school principal, the Department of Human Services, and the police. Two social workers from the Department of Human Services took M.L. to a hospital emergency room, where a doctor confirmed that she was four to five months pregnant. At the hospital, police took a statement from M.L. in which she claimed that, between the months of September 2006 and March 2007, Castor would enter her room at night after coming home from work. He either removed, or moved aside, her panties and [486]*486rubbed his penis on her vagina. M.L. also reported that twice, in the month of February, she recalled something wet on her leg after Castor left her room. Finally, M.L. told police that Castor had entered her room in March to assault her again, but she had fended him off by moving around and shoving him away. In total, she recalled three to six sexual encounters with Castor. Castor was arrested and charged, by amended information, with thirteen crimes.1

At trial on October 28, 2008, the People called the elementary school teacher and school nurse to testify to the events leading up to M.L.’s trip to the hospital. The People also called one of the two social workers with the Department of Human Services who accompanied M.L. to the hospital, who testified that she was in the room when the doctor determined that M.L. was four to five months pregnant. A second social worker testified that she interviewed M.L. before the police arrived and that M.L. told her that her stepfather, Castor, was the father of the child.

Next, the People called M.L., who at the time of trial was thirteen years old. In her testimony, M.L. stated that she first met Castor when she was between the ages of four and six. Prior to the sexual contact, Castor lived with M.L., her three siblings, and her mother as her mother’s boyfriend. Prior to the incidents in question, M.L. testified that she considered Castor to be “[l]ike a father.” (J.A. 84.) M.L. testified that starting in the summer of 2006, Castor would come into her room while she was sleeping on her stomach, lay down on her back, move her panties aside, and rub his penis against her vagina. The sexual activity happened while M.L.’s siblings slept in the same room. When asked, M.L. testified that she did not tell her mother about the molestation because she was afraid that her mother would “be against” her and would believe Castor instead. She also stated that she felt she had to do what Castor wanted because her mother left him in charge when she went out of town. Further, M.L. testified that she had never had sexual encounters with any other person and did not have a boyfriend. Additionally, M.L. testified that she gave birth to a son, M.D.L., on September 15, 2007. Finally, M.L. testified that Castor [487]*487had instructed her to tell others that “it was a boy ... who did it,” because otherwise she would be “messing up the family” and she “wouldn’t be with the family” anymore. (J.A. 126-27.) During her testimony, when M.L. struggled to remember some of the specifics she had previously told police, the People entered M.L.’s statement to the police into evidence without objection.

The People also called an expert in DNA analysis, Kevin Noppinger, the director of a private DNA testing laboratory in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Noppinger compared samples of M.D.L.’s DNA to Castor’s. He determined, based on his comparison of the DNA, that there was a greater than 99.9999% chance that Castor was M.D.L.’s father. In fact, Noppinger testified that the results were accurate enough to exclude the possibility of anyone else in the world being the child’s father. After Noppinger’s testimony, the People rested their case.2 Castor did not call any witnesses in his defense. After instruction by the court, the jury returned a guilty verdict on each count that same day.

In its January 9, 2009 Judgment, the Superior Court sentenced Castor to twenty-five years for the aggravated rape charges, fifteen years for the unlawful sexual conduct charges, ten years for the attempted aggravated rape charges, and ten years on the child abuse charge, all to run concurrently. The court also indicated that Castor would not be eligible for parole on the aggravated rape charges for fifteen years and would not be eligible for parole on the unlawful sexual conduct charges for ten years. On October 13, 2010, Castor filed a notice of appeal and a motion to file the notice of appeal out of time. Subsequently, however, we determined that the People waived any right they may have had to challenge Castor’s notice of appeal as untimely by failing to raise the issue of timeliness. See Castor v. People, S. Ct. Crim. No. 2010-0097, slip. op. 1-2 (V.I. Apr. 29, 2011).

On appeal, Castor argues that (1) the People failed to provide sufficient evidence that the victim was not his spouse at the time of the attacks; (2) the People failed to provide sufficient evidence that he used his status as the child’s stepfather to perpetrate the attacks; (3) the People failed to provide sufficient evidence that his actions caused vaginal penetration; (4) [488]*488the People failed to provide sufficient evidence as to when the attempted rapes occurred; (5) the People deprived him of due process through prejudicial comments made during opening and closing arguments; and (6) his concurrent sentences violate the Double Jeopardy Clause.

II. JURISDICTION AND STANDARDS OF REVIEW

We have jurisdiction over this criminal appeal pursuant to title 4, section 32(a) of the Virgin Islands Code, which provides that “[t]he Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction over all appeals arising from final judgments, final decrees or final orders of the Superior Court, or as otherwise provided by law.” A final, appealable judgment was entered in this case on January 9, 2009. See, e.g., Codrington v. People, 57 V.I. 176, 183 (V.I.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Rouse v. People of the Virgin Islands
Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2024
King v. People
67 V.I. 903 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2017)
Heyliger v. People
66 V.I. 340 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2017)
Francis v. People
63 V.I. 724 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2015)
Fahie v. People
62 V.I. 625 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2015)
Freeman v. People
61 V.I. 537 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2014)
Canton v. People
61 V.I. 511 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2014)
Henley v. People
61 V.I. 240 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2014)
Alexander v. People
60 V.I. 486 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2014)
Brathwaite v. People
60 V.I. 419 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2014)
James v. People
60 V.I. 311 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2013)
Burke v. People
60 V.I. 257 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2013)
Mercado v. People
60 V.I. 220 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2013)
Morton v. People
59 V.I. 660 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2013)
Allen v. People
59 V.I. 631 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2013)
Tyson v. People
59 V.I. 539 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2013)
George v. People
59 V.I. 368 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2013)
Castillo v. People
59 V.I. 240 (Supreme Court of The Virgin Islands, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
57 V.I. 482, 2012 WL 4757503, 2012 V.I. Supreme LEXIS 71, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castor-v-people-virginislands-2012.