Luis Felipe Torres Mendez v. State of Mississippi;

CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedAugust 18, 2020
DocketNO. 2019-KA-00430-COA
StatusPublished

This text of Luis Felipe Torres Mendez v. State of Mississippi; (Luis Felipe Torres Mendez v. State of Mississippi;) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Luis Felipe Torres Mendez v. State of Mississippi;, (Mich. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

NO. 2019-KA-00430-COA

LUIS FELIPE TORRES MENDEZ APPELLANT

v.

STATE OF MISSISSIPPI APPELLEE

DATE OF JUDGMENT: 02/27/2019 TRIAL JUDGE: HON. CELESTE EMBREY WILSON COURT FROM WHICH APPEALED: DESOTO COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: OFFICE OF STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER BY: JUSTIN TAYLOR COOK ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL BY: BARBARA WAKELAND BYRD DISTRICT ATTORNEY: JOHN W. CHAMPION NATURE OF THE CASE: CRIMINAL - FELONY DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED - 08/18/2020 MOTION FOR REHEARING FILED: MANDATE ISSUED:

BEFORE CARLTON, P.J., WESTBROOKS AND LAWRENCE, JJ.

CARLTON, P.J., FOR THE COURT:

¶1. Luis Felipe Torres Mendez was charged with committing five counts of sexual battery

and four counts of child fondling against John.1 After a jury trial in the DeSoto County

Circuit Court, Mendez was convicted on all nine counts and sentenced to serve a total of

thirty-five years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) and

placed on twenty years of post-release supervision.

¶2. Mendez appeals his convictions, raising two assignments of error. First, Mendez

1 This case involves allegations of crimes against a minor, so a pseudonym (John) will be used in place of the victim’s name. asserts that Counts 4 and 5 of his indictment were fatally defective because they did not

charge an essential element of the crime of sexual battery or, alternatively, that the trial court

erred in constructively amending the indictment by including an element in the jury

instructions not included in Mendez’s indictment. Second, Mendez asserts that the nearly

two-year date range in Mendez’s indictment was too broad and, according to Mendez, failed

to adequately inform him of the nature of the charges against him. Finding no error, we

affirm Mendez’s convictions and sentences.

STATEMENT OF FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶3. In June 2017, a DeSoto County grand jury returned a nine-count indictment against

Mendez, charging him with committing five counts of sexual battery in violation of

Mississippi Code Annotated section 97-3-95(1)(d) (Rev. 2014) and four counts of child

fondling in violation of Mississippi Code Annotated section 97-5-23 (Rev. 2014).

¶4. Mendez’s jury trial began on February 25, 2019. The State’s first witness was John’s

mother, Floriberta Ochoa (“Ochoa”). She testified that when John was six years old, he

started having difficulties going to the bathroom. He would not use a public restroom and

often soiled his underwear. She was concerned and took him to see a doctor, but she was

offered little advice. In addition to the bathroom issues, Ochoa testified that she noticed

John’s attitude and behavior began to change. He would throw himself on the floor and get

upset. She testified that she would always try to find out what was causing him to be upset,

and finally, one day, she asked him to tell her what was wrong; John told her that “Luis put

2 his penis in his [(John’s)] behind.” John told her this in late February 2017.

¶5. Ochoa testified that “Luis” is the defendant, Mendez. Mendez was Veronica

Moreno’s live-in boyfriend. Moreno was Ochoa’s roommate. Moreno, her two children,

Ochoa, and John shared a two-bedroom single-wide trailer owned by Moreno’s mother. At

some point after Moreno and Ochoa (and their children) moved into the trailer, Mendez also

moved into the trailer.

¶6. After John told his mother about what Mendez had done, she took him to Dr. Javel

Granados, who was a local physician. Dr. Granados was the State’s second witness. He

testified that he saw John, accompanied by his mother, on February 28, 2017. Ochoa

reported to him that a man had been “messing with” her son (John). John had just turned

seven years old a month earlier when Ochoa brought him to see Dr. Granados. Dr. Granados

testified that he had no reason to doubt that what John’s mother reported was true. He noted

that it would be to her disadvantage to lie. Dr. Granados testified that Ochoa told him about

John’s bathroom issues and that he experienced nightmares on a regular basis. He further

testified that these were indicators that John had been the victim of abuse. Dr. Granados

testified that there were no inconsistencies with John’s medical history and his (Dr.

Granados’s) findings. Dr. Granados referred John to Le Bonheur (a children’s hospital), and

he contacted the Hernando Police Department to report the abuse on the same day (February

28, 2017).

¶7. Saul Marquez was the State’s next witness. He is a friend of John and his mother, and

3 he regularly served as their translator at doctor appointments and other places. Marquez

drove John and Ochoa to Le Bonheur. Marquez testified that at Le Bonheur he acted as

John’s translator with the doctor and that John described that Mendez had sodomized him.2

Marquez testified that John’s demeanor seemed “ashamed” and that John did not seem to

want to talk about it. Marquez testified that he did not believe that John was lying or that

John was being asked questions by the medical staff “in a way that made [him] feel like they

were trying to get [John] to say something.” Marquez thought John was honest in what he

told the doctors.

¶8. Officer Michael White of the Hernando Police Department testified that he contacted

Le Bonheur’s child protection service officer after he learned of the alleged abuse. Officer

White sent an on-call investigator to the hospital to gather information. Based on what John

reported, it was suspected that the last instance of abuse had occurred two weeks before the

investigation began on February 28, 2017. Officer White arranged for a forensic exam to be

conducted at a child advocacy center.

2 Specifically, Marquez testified:

[COUNSEL FOR THE STATE:] Can you relate to the ladies and gentlemen of the jury what it was specifically that [(John)] alleged happened?

[MARQUEZ:] Basically, penetration with the man’s [(Mendez’s)] penis and his [(John’s)] rectum area.

4 ¶9. Officer White watched the interview on a closed-circuit televison. He testified that

during that interview, John said “in his own words that [(Mendez)] put [a] white thing on his,

what he referred to as his, front thing,” and that when Mendez “stuck his front thing into the

child’s, what he called, back, that it hurt him very badly.” John described multiple instances

of abuse. In listening to John’s account of what happened, Officer White came to realize that

John had been describing a condom. Based on the information that John disclosed in his

forensic interview, Officer White obtained a search warrant and was able to find a white box

of condoms in the same location where John said they would be: in Mendez’s closet.

¶10. Nicole Denfip was the child advocacy specialist who conducted John’s forensic

interview on March 9, 2017. She testified that when the interview was scheduled, she was

advised that John had reported having had suffered sexual abuse. No other details were

provided to her. Denfip testified that within minutes of the start of the interview, John

spontaneously disclosed that he had been abused. She testified his statements were

consistent throughout the interview, and he maintained that he had been abused by Mendez.

Denfip testified that John’s statements were consistent with sexual abuse. A video of his

interview was submitted to the jury.

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