People v. Cordell

195 Cal. App. 4th 1564, 126 Cal. Rptr. 3d 148, 2011 Cal. App. LEXIS 676
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 1, 2011
DocketNo. D056302
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 195 Cal. App. 4th 1564 (People v. Cordell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Cordell, 195 Cal. App. 4th 1564, 126 Cal. Rptr. 3d 148, 2011 Cal. App. LEXIS 676 (Cal. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

Opinion

AARON, J.—

I.

INTRODUCTION

Defendant Walter Cordell appeals from his convictions and sentence after a jury trial. The jury convicted him of attempted premeditated murder, assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, rape, rape with a foreign object, and fraudulently conveying an access card. Cordell contends that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that it could consider whether he had an actual and reasonable, but mistaken, belief that the victim consented to the sexual acts. He also contends that there is insufficient evidence that he “conveyed” an access card within the meaning of Penal Code section 484e, subdivision (a).1 Finally, he contends that the trial court should have stricken the one-year sentence for his prior prison term rather than staying it.

We conclude that the trial court did not err in refusing to instruct on the defense of mistake of fact because Cordell’s defense was actual consent, not a mistaken belief that the victim consented to the sexual acts, and because there was no substantial evidence of equivocal behavior on the victim’s part [1567]*1567that would warrant the instruction. However, we agree with Cordell that there is insufficient evidence that he “conveyed” an access card within the meaning of the statute under which he was charged, and that the court should have struck the one-year sentence for his prison term.

II.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Factual background

1. The prosecution’s evidence

The victim was the primary witness for the prosecution. She testified that she lived in a house next door to a restaurant that her family owned. She worked at the restaurant with other members of her family. The victim met Cordell in June 2007 at a neighborhood bar, and they began dating. The victim invited Cordell to move in with her because he was staying in a motel at the time and she wanted to help him out. Cordell moved in on April 9, 2008. Shortly thereafter, Cordell told the victim that he had prostate cancer and that he did not want her to see him suffer, so he planned to move out on June 1, 2008. The victim thought that it was a good idea for Cordell to move out because she did not want to see him in pain. Cordell also told the victim that the medication he was taking “was messing up his head and making him do bad things.” He told her that he did not want to undergo any more treatments for his cancer, and that without treatment he had only three to six months to live. At that time, Cordell was consuming a lot of alcohol during the day, every day.

On May 30, 2008, two days before Cordell planned to move out, the victim awoke at around noon and had breakfast. Cordell was already drinking. He told the victim that he had an appointment at the “VA Hospital” at around 3:00 p.m., and said that the doctors wanted to talk to her. At around 2:00 p.m., Cordell told the victim that he wanted to have sex with her—what he referred to as “a quicky”—one last time. The victim did not really want to have sex, but agreed “to make him feel better because he’s going to the V.A.” They proceeded to have consensual vaginal and anal intercourse on the couch.2 [1568]*1568Cordell used the victim’s piña colada flavored lubricant during these sex acts. Afterward, they got dressed and the victim had something to eat.3

Cordell then told the victim that he had a surprise for her. He told her that he wanted to blindfold her. She refused, but agreed to close her eyes. While standing behind the victim, Cordell told her to open a dresser drawer. She opened the drawer and felt around, but the drawer was empty. She opened another drawer, but it, too, was empty. Cordell then told her to turn around and, according to the victim, “that’s when the hammer started coming.” She saw a glimpse of a hammer in Cordell’s raised hand. The hammer was what the victim described as an “engineer’s hammer,” with two heads that looked the same, instead of a head and claw. Cordell struck the victim in the back of her head and on her arm as she tried to shield herself. When she tried to run, Cordell grabbed her by her hair and threw her down on the hardwood floor. She tried to get up, but Cordell told her that he would kill her if she moved.

While the victim was lying facedown on the floor, Cordell hit her a few more times with the hammer. She was in pain, bleeding from her head and arm, and in shock. Cordell removed all of her clothing and started rubbing her body. He wanted her to say things that she did not want to say and to tell him that what he was doing to her felt good. The victim complied because “I had to. He made me.” He then inserted a vibrator into her vagina and her anus. He also rubbed the vibrator against her body.

After Cordell rubbed the victim with the vibrator, he inserted his penis into her vagina. The victim initially testified that she did not know whether he also put his penis in her anus, but then remembered telling a police officer that Cordell had put his penis in her anus. In addition, the victim initially could not remember whether Cordell had also put his fingers in her vagina and anus, but then remembered having told an officer that he had. The victim testified that Cordell had not put his mouth on any part of her body, or that she could not remember whether he had done so. She then corrected herself and said that Cordell had orally copulated her vagina and anus. She also stated that she could not remember whether he had raped her vaginally more than once, and stated “Definitely once. Maybe twice.” She reiterated that more than a year had passed since the crimes.

During the assault, the victim’s mother, who had walked over to the victim’s house from the restaurant, called to the victim through the side [1569]*1569window of the house to tell her that she was needed at work. The victim felt that she could not yell or scream at the time, so she called back, “Okay. I’m coming.” She was too frightened to call for help because she did not know what Cordell would do if she did.

Cordell used the victim’s clothing to wipe blood off of her body. He tried to make her wipe the blood off of her arm, but she could not do it because the pain was too intense. The victim heard Cordell take two photographs of her with a cell phone while she was lying facedown in her own blood. Cordell then put the cell phone, her bloody clothing, and the hammer in a white plastic bag. He told her to give him 15 minutes so that he could get away. He also told her that he had bought a gun, and said that the cops had better bring the SWAT team. He said that he would kill them before he killed himself.

After the victim heard Cordell drive away, she got up slowly, put on clean clothes, and stumbled to the family restaurant next door. Her mother and father saw her stumble to the restaurant, saturated in blood, with her arm “twisted up.” The victim told her parents that Cordell had tried to kill her with a hammer, and that he had raped and sexually assaulted her. The victim’s sister called 911. In the meantime, a customer at the restaurant who had emergency medical technician (EMT) training began assisting the victim. The victim told the customer that she thought she was going to die. The entire assault lasted from 2:30 p.m. until 6:00 p.m.

At the hospital, the victim was treated for injuries to her head, neck and arm.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
195 Cal. App. 4th 1564, 126 Cal. Rptr. 3d 148, 2011 Cal. App. LEXIS 676, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-cordell-calctapp-2011.