People v. DeLeon CA1/2

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 28, 2023
DocketA166290
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. DeLeon CA1/2 (People v. DeLeon CA1/2) 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. DeLeon CA1/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

Filed 7/28/23 P. v. DeLeon CA1/2 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A166290 v. JORGE NICOLLA DELEON, (San Francisco County Super. Ct. No. SCN229759) Defendant and Appellant.

This is defendant Jorge Nicolla DeLeon’s second appeal following his conviction for three sexual offenses against his three step-granddaughters, aged five, six, and 10. A jury convicted DeLeon for continuous sexual abuse of two of the children (Pen. Code, § 288.5 [counts 1 and 4]) and committing a lewd and lascivious act on the third.1 The jury also found true multiple victim enhancements. The court sentenced DeLeon to two consecutive terms of 25 years to life in prison. On appeal, DeLeon raised a number of errors, including that his sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment. (People v. DeLeon (Nov. 21, 2021, A159154) [nonpub. opn.] 2021 WL 5446280 (DeLeon I).) We affirmed DeLeon’s convictions but remanded the matter because “the trial court erred in sentencing, wrongly understanding it had no discretion but to

1 All further undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

1 impose the consecutive sentences.” In light of the decision to remand, we did not reach DeLeon’s argument concerning whether his original sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment. (DeLeon I, at p. *20.) On remand, after noting that consecutive sentences were not required, the trial court imposed the same sentence—an aggregate term of 50 years to life. DeLeon now renews his argument that his sentence constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under California law—article I, section 17 of the California Constitution—and federal law—under the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. We disagree with DeLeon and affirm. BACKGROUND Evidence at Trial We include a comprehensive summary of the facts relating to the evidence at trial, leading to DeLeon’s convictions and sentence, in our previous opinion. (DeLeon I, supra, 2021 WL 5446280.) We reproduce a portion of that summary here, to provide a description of the factual basis for our decision regarding DeLeon’s contentions regarding his sentence. In 2003, when he was 28, DeLeon began a relationship with Cristiana, a 48-year-old woman with seven children and several grandchildren. DeLeon and Cristiana lived in Christiana’s house in San Francisco (the house). Christina’s daughter, Sitti, moved there with her husband Sean and their two children, a son Cristian, born in 2002, and a daughter S.M., born in 2004. A third child, a daughter, C.M., was born in 2008. Sitti, Sean, and the girls lived in an “in-law unit” inside the garage, which had a “living room of sorts” with a couch. Cristian, C.M. and S.M.’s older brother, lived in a separate room in the backyard.

2 Cristiana’s son Andrew also lived in the house, in another upstairs bedroom. Andrew had a daughter, S.A., who lived with her mother Sheryl F. S.A. visited the house on weekends. An April 2017 investigation by Child Protective Services transformed into a sexual abuse investigation concerning DeLeon’s conduct. John Viet led the investigation. Ultimately, investigators interviewed Sitti’s three children, C.M., S.M., and Christian, and Andrew’s daughter, S.A. At the time of trial, C.M. was 10, S.M. was 15, and S.A. was nine years old. As summarized at length in our earlier opinion, C.M., S.M., and S.A. all described multiple incidents of inappropriate touching by DeLeon, including of their torsos and genitals. To provide just a few examples of the children’s testimony, C.M. remembered that DeLeon “touched her on her arms, legs, “butt,” and “private,” which she used to “go pee,” which occurred when her parents and siblings were downtown, and she remained at the house with her grandmother and defendant.” (DeLeon I, supra, 2021 WL 5446280 at p. *2.) “[S]he ‘wanted to say, “Stop,” ’ but ‘was too scared,’ thinking defendant ‘might get mad, or [her grandma] might think [she] was lying.’ ” (Ibid.) DeLeon then “flipped over his hands to [her] butt’ and moved his hand ‘all around.’ ” (Ibid.) S.M. testified that “when she was about eight years old” DeLeon “started to touch her ‘in places where [she] didn’t appreciate being touched,’ specifically, her ‘boobs,’ ‘butt,’ and ‘private part,’ that . . . she used ‘[t]o pee.’ ” (Ibid.) S.M. explained the touching “ ‘just happened often in the same places. That’s why, it’s not something I want to remember, but it’s something like . . . that’s why I can’t say I know I remember the very first time it started happening. But . . . if anything, all the times it did happen they were mostly the same, because they mainly happened in the same spots.’ As to the

3 frequency of the touching, S.M. testified, ‘It would happen many times. I can’t give you an exact number because I [did not] count. I can tell you that, within those years that it happened, it was probably more than 10, probably more than 15, probably more than 20. Because it happened pretty often.’ ” (Ibid.) S.M. specifically described DeLeon standing “next to her, in back of her so that the others could not see. S.M. felt defendant put his hand in her pants and touch her ‘butt’ inside her underwear with his bare hand for ‘probably less than a minute,’ and then squeeze her ‘butt.’ When [DeLeon] took his hand out, S.M.’s pants ‘smack[ed]’ or ‘snap[ped]’ against her back.” (Id. at p. *3.) S.M. testified about another incident in which DeLeon “stood behind S.M. and rubbed ‘his private part’ against her ‘butt’ and breathed on S.M.’s neck and kissed it. Christian looked up and [DeLeon] ‘backed away,’ saying ‘Oh, what are [you] doing on your phone?’ In her view acting as if ‘he was interested in what [she] was doing, to play it off like he wasn’t just doing the things he was doing.’ ” (Ibid.) S.A. similarly testified she had stopped visiting her grandmother’s house on the weekends because “ ‘something had happened’ in [DeLeon’s] room—he ‘touched [her] private part,’ the part she used ‘to pee.’ S.A. said [DeLeon] told her not to tell anybody about the touching, and she complied because she ‘was scared [she] was going to get in trouble’ with her mother and [DeLeon].” (DeLeon I, supra, 2021 WL 5446280 at p. *4.) The children testified concerning other graphic examples, as summarized in our earlier opinion. (DeLeon I, supra, 2021 WL 5446280 at pp. *2–*4.) Christian corroborated incidents relating to his sisters, C.M. and S.M. Based on witness testimony, the incidents recurred as to each step granddaughter over a period of months or years.

4 In his defense, DeLeon testified for some four hours. He described various incidents in which he suffered abuse in his childhood, beginning when he was age five. He described difficulties interacting with Christina’s family, including “confrontations” where “sometimes they call[ed] the police.” He said he tried his best to fulfill his role as a step-grandparent, testifying he especially cherished the gatherings in what he called the upstairs kitchen room. DeLeon admitted to having occasional physical contact with the children, such as bouncing them on his knee, but denied anything sexual took place. DeLeon reported that while he did not babysit either S.M. or C.M., and “seldom” went to the garage room with the television, he did often see the children at the home, especially upstairs with Cristiana present. DeLeon generally denied any contact with the children for sexual arousal. Rather, he testified he had a good relationship with C.M.

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People v. DeLeon CA1/2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-deleon-ca12-calctapp-2023.