People v. Delgado

181 Cal. App. 4th 839, 104 Cal. Rptr. 3d 495, 2010 Cal. App. LEXIS 110
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 15, 2010
DocketG041561
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 181 Cal. App. 4th 839 (People v. Delgado) 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. Delgado, 181 Cal. App. 4th 839, 104 Cal. Rptr. 3d 495, 2010 Cal. App. LEXIS 110 (Cal. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

Opinion

IKOLA, J.

—Defendant Phillip Delgado challenges his convictions for sexual offenses against two minors. He contends he was wrongly tried in Riverside County on offenses committed in Los Angeles County. He further contends prosecution on the Los Angeles County offenses was time-barred. He also asserts the jury was tainted and the prosecutor violated his due process right by unfairly examining him on his post-Miranda silence. 1

*844 We affirm the judgment of conviction. Penal Code section 784.7 allows prosecution of defendant’s sexual offenses in any county where any of the offenses occurred. 2 Defendant has no vicinage right to trial on the Los Angeles County offenses only in that county. Applying section 784.7 to defendant does not violate the constitutional bans against ex post facto laws. The Los Angeles County offenses were timely prosecuted within one year of the victim’s report to the police. And the juror taint and due process claims are baseless and, in any event, harmless.

But we reverse as to sentence and remand for resentencing. The court was required to impose full, consecutive, determinate terms on two counts of committing forcible lewd acts on a child under 14.

FACTS

Defendant first sexually abused Michael, his girlfriend’s son, in 1990, when Michael was about six years old. Defendant fondled and orally copulated Michael several times a week. Michael and his family moved into defendant’s Lakewood home around 1994, when Michael was about 10. Defendant continued sexually abusing Michael about once a week. Michael and his family moved with defendant to Lake Elsinore around 1997, where defendant continued to sexually abuse Michael. Defendant also had anal sex with Michael. Michael, his family, and defendant returned to Lakewood after about six months. Michael lived separately from defendant, but defendant continued to sexually abuse Michael during visits. Michael reported defendant’s acts to his mother in 2003, whereupon he suffered an emotional breakdown and was hospitalized. His mother contacted the police, who interviewed Michael in the hospital sometime between October 22 and 28, 2003.

Defendant began molesting Ralph, a friend’s son, in 2002 or 2003, when Ralph was about seven years old. Defendant would babysit Ralph and spend the night with Ralph and his mother in their Lake Elsinore home. Defendant fondled Ralph, masturbated in front of him, and forced Ralph to orally copulate defendant.

The Riverside County District Attorney filed a criminal complaint against defendant on September 13, 2004, alleging defendant sexually abused Michael and Ralph. The Riverside County District Attorney later filed a “Written Venue Agreement,” whereby the Los Angeles County District Attorney consented to defendant being prosecuted in Riverside County for his offenses against Michael in Los Angeles County. (See § 784.7.) After the *845 preliminary hearing, the Riverside County District Attorney filed an information charging defendant with counts arising from his sexual abuse of both Michael and Ralph. The court denied defendant’s motion to dismiss the counts related to Michael for lack of jurisdiction, violation of his venue and vicinage rights, and violation of the bars against ex post facto punishment.

A jury convicted defendant of eight counts of committing lewd acts on Michael between 1994 and 1997. (§ 288, subd. (a).) It further convicted him of one count of forcible oral copulation with Ralph (§ 269, subd. (a)(4)), one count of committing a lewd act on Ralph (§ 288, subd. (a)), and two counts of committing forcible lewd acts on Ralph (§ 288, subd. (b)(1)). It found true a multiple victim allegation pursuant to the “One Strike” law. (§ 667.61, subd. (e)(5).)

The court sentenced defendant to a total term of 67 years to life in state prison. Pursuant to the multiple victim enhancement, the court imposed consecutive terms of 15 years to life on count 3 (lewd act against Michael in 1995), count 9 (forcible oral copulation against Ralph), and count 11 (forcible lewd act against Ralph). It further imposed consecutive determinate terms of 22 years on the remaining counts.

DISCUSSION

Prosecuting the Los Angeles County Offenses in Riverside County Did Not Violate Defendant’s Vicinage Right

Pursuant to section 784.7, defendant was tried in Riverside County for all of the charged offenses, including those he committed in Los Angeles County. As enacted in 1998, the statute provided, “When more than one violation of Section . . . 288 . . . occurs in more than one jurisdictional territory, and the defendant and the victim are the same for all of the offenses, the jurisdiction of any of those offenses is in any jurisdiction where at least one of the offenses occurred.” (Stats. 1998, ch. 302, § 1.)

Section 784.7 was amended effective 2003 to eliminate the requirement that all offenses involve the same victim. (Stats. 2002, ch. 194, § 2; see People v. Betts (2005) 34 Cal.4th 1039, 1058, fn. 14 [23 Cal.Rptr.3d 138, 103 P.3d 883].) Section 784.7, subdivision (a), now provides, “When more than one violation of Section . . . 288 . . . occurs in more than one jurisdictional territory, the jurisdiction of any of those offenses, and for any offenses properly joinable with that offense, is in any jurisdiction where at least one of the offenses occurred, subject to a hearing, pursuant to Section 954, within the jurisdiction of the proposed trial. At the Section 954 hearing, *846 the prosecution shall present evidence in writing that all district attorneys in counties with jurisdiction of the offenses agree to the venue.”

Section 954 governs joinder of criminal offenses. It provides, “An accusatory pleading may charge two or more different offenses connected together in their commission ... or two or more different offenses of the same class of crimes or offenses . . . .” (§ 954.)

Defendant contends standing trial in Riverside County for offenses committed against Michael in Los Angeles County violated his federal vicinage right. “ ‘[Vjicinage refers to the area from which the jury pool is drawn.’ ” (Price v. Superior Court (2001) 25 Cal.4th 1046, 1054 [108 Cal.Rptr.2d 409, 25 P.3d 618] (Price)) The Bill of Rights guarantees the right to trial by a jury “of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law.” (U.S. Const., 6th Amend.) Defendant asserts his offenses against Michael must be tried before a jury drawn from Los Angeles County, where the offenses occurred.

But as defendant concedes, the California Supreme Court has held, “the [Sixth Amendment’s] vicinage clause is not applicable in a state criminal trial.” {Price, supra, 25 Cal.4th at p. 1069.) “Nothing in the history of the Fourteenth Amendment . . .

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
181 Cal. App. 4th 839, 104 Cal. Rptr. 3d 495, 2010 Cal. App. LEXIS 110, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-delgado-calctapp-2010.