People v. Fields

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 30, 2014
DocketA135605
StatusPublished

This text of People v. Fields (People v. Fields) 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. Fields, (Cal. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Filed 9/30/14 CERTIFIED FOR PARTIAL PUBLICATION*

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, A135605 v. DUWAN D. FIELDS et al., (Contra Costa County Super. Ct. No. 05-111775-3) Defendants and Appellants.

A jury convicted defendants Duwan D. Fields and Claudiens Santrail Griffin of eight counts of pimping, pandering, and committing sexual offenses against minors. Defendants contend their convictions must be reversed due to asserted instructional errors. Griffin further contends his conviction for oral copulation with a minor is not supported by substantial evidence and his felony sentence for the offense violates his right to equal protection of the law. Both defendants challenge a restitution award made jointly and severally against them. We reverse the order of restitution against defendant Fields, and otherwise affirm the judgments against both defendants. I. BACKGROUND Fields was charged by amended information with pimping Jane Doe 2 (count one) and Jane Doe 3 (count two), minors over the age of 16 (Pen. Code,1 § 266h, subd. (b)); and engaging in an act of unlawful sexual intercourse with Jane Doe 3, a minor more than three years younger than Fields (§ 261.5, subd. (c); count three).

* Pursuant to California Rules of Court, rules 8.1105(b) and 8.1110, this opinion is certified for publication with the exception of parts II.A.1., II.B., II.C., II.D., II.E., and II.F. 1 All statutory references are to the Penal Code. Griffin was charged with committing lewd acts upon Jane Doe 1, a child under the age of 14 (§ 288, subd. (a); counts four & five); pimping Jane Doe 3, a minor over the age of 16 (§ 266h, subd. (b); count six); pandering Jane Doe 3 (§ 266i, subd. (a); count seven); forcibly raping Jane Doe 3 (§ 261, subd. (a)(2); count eight); and participating in an act of oral copulation with Jane Doe 3, a minor under the age of 18 (§ 288a, subd. (b)(1); count nine). Griffin entered an open plea of no contest to count four, which was amended to identify the lewd act as oral copulation. A jury was sworn and impaneled on March 7, 2012. After 11 days of testimony, the jury found both defendants guilty of all of the charges against them. A. Trial Evidence On April 20, 2009, three female foster children—13-year-old Jane Doe 1, 17-year- old Jane Doe 2, and 16-year-old Jane Doe 3— ran away from a group home for children in protective custody operated by Child Protective Services in Sacramento. They got a ride from a stranger to an area of Sacramento known as Del Paso Heights and walked to an apartment Jane Doe 1 knew about in the area. At the apartment, they met some males, including Griffin. Later, the girls met Fields and Fields’s girlfriend, S.G., who was Griffin’s 16-year-old sister. In a car driven by Fields, Griffin, Jane Doe 3, and S.G. left Del Paso Heights after a few days and went to Fields’s condominium in San Ramon. Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 also went to San Ramon. Just before leaving for San Ramon, Jane Doe 3 overheard a telephone call made by Griffin in which he told someone “he had girls ready to make money and they could go to San Francisco.” Soon after they arrived in San Ramon, Fields and S.G. told Jane Doe 2 “they wanted me to get ready to . . . go do this stuff.” S.G. gave Jane Doe 2 clothes to wear, and helped her get ready to go. Fields, S.G., Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 went to a house in San Francisco, and then left to go to a hotel. On the way to the hotel, Jane Doe 2 realized that she, Jane Doe 3, and S.G. “were actually going to be having sex with other people.” When they arrived at the hotel, S.G. and Fields told Jane Doe 2 “to show [Jane Doe 3] how to moan and groan.” Also, she should “[j]ust do whatever the guy asked”

2 and to “act like you’re enjoying it and whatnot.” They warned, however, “to make sure you get the money from the guy.” As instructed, Jane Doe 3 went up to the hotel room first to perform oral sex on the client as a means of ensuring he was not a police officer; then, “if everything was okay and he allowed [her] to go down and stuff . . . then . . . [Jane Doe 3] would tell him to go get [Jane Doe 2].” Later, when both Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 were in the room with the client, they both engaged in sexual intercourse with him. From that night until April 28, 2009, Jane Doe 2 went out with Fields and S.G. to meet with clients every night but one. Jane Doe 2 could not go that one night because she was “hurting too much” because of an appointment in which she and Jane Doe 3 had met with “a room full of guys.” Jane Doe 2 had had sexual intercourse with four men at that appointment; in addition, the men had digitally penetrated both Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3. After that appointment, “[a] lot of money was collected and it was [Fields] and [S.G.]” who ultimately got the money. Jane Doe 2 testified neither Fields nor S.G. ever gave her money for what she “had to do.” S.G. told Jane Doe 2 that the money she had earned was used to pay for clothing. The girls stayed in Fields’s home and were also provided food. S.G. generally answered telephone calls from clients responding to ads Fields had placed on Craigslist; Jane Doe 2 did so on one occasion as well. When answering these calls, there was a “script” they were supposed to follow, and a pricing structure for the various sexual acts the girls could perform on the clients. Fields and S.G. drove the girls to and from each appointment, and collected the money earned. Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 would use condoms provided by Fields and S.G. Jane Doe 1 did not go out to any appointments with clients. Griffin told Jane Doe 1 that when she turned 14, she would “be put on the track,”2 and would “wind up being a hoe like the others.” Griffin talked about being a pimp; specifically, he said, “he just be

2 Sacramento County Sheriff’s Detective Michelle Hendricks defined “the track” as “basically, walking the stroll, and you had sex for money with strange men.”

3 glad when he got the money.” Griffin told Jane Doe 1 “[t]hat if any of us told, that they’d find us.” While in San Ramon, Jane Doe 1 engaged in sexual intercourse with Griffin, and she orally copulated him. Jane Doe 3 testified she went on several appointments with Jane Doe 2 and S.G. During that time, she also engaged in sexual intercourse with Griffin several times. On one of these occasions, she told Griffin “no” but he held her tightly with his hands and continued to engage in sexual intercourse even after she tried “to push him off.” Jane Doe 3 told Detective Hendricks Griffin “raped” her on that occasion. On another occasion, Jane Doe 3 engaged in sexual intercourse with Fields after S.G. called Jane Doe 3 into the bedroom she shared with Fields and asked Jane Doe 3 if she wanted “to have sex with her man.” On April 28, 2009, about 1:34 a.m., Foster City Police Officer Stephen Sealy stopped a car driven by Fields; S.G. was in the front passenger seat, and Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 were seated in the back seat of the car. Upon the officer’s initial contact with the females in the car, they provided him with false names and dates of birth.3 Officer Sealy testified Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 were scantily dressed in “pretty tight clothes.” After defendants were arrested, police searched the San Ramon residence and found, among other items, a tray of condoms in the bedroom shared by Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, and Jane Doe 3, a piece of paper with “call back numbers,” and a listing of “John type services.” Fields’s cell phone number was included in a Craigslist erotic services ad discovered in this case. Criminalist Da-Shing Peng testified the sperm found on underwear collected from Jane Doe 1 was Griffin’s to a very high level of statistical certainty. During an interview with police, Griffin admitted Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 3 had orally copulated him.

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People v. Fields, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-fields-calctapp-2014.