People v. Flores

193 Cal. App. 3d 915, 238 Cal. Rptr. 656
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 22, 1987
DocketB019939
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 193 Cal. App. 3d 915 (People v. Flores) 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. Flores, 193 Cal. App. 3d 915, 238 Cal. Rptr. 656 (Cal. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

193 Cal.App.3d 915 (1987)
238 Cal. Rptr. 656

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
MANLIO OSUNA FLORES, Defendant and Appellant.

Docket No. B019939.

Court of Appeals of California, Second District, Division Five.

July 22, 1987.

*917 COUNSEL

Frank O. Bell, Jr., State Public Defender, under appointment by the Court of Appeal and Larry R. Pizarro, Deputy State Public Defender, for Defendant and Appellant.

John K. Van de Kamp, Attorney General, Steve White, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Susanne C. Wylie and Renee Laurents, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

ASHBY, J.

On June 25, 1985, appellant kidnapped an 11-year-old boy and took him to a motel room where appellant committed forcible sodomy upon him, and forced the child to oral copulate and masturbate appellant. By jury trial appellant was convicted of the following offenses: (1) forcible lewd act upon a child under 14 in violation of Penal Code section 288, subdivision (b),[1] with an enhancement pursuant to section 667.8 that for the purpose of committing such offense appellant kidnapped the victim; (2) forcible sodomy in violation of section 286, subdivision (c); (3) forcible oral copulation in violation of section 288a, subdivision (c); and (4) kidnapping in violation of section 207. Outside the presence of the jury appellant also admitted a prior felony conviction pursuant to section 667.5, subdivision (b).

Appellant was sentenced to state prison for a term of twenty-four years calculated as follows: a middle term of five years for kidnapping, a consecutive one-year term for the prior felony conviction, and three full consecutive terms of six years each for the sex offenses, pursuant to section 667.6, subdivision (c). Execution of sentence on the otherwise mandatory enhancement under 667.8 was stayed pursuant to section 654.

The only issues on appeal concern the propriety of appellant's sentence. In order to deal with these issues, however, we must describe the circumstances of the offenses.

*918 The victim, John G., was an 11-year-old boy, described during the testimony of one witness as small and frail for his age. On the afternoon of June 25, 1985, he was to meet a friend at a park in south El Monte, but the park was big and he got lost. John saw appellant and asked him where a certain street was, and appellant asked, "Why, are you lost?" When John answered that he was, appellant offered to drive him there. Instead, appellant drove to a convenience store and a hamburger stand where he bought beer, a soft drink, and hamburgers. During the trip, John was afraid, and at one point attempted to get out of appellant's truck while they were stopped at a red light, but he could not because the handle on the passenger door was broken off. Appellant then drove to the Wonderland Motel and took John into a motel room, promising to take John home after they finished their drinks and hamburgers.

As John was sitting on a chair, appellant came over to the chair, grabbed John by the hair, and physically threw him or forced him down hard on the bed. Removing John's pants and underwear, and his own, appellant pinned John down by the arms or shoulders and "stuck his penis in my butt."[2]

Appellant then took John's hand in his and moved it up and down on appellant's erect penis.

Appellant then grabbed John's hair at the back of John's head, pulled, and ordered John to open his mouth. When appellant pulled harder, John opened his mouth and appellant inserted his penis. Still holding John's head by the hair, appellant pulled John's head back and forth on appellant's penis.

Afterwards during a moment when appellant was distracted, John ran out the door, flagged down a policeman and reported what had happened. When the police knocked on the door of the motel room to investigate, appellant interrupted the officer and said, "If you're talking about the little blonde kid, I told him that I'd give him a ride home, but he ran away."

Appellant presented no defense at trial.

CONSECUTIVE SENTENCE (PEN. CODE, § 667.6, SUBD. (C).)

(1a) Section 667.6, subdivision (c), authorizes full, separate, and consecutive terms, in lieu of the term provided in section 1170.1, for certain violent sex crimes. In this case appellant received full, separate, and consecutive terms for his three convictions of section 288, subdivision (b) (lewd act *919 with child under 14), section 286, subdivision (c) (sodomy), and section 288a, subdivision (c) (oral copulation).

Appellant contends that his convictions of sodomy and oral copulation did not qualify for fully consecutive sentencing under section 667.6, subdivision (c), because at the time appellant committed his offenses there was a slight variation between the sentencing statute and the statutes defining those crimes. We conclude the statutory argument is unavailing in appellant's case, because the uncontradicted evidence shows his crimes fell within the standards of section 667.6, subdivision (c).

At the time of appellant's offenses, June 25, 1985, section 667.6, subdivision (c), read, as it had since its inception in 1979 legislation, as follows: "In lieu of the term provided in Section 1170.1, a full, separate, and consecutive term may be imposed for each violation of subdivision (2) or (3) of Section 261, Section 264.1, subdivision (b) of Section 288, Section 289, or of committing sodomy or oral copulation in violation of Section 286 or 288a by force, violence, duress, menace or threat of great bodily harm...." (Stats. 1979, ch. 944, § 10, p. 3258.) This section thus described two categories of crimes subject to its provisions. In the first category were those crimes designated only by their Penal Code section number, namely, section 261, subdivisions (2) or (3), section 264.1, section 288, subdivision (b), and section 289. As to these crimes, no further qualifying conditions were required. A verdict of guilty of the charged crime was the only requirement for invoking the consecutive sentencing scheme. (People v. Stought (1981) 115 Cal. App.3d 740, 742-743 [171 Cal. Rptr. 501]; People v. Montero (1986) 185 Cal. App.3d 415, 434-435 [229 Cal. Rptr. 750]; People v. Riddle (1987) 189 Cal. App.3d 222, 232 [234 Cal. Rptr. 369].) Appellant's conviction of violating section 288, subdivision (b), falls into this category, and appellant's reply brief concedes this count was subject to fully consecutive sentencing under section 667.6, subdivision (c).

The second category of offenses in section 667.6, subdivision (c), however, consisted of a specifically described type of sodomy or oral copulation in violation of sections 286 or 288a, namely, "by force, violence, duress, menace or threat of great bodily harm...." When this provision was originally enacted in 1979, there was no ambiguity about its application, because specific subdivisions of the sodomy and oral copulation statutes used exactly the same language, "by force, violence, duress, menace, or threat of great bodily harm." (Former § 286, subd. (c); Stats. 1979, ch. 944, § 6, p. 3253; former § 288a, subd. (c), Stats. 1979, ch. 944, § 7, p. 3254.) The limiting clause in section 667.6, subdivision (c), was apparently necessary to distinguish other violations of sections 286, subdivision (c), or 288a, subdivision (c), based solely on the age of the victim. (People v. Foley (1985) 170 Cal. App.3d 1039, 1052 [216 Cal. Rptr. 865].)

*920

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Bluebook (online)
193 Cal. App. 3d 915, 238 Cal. Rptr. 656, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-flores-calctapp-1987.