People v. Gonzalez

141 Cal. App. 3d 746
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 11, 1983
DocketCrim. No. 42433
StatusPublished

This text of 141 Cal. App. 3d 746 (People v. Gonzalez) 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. Gonzalez, 141 Cal. App. 3d 746 (Cal. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

Opinion

ASHBY, J.

After trial by jury, appellant Danny Lopez Gonzalez was found guilty of one count of forcible rape (Pen. Code, § 261, subd. (2)) and one count of forcible sodomy (Pen. Code, § 286). He was sentenced to state prison for the midterm of six years on both counts, the sentences to run concurrently. He received 113 days’ custody credit and 38 days’ conduct credit for a total of 151 days.

On appeal, appellant contends that (1) there was insufficient evidence of penetration to support his conviction of forcible sodomy; (2) the trial court committed prejudicial error by failing to give certain jury instructions sua sponte; and (3) his presentence custody credits were improperly calculated.

Facts

On June 13, 1979, Mrs. Dolores E., an elderly widow who had recently arrived from Mexico, was living at the house of her friend Maria G. At about 11 [789]*789a.m., appellant came to the house. Mrs. E. allowed appellant to come inside because she recognized him as a friend of Maria’s to whom she had been introduced two days before.

Mrs. E. explained that Maria and her family were not at home. Appellant asked for a glass of water and followed her into the kitchen. Mrs. E. then went to her bedroom to get her cigarettes, and again appellant followed her. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it. When she tried to get out, he physically restrained her.

Appellant asked Mrs. E. to put on some lighter clothes for him. In order to get outside, she told him her clothes were in another room. Appellant opened the bedroom door, but continued to hold onto her. Mrs. E. went into the bathroom, thinking he would let her go there alone. Appellant, however, would not let go and followed her inside.

In the bathroom, appellant began to undress Mrs. E. and himself. She tried to prevent him, but he told her not to resist or he would hit her hard and would cover her mouth, and since they were alone, no one would hear her. He continued to threaten her, undressed her completely, and forced her to lie on the bathroom floor. Against her will, he had sexual intercourse with her. It was painful and she began to bleed.

Appellant then yanked Mrs. E.’s head up by her hair and forced her to lean forward over a clothes hamper. There, he sodomized her, but it hurt a lot and she resisted. Appellant stopped, and Mrs. E. asked him not to climax inside of her. He went to the toilet and began to masturbate. He asked her to help him, and finally climaxed over her bare body.

Mrs. E. dressed quickly and left the bathroom. Outside, she discovered that appellant had shut and locked the living room and kitchen doors. Appellant told her he felt very good and would probably keep on seeing her, and left.

Mrs. E. was upset and ashamed. She did not report the incident to the police because she could not speak English and had never been to a police station. She threw her clothes away and took a shower. When Maria returned to the home at about 2:30 p.m., Mrs. E. was still crying and shaking. She finally told Maria what had occurred, and Maria convinced her to go to the police. Mrs. E.’s rectum and vagina were bleeding. The pain lasted for 15 days. Her clothes were not tom, and no sperm was found on her body or clothes.

I

Insufficiency of the Evidence

Appellant claims the evidence was insufficient to sustain the sodomy conviction because Mrs. E. never testified to actual penetration of her rectum. [790]*790Indeed, the humiliated, upset victim initially was reticent in her description of the event.1 Her testimony on cross-examination, however, was explicit: “Q. To your knowledge, the man that was at your house never entered your rectum; is that correct? [f] A. He tried to introduce or to enter, but I was feeling a lot of pain. It hurt a lot, and that’s when he stopped, [f] Q. So he did not enter; is that true? [f] A. He tried to enter a little bit, but it hurt a lot, and I wouldn’t let him. ” This testimony supports a finding of at least a slight penetration; penetration can also be inferred from the circumstantial evidence of Mrs. E.’s rectal pain and bleeding. (Pen. Code, §§ 286, subd. (a), 287; People v. Singh (1928) 93 Cal.App. 32, 35 [268 P. 958].)

Appellant also argues the evidence was insufficient because Mrs. E.’s testimony was not corroborated by eyewitnesses or expert testimony. In California, however, conviction of a sex crime may be sustained upon the uncorroborated testimony of the prosecutrix. (Ballard v. Superior Court (1966) 64 Cal.2d 159, 171 [49 Cal.Rptr. 302, 410 P.2d 838, 18 A.L.R.3d 1416].) “Under present law, no special burden is placed upon such a prosecutrix, unshared by other witnesses in a criminal case, insofar as offering proof of the crime is concerned.” (People v. Caudillo (1978) 21 Cal.3d 562, 571 [146 Cal.Rptr. 859, 580 P.2d 274].) Any lack of clarity in the victim’s testimony goes to its weight, which is for the jury to determine. In the instant case, the victim’s testimony was sufficient to sustain the. conviction.

n

The Jury Instructions

A. CALJIC No. 17.01

Appellant points out that the evidence supported two incidents of vaginal penetration, one before and one immediately after the sodomy.2 He argues that since the trial court failed to instruct the jury sua sponte in accordance with CALJIC No. 17.01,3 the jury may not have unanimously agreed he committed the one act of rape with which he was charged in the information.

[791]*791To support this contention, appellant cites the general rule that the entire jury must agree upon the commission of the same “act” in order to convict a defendant of the charged offense. (People v. Castro (1901) 133 Cal. 11, 13 [65 P. 13]; People v. Williams (1901) 133 Cal. 165, 168 [65 P. 323].) He then correctly points out that every new vaginal penetration constitutes a separate “act” of rape of which a defendant can be convicted separately. (People v. Perez (1979) 23 Cal.3d 545, 551-552 [153 Cal.Rptr. 40, 591 P.2d 63, 3 A.L.R.4th 339]; People v. Clem (1980) 104 Cal.App.3d 337, 346-347 [163 Cal.Rptr. 553].)4 From this, he concludes a unanimity instruction is required whenever the number of separate vaginal penetrations exceeds the number of rape counts charged. (See People v. Madden (1981) 116 Cal.App.3d 212, 215 [171 Cal.Rptr. 897]; People v. Goldstein (1982) 130 Cal.App.3d 1024, 1039-1040 [182 Cal.Rptr. 207].)

This proposed new rule is overbroad and misses the point. A unanimity instruction is required only if the jurors could otherwise disagree which act a defendant committed and yet convict him of the crime charged. This danger, however, does not automatically arise in every case where a confused and distraught victim happens to recall additional instances of the sex crime charged. Rather, the possibility of disagreement exists where the defendant is accused of a number of unrelated incidents, such as alleged rapes at different times or places, leaving the jurors free to believe different parts of the testimony and yet convict the defendant.

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Bluebook (online)
141 Cal. App. 3d 746, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-gonzalez-calctapp-1983.