People v. Herrera CA5

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 17, 2020
DocketF076586
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Herrera CA5 (People v. Herrera CA5) 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. Herrera CA5, (Cal. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

Filed 12/17/20 P. v. Herrera CA5

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE, F076586 Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. DF012436A) v.

JAIME BRAVO HERRERA, OPINION Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Kern County. Kenneth C. Twisselman II, Judge. Timothy E. Warriner, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Catherine Chatman and R. Todd Marshall, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. -ooOoo- A jury found appellant Jaime Bravo Herrera guilty of four counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a)) against three victims, his nieces, Jane Doe 1 (JD1) (count 1), Jane Doe 2 (JD2) (count 2), and Jane Doe 3 (JD3) (counts 3 & 4). The jury also found true an allegation appellant committed said offenses against more than one victim (Pen. Code, § 667.61, subd. (e)(4)). Appellant was sentenced to three consecutive prison terms of 15 years to life as to counts 1, 2, and 3 and one concurrent term of 15 years to life as to count 4. On appeal, appellant contends the court erred by allowing the prosecutor to read excerpts of a transcript of a forensic interview JD1 gave approximately five years prior to the trial as a past recollection recorded exception to hearsay without laying a proper foundation. Appellant also contends the admission of these excerpts violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront and cross-examine JD1. Finally, appellant contends the court erred by not instructing the jury it was not permitted to use expert testimony of Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome (CSAAS) to determine if the molestation claims were true (CALCRIM No. 1193). Finding no error, we affirm. FACTS JD3 is appellant’s wife’s sister’s daughter. At the time of trial, she was 20 years old. JD3 testified that she used to see appellant often at family get togethers. JD3 testified to three incidents that occurred in her home in McFarland, California, when appellant was visiting her family. The first incident of molestation JD3 testified to occurred when she was in sixth or seventh grade. Appellant came up behind JD3 while she was watching other children play computer games and grabbed her buttocks. On another occasion, when JD3 was in eighth grade, she was in her kitchen and bent to pick something up. Appellant then put his hand inside her bra and touched her breast. He told her he liked her “boobies.” On another occasion around the same time, JD3 was walking toward her mother’s bedroom,

2. and appellant went after her and threw her on her mother’s bed. Appellant then lifted up JD3’s shirt and put his mouth on her nipples. JD3 kneed appellant and ran to her bedroom. Appellant attempted to try to get into her room but eventually left. By the time she turned 14 years old, she told her parents what had happened. JD2 and JD1 are siblings. Appellant is their uncle on their father’s side. At the time of trial, JD2 was 16 years old. JD2 testified when she was nine years old, at her grandmother’s house in Delano, California, she was in the living room watching television and appellant sat next to her and touched her thigh. The next thing JD2 knew, appellant’s penis was in her mouth. Appellant touched JD2 on her vagina and her breast on this occasion. On another occasion in California around the same time, appellant had sexual intercourse with JD2 in the bedroom of his house. At the time of trial, JD1 was 18 years old. JD1 testified the first incident of sexual touching took place in Delano, California, in the living room of her grandmother’s house before she was 13 years old. She said when she was sitting on the couch, appellant lifted up her bra and touched her breast and put his mouth on it. On another occasion when JD1 was in elementary school, JD1 was in the laundry room at her grandmother’s house, and appellant came in, pulled down his pants, and told her to perform oral sex on him. JD1 said no and believed appellant stopped attempting to get her to comply because his son went out in the yard near the laundry room. During a forensic interview, which occurred in Nevada pursuant to a separate investigation for crimes committed there, JD1 told the interviewer that during this incident appellant also put his finger in her vagina and penetrated her anus with his penis. At trial, JD1 had no independent recollection of appellant touching her in the laundry room on this occasion. On another occasion at her grandmother’s house when JD1 was about 10 years old, appellant pulled down JD1’s pants and put his penis inside her. On another occasion, she was playing a video game with appellant’s son, who had special needs, and appellant came in and pulled down her pants and her underwear and started kissing and doing

3. “other stuff” to her vagina while his son was playing the video game. On another occasion in California, when JD1 was about 10 or 11 years old, she approached appellant to ask him something. Appellant told JD1 to turn around; he pulled her pants down and put his penis inside her. When JD1 was in fifth or sixth grade, she told a friend about the sexual contact with appellant. Eventually she told her mother what happened. It was reported to Nevada police in 2013. All three victims testified to uncharged incidents of molestation which took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. JD3 testified that when she was about 10 years old, appellant put his hand inside JD3’s shorts and rubbed her vagina when they were swimming together at his house in Las Vegas. JD1 testified appellant put his penis inside her on two occasions in Nevada when she was nine or 10 years old. On another occasion when JD1 was approximately 11 years old, appellant grabbed JD1’s foot, and rubbed it against his penis while they were sitting on the couch. JD2 also testified appellant penetrated her vagina with his penis in Las Vegas. JD3 testified she knew JD2 and JD1 but did not talk to them often and had never talked to them about what happened with appellant. JD1 and JD2 said the same about JD3. Mark Hoyt, a detective with the North Las Vegas Police Department Special Victims Unit, testified that in May 2013, a case involving JD1 and JD2 was assigned to him. Hoyt set up a forensic interview to be conducted at the Southern Nevada Children’s Assessment Center (CAC) on June 11, 2013. Hoyt explained the CAC is “a safe place where children can go and be interviewed by a forensic interviewer” who specializes in sexual abuse. The CAC has forensic interviewers on staff to conduct the interviews. Kirsten DiNicola conducted the forensic interview with JD1. DiNicola is a certified forensic interviewer employed by the CAC. Hoyt testified, “By definition, a forensic interview through the national model is a legally sound and developmentally strategic

4. way of obtaining information.” It involves building rapport and obtaining information regarding any kind of physical, sexual abuse without asking a lot of leading questions. The interviewer tells the children to tell the truth and not guess or speculate and correct the interviewer if she gets something wrong. Forensic interviews were conducted of both JD1 and JD2. There are observation rooms where other investigators can observe the interview being conducted by the forensic interviewer. Hoyt observed JD1’s interview in real time.

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People v. Herrera CA5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-herrera-ca5-calctapp-2020.