People v. Madril

746 P.2d 1329, 1987 Colo. LEXIS 663, 1987 WL 2239
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedDecember 7, 1987
Docket86SA97
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 746 P.2d 1329 (People v. Madril) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Madril, 746 P.2d 1329, 1987 Colo. LEXIS 663, 1987 WL 2239 (Colo. 1987).

Opinion

QUINN, Chief Justice.

Benito F. Madril, the defendant, appeals his conviction of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust. § 18-3-405(1) and (2)(b), 8B C.R.S. (1986). He claims that the statutory crime for which he was convicted is violative of equal protection of the laws, 1 that a witness’ prior inconsistent statement was erroneously admitted, that the jury was improperly instructed on the elements of the charge, and that the court abused its discretion in sentencing him to a term of imprisonment. We affirm the judgment.

I.

The defendant was charged with the class 3 felony of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust. The information alleged that between August 20 and August 21, 1984, the defendant knowingly subjected C.Q., who was then less than fifteen years of age, to sexual contact and that the defendant was at least four years older than the victim and occupied a position of trust with respect to the victim. On the date of the offense the defendant was a thirty-six year old divorced parent who had legal custody of his eight year old daughter and his seven year old son. The victim, C.Q., was a young girl who was a few days short of ten years of age.

The prosecution’s evidence indicated that on the evening of August 20, 1984, C.Q. and her seven year old brother came to the defendant’s home with their night clothes. C.Q. and her brother lived close to the defendant’s home and had received permission from their parents to spend the evening there with the Madril children. When C.Q. and her brother arrived at the defendant's home, the defendant received them into his home and allowed them to remain overnight.

C.Q. testified that she and the other children looked at a book written in Spanish and watched television during the early *1331 part of the evening. When the other children fell asleep and went to bed, C.Q. remained in the living room of the home watching television. The defendant, according to C.Q., sat next to her, and put his arm under her shirt and squeezed one of her breasts. She also testified that the defendant put his hand under her underwear, touched her vagina, and told her to open her legs. C.Q. told the defendant to stop and he did so. Although it was late in the evening when this incident occurred, C.Q. left the defendant’s home and rode her bicycle to her own home where she reported to her mother that the defendant had touched her breasts.

The prosecution also called as a witness the defendant’s daughter, C.M., to corroborate certain parts of the victim’s testimony regarding the children’s activities in the home preceding the offense. Although the prosecution questioned the defendant’s daughter about whether she and C.Q. had looked at a book written in Spanish and watched television, the defendant’s daughter testified that she could not remember the events on that evening. The prosecution also questioned the defendant’s daughter about whether she remembered making a statement a few days later about how she and C.Q. spent the evening in question. She again stated that she did not remember any such statement. The trial court, over the defendant’s objection, permitted the prosecution to call Ken Clark, a counselor with Youth and Victim Services of the Colorado Springs Police Department, to testify that the defendant’s daughter told him during an interview on August 24, 1984, that she and C.Q. had looked at a book written in Spanish and had watched television with the defendant.

The defendant denied any sexual contact with C.Q. He testified that at approximately midnight he heard a scream and upon checking the children’s bedroom he saw C.Q. standing next to his daughter’s bed and exclaiming that she was scared and wanted to go home. According to the defendant, he offered to walk C.Q. home, but she left alone on her bicycle.

At the conclusion of the evidence the court gave the following instruction on the elements of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust:

The elements of the crime of Sexual Assault on a Child While in a Position of Trust as charged in this case are:

1. That the Defendant,
2. In the state of Colorado, at or about the date and place charged,
3. Knowingly,
a. Subjected another person not his spouse,
b. To any sexual contact, and
4. That person was less than fifteen years of age, and
5. The Defendant was at least four years older than that person,
6. At the time of the commission of the act and
7. The Defendant was one in a position of trust, to wit: a babysitter with respect to [C.Q.]. 2

In keeping with the statutory definition of “position of trust” in section 18-3-401(3.5), 8B C.R.S. (1986), the court gave the following instruction:

One in a “POSITION OF TRUST” includes, but is not limited to, any person who is a parent or acting in the place of a parent and charged with any of a par-entf’s] rights, duties, or responsibilities concerning a child, or a person who is charged with any duty or responsibility for the health, education, welfare, or supervision of a child, including foster care, child care, or family care, either independently or through another, no matter how brief, at the time of the unlawful act.

The jury was also instructed on the lesser offenses of sexual assault on a child, a class 4 felony when not committed by one in a position of trust, § 18-3-405(1), 8B C.R.S. (1986), and the class 1 misdemeanor of sexual assault in the third degree by *1332 knowingly subjecting a victim to sexual contact when the victim is less than eighteen years of age and the actor is the victim’s guardian or is otherwise responsible for the general supervision of the victim’s welfare, § 18-3-404(l)(e), 8B C.R. S. (1986).

During the course of deliberations, the jury asked the court to clarify the term “general supervision,” which related to the lesser offense of sexual assault in the third degree, and the term “charge,” as used in the jury instruction defining a “position of trust.” The court responded to the jury’s request for a definition of “general supervision” as follows:

A person responsible for the general supervision of the welfare of one under eighteen is a person who has powers, rights, and duties similar to those of a guardian but who has not been formally appointed by the Court as a guardian nor designated by a parent as a guardian. A guardian of one under eighteen in Colorado has the same powers, rights, and duties respecting a person under eighteen that a parent would have concerning a parent’s unemancipated minor child except that a guardian is not required to provide for the child from his own funds. One with general supervision is to be distinguished from one with supervision which is for a particular purpose only. For example, some guardians are appointed for limited or special purposes.

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Bluebook (online)
746 P.2d 1329, 1987 Colo. LEXIS 663, 1987 WL 2239, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-madril-colo-1987.