People v. Medina CA4/3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJuly 15, 2021
DocketG060131M
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Medina CA4/3 (People v. Medina CA4/3) 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. Medina CA4/3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

Filed 7/15/21 P. v. Medina CA4/3

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION THREE

THE PEOPLE, G060131 Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 17CR004940) v. ORDER MODIFYING JESUS MEDINA, OPINION AND DENYING Defendant and Appellant. PETITION FOR REHEARING; NO CHANGE IN JUDGMENT

The opinion filed on June 29, 2021, is hereby modified as follows:

(1) On page 5, delete the first paragraph, beginning with the words “Gansen again asked appellant,” in its entirety, and add a new first paragraph that now reads:

Gansen again asked appellant to “[t]ell me what happened,” and he said, “So when I was layin’ her down, uh . . . I accidentally, yeah, touched her there.” He said Jane Doe’s skirt “fell up” and he touched the outside of her underwear. Gansen suggested there was “a little more than just that.” Appellant responded, “So she had a skirt, so the skirt flew up. And then curious, maybe. I . . . I don’t know.” Gansen asked, “Did you feel it?” and appellant replied, “[Y]eah.” He asked how many times, and appellant insisted, “Just once.” Gansen asked if appellant “actually [felt] it,” and appellant replied, “Yeah, just a little bit of the outside, yeah.” When asked if touching Jane Doe aroused him, appellant replied, “It was just dumb. I don’t even know the feeling . . . . Accidental.” Gansen said, “I mean this wasn’t accidental. Let’s not go there. I mean we’re doin’ good, you know” Appellant replied, “Yeah.” When Gansen told appellant the situation was not “like the end of the world,” appellant replied, “[W]ell, it is for me.” Appellant denied returning a second time. (2) On page 11, delete the first sentence of the second full paragraph, beginning with the words, “First, this oversimplifies the issue,” and replace it with the following three sentences:

First, this oversimplifies the issue and ignores other seemingly self- impeaching evidence in the case for which Dr. Urquiza’s testimony was relevant. During neither of her videotaped interviews did Jane Doe break down or become unable to continue. And although she did begin to cry at one point in her testimony, after a brief break she was able to resume and finish her testimony uninterrupted.

The remainder of this paragraph, beginning with the words “Similarly, she did not disclose,” is unmodified.

Appellant’s petition for rehearing is DENIED. These modifications do not effect a change in the judgment.

BEDSWORTH, ACTING P.J.

WE CONCUR:

MOORE, J.

FYBEL, J.

2 Filed 6/29/21 P. v. Medina CA4/3 (unmodified opinion)

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN 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

FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION THREE

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent, G060131

v. (Super. Ct. No. 17CR004940)

JESUS MEDINA, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court of Monterey County, Carrie McIntyre Panetta, Judge. Affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded with directions. Alexis Haller, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Xavier Becerra and Rob Bonta, Attorneys General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Jeffrey M. Laurence, Assistant Attorney General, Amit Kurlekar and Christen Somerville, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. A jury convicted appellant Jesus Medina of two counts of a lewd act on a child under 14 (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a)). In challenging that conviction, he raises a host of claims and sub-claims: (1) The trial court abused its discretion in permitting the prosecutor to call an expert witness without first establishing a proper basis for his testimony. (2) On two occasions, the expert’s testimony improperly exceeded the scope of the limited purpose for which it was admitted, and to the extent appellant’s trial counsel failed to object, he was constitutionally ineffective. (3) The introduction of two prior videotaped interviews of the complaining witness violated appellant’s due process rights. (4) The prosecutor committed reversible misconduct by improperly cross- examining a defense character witness, and to the extent counsel failed to object, he was constitutionally ineffective. (5) The prosecutor committed reversible misconduct in her closing argument, and to the extent counsel failed to object, he was constitutionally ineffective. (6) The trial court prejudicially erred by instructing the jury with CALCRIM No. 1193 regarding Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome (CSAAS), and to the extent counsel failed to object, he was constitutionally ineffective. (7) Even if the individual errors were harmless, their cumulative effect was not. (8) And lastly, the trial court erred in ordering appellant to submit to AIDS testing pursuant to Penal Code section 1202.1. We reject appellant’s first seven contentions. We agree the trial court erred when it ordered an AIDS testing requirement. The order must therefore be vacated, and the matter remanded for further proceedings. The judgment is affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded with directions. FACTS Seven-year-old Jane Doe performed in an Aztec dance group organized by the White Hawk Indian Council, which also engaged in prayer and spiritual gatherings. Appellant was a leader of the group, and his wife and children also participated. Jane Doe always liked appellant and thought of him as a brother.

2 Jane Doe, her mother, appellant, appellant’s wife, and appellant’s children all drove together to a group event in Merced. The event ended about midnight, and afterwards appellant drove his children and Jane Doe back to his Salinas house to spend the night. Jane Doe’s mother (Mother) and appellant’s wife stayed behind because the group had another event scheduled for early the next morning. No other adult was present at appellant’s house, but Jane Doe felt safe with appellant and Mother trusted him with her daughter. This was Jane Doe’s first sleep-over away from her parents or overnight stay at appellant’s house. When they got home late that night, appellant carried the sleeping Jane Doe upstairs, placed her on a mattress on the floor next to his daughter’s bed, and then left the room. He later returned to the room and pulled down “whatever bottoms [she] was wearing, and then [her] underwear.” He touched her vagina with his finger, and moved it around “[i]n like a circular motion” on her skin. Appellant left, and Jane Doe tried to pull her “pants, [or] whatever [she] was wearing, and [her] underwear up,” but “froze” when she heard him returning because she “didn’t want [appellant] to know [she] was awake.” Appellant then started doing “the same thing,” touching her vagina a second time, and again making a circular motion with his finger. He then pulled up her underwear and left the room. Jane Doe remembered appellant was quiet the first time, but he was “laughing, but not too loud,” the second time he touched her. She lay still on the bed and did not “really [do] much of nothing.” She felt “mad” and “[v]ery sad” because she did not want him to touch her vagina. She wished her mother were there to “defend” her.

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Bluebook (online)
People v. Medina CA4/3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-medina-ca43-calctapp-2021.