People v. Mitchell CA4/2

California Court of Appeal·Decided March 26, 2025·No. E076032A·Unpublished

Opinion

Filed 3/26/25 P. v. Mitchell CA4/2 Opinion following transfer from Supreme Court NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 TWO

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, E076032 v. (Super.Ct.No. RIF1605412)

CAMERON LIONEL ISAIAH OPINION MITCHELL,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. Charles J. Koosed, Judge.

Convictions affirmed; sentence vacated and remanded for resentencing.

Donna L. Harris and Howard C. Cohen, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Warren J. Williams and Steve Oetting, Deputy Attorneys General for Plaintiff and Respondent.

In 2019, a jury convicted defendant and appellant Cameron Lionel Isaiah Mitchell of nine counts of sexual abuse against three child victims; he was between 18 and 24 years old when he committed these offenses. Because there were multiple victims, the crimes fall under the “One Strike” law; in 2020, the trial court sentenced him to 145 years to life. Defendant appealed and, inter alia,1 challenged his prison sentence as violating his equal protection rights because, as a One Strike offender, he is excluded from the procedure set out in Penal Code section 3051, which mandates youthful offender parole hearings after at most 25 years in prison for most people who receive de facto life sentences for crimes they commit when they are 25 years old or younger. Initially, we agreed with his challenge and reversed his sentence.

Subsequently, the Supreme Court granted review, limited to the equal protection question, and issued its decision rejecting defendant’s challenge. (People v. Williams (2024) 17 Cal.5th 99 (Williams) [excluding defendants sentenced under One Strike law from § 3051 relief does not violate equal protection].) Defendant’s case was remanded to this court, and the Supreme Court directed us “to vacate [our] decision and reconsider the cause in light of [Williams].” The People submitted a letter brief asserting this court must reject defendant’s equal protection argument and asking the matter be remanded to the trial court for a determination as to whether the sentence is cruel and/or unusual. In his supplemental opening brief, defendant concurs on remanding the matter to the trial court

1 Defendant also claims his sentence constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, the restraining orders are unauthorized, and there are errors in the restitution order which require reversal/vacatur and remand for reconsideration.

to determine the cruel and/or unusual punishment issue, but argues for us to reverse the restitution orders awarding his victims with noneconomic damages.

We vacate defendant’s sentence and remand for a full resentencing. In all other respects, we affirm the judgment.

I. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND AND FACTS A. The Mitchell Family Fosters CL and DA CL (born in June 2002) was placed in foster care with foster mother and her sons, defendant and his brother when she was five years old. Defendant was born on May 5, 1992, and is just over 10 years older than CL. Other foster children lived with the family from time to time, including DA, who was born in August 2001 and stayed with the family for about a month and a half when she was nine or 10.

B. Defendant’s Molestation of CL While He Was a Minor Defendant began sexually abusing CL when she was five or six and he was about 16 years old. She recalled one specific incident when her foster mother asked her to call her sons for dinner. Defendant did not respond, and CL went upstairs to get him.2 When she found him, he exposed his penis and told her to put her mouth on it. He used his hand to push on the back of her head, forcing her to orally copulate him.

This kind of abuse occurred many more times. On one occasion, defendant had CL remove her pants and underwear. He bent her over on her bedroom floor and

2 The prosecution did not charge acts that defendant committed before he was 18 years old or outside of Riverside County. The evidence of these prior acts was admitted at trial under Evidence Code section 1108.

attempted to sodomize her, which injured her and caused her to bleed. CL told her foster mother she was bleeding. Her foster mother asked whether anyone had touched her, but CL said no.

On another occasion, after CL had turned six, defendant again had CL orally copulate him when she came to get him for dinner. He warned if she told anyone, they would not believe her, and she would be sent back into foster care. Another time, while CL was visiting a family friend in Long Beach, defendant came into the room where she was staying and had her stick her hand down his pants and rub his penis.

For almost a year, when she was six and seven, CL lived with an uncle and was no longer subject to the abuse. However, she moved back with the Mitchell family after she turned eight and stayed until she was almost 10. There, she lived with several other foster children, including DA.

C. Forced Oral Copulation (Count 1)

While CL was eight and defendant was 18, he had her orally copulate him approximately every other week. CL recounted one incident that occurred after she and DA asked defendant if they could have ice cream. Defendant said they could, but only if both girls did “him a favor.” Defendant said DA would have to allow him to perform oral sex on her and that CL would have to orally copulate him. On another occasion while CL was still eight, defendant put strawberry lubricant on his penis and told CL to “suck it,” which she did thinking he would force her otherwise.

D. Defendant Groped DA (Count 8)

On the night of the ice cream incident, defendant was tickling DA. He moved his hand lower and squeezed her buttocks for several seconds. DA went to tell her foster mother, but defendant said not to wake her.

E. Defendant Groped TF During a Sleepover (Count 10)

CL was friends with TF, who lived in the same apartment complex. TF was a few years older than CL. On one occasion when CL was eight and TF was 11 or 12, CL invited her to a sleepover. The two girls began the night sleeping in the same bed, but defendant came into the room and told TF she should sleep in the other bed in the room. Sometime after TF moved into the second bed, defendant returned and began rubbing her shoulders and chest before sticking his hand in her pants underneath her underwear. As he moved his hand toward her vagina, TF clenched her legs and said, “No.” Defendant replied, “Please, please. Just a little bit.” TF screamed for CL to turn on the lights. After CL turned on the lights, defendant took his hand out of TF’s pants, told the girls to go back to sleep, and left the room. TF was too ashamed to tell anyone about the incident until she was later contacted by a detective in 2016.

F. Defendant Orally Copulated TF (Count 9)

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

People v. Mitchell CA4/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2025).

People v. Mitchell CA4/2 (People v. Mitchell CA4/2) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

In Re Estrada
408 P.2d 948 (California Supreme Court, 1965)
People v. Mancebo
41 P.3d 556 (California Supreme Court, 2002)
Ennabe v. Manosa
319 P.3d 201 (California Supreme Court, 2014)
People v. Nilsson
242 Cal. App. 4th 1 (California Court of Appeal, 2015)
People v. Franklin
370 P.3d 1053 (California Supreme Court, 2016)
Auto Equity Sales, Inc. v. Superior Court
369 P.2d 937 (California Supreme Court, 1962)
People v. Rosas
191 Cal. App. 4th 107 (California Court of Appeal, 2010)
People v. Smith
198 Cal. App. 4th 415 (California Court of Appeal, 2011)
People v. Edwards
246 Cal. Rptr. 3d 40 (California Court of Appeals, 5th District, 2019)
People v. Valenzuela
441 P.3d 896 (California Supreme Court, 2019)