People v. Murphey CA5

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 27, 2015
DocketF068994
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Murphey CA5 (People v. Murphey 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. Murphey CA5, (Cal. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

Filed 8/27/15 P. v. Murphey 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NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, F068994 Plaintiff and Respondent, (Stanislaus Super. Ct. No. 1402538) v.

DAVID ALLEN MURPHEY, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Stanislaus County. Thomas Zeff, Judge. Stephen M. Hinkle, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Carlos A. Martinez and Kari Ricci Mueller, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. -ooOoo- INTRODUCTION Appellant/defendant David Allen Murphey was convicted of four counts of committing lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14 years (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a));1 with the special allegations that defendant engaged in substantial sexual

1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated. conduct with a victim under the age of 14 years (§ 1203.066, subd. (a)(8)); one count of attempting to commit lewd acts on a child (§§ 664/288, subd. (a)); and one count of exhibiting harmful matter with intent to seduce a minor (§ 288.2, subd. (a)). The victim was his stepdaughter, who disclosed the molestations to her mother (defendant’s wife) when she was nine years old, and reported that defendant began to molest her when she was five years old. Defendant was sentenced to 15 years eight months in prison, and the court ordered defendant to pay noneconomic restitution of $250,000 to the victim. On appeal, defendant contends the court abused its discretion when it received the verdicts and polled the jury, and one juror initially failed to affirm the verdicts. Defendant asserts the court should have immediately ordered the jury to resume deliberations instead of continuing to question the juror, and then concluding that the juror affirmed the guilty verdicts. Defendant also contends the court abused its discretion when it ordered him to pay noneconomic restitution of $250,000 to the victim, pursuant to section 1202.4, subdivision (f)(3)(F), which authorizes noneconomic restitution to child molestation victims under certain circumstances.2 We affirm. FACTS Jennifer M. (Jennifer) is the mother of “Jane Doe” (Jane), born in 1999.3 When Jane was about two years old, Jennifer began a relationship with defendant, and he lived with them. In 2003, Jennifer and defendant were married. Jane considered defendant as her stepfather. In 2006, Jennifer and defendant had a son.

2 In his opening brief, defendant raised another issue, and argued the court erroneously calculated his presentence credits. In response, the People set forth the calculations based on defendant’s custodial periods. In his reply brief, defendant concedes he made a mathematical error in his opening brief, the court correctly calculated his presentence credits, and he withdrew the argument. 3 As in the trial proceedings, we will also refer to the victim by the name of Jane Doe.

2. Starting in 2005, Jennifer attended college and worked. Defendant took care of the children at home. Domestic Disputes Between Defendant and Jennifer Jennifer testified there were domestic disputes, verbal abuse, and violence in her relationship with defendant. Jennifer and defendant had argued in the past, which led to her threats to leave. Defendant once attempted suicide and threatened that if he could not have the children, then she could not either. In 2007, Jennifer and defendant separated and they lived apart. After a few months, they reconciled and lived together again with the children. Officer Ron Lemings testified for the defense about an incident in September 2008, when he responded to defendant’s house on a report of suspicious circumstances. Defendant was not there. Lemings spoke to Jennifer, who said she had previously left the house because defendant was drinking heavily. Jennifer said she took the children to her mother’s house and then returned to her own house. She discovered defendant was still drinking and other people were there. She also noticed several things were missing or had been broken in their house. Jennifer said defendant had grabbed her sweater sleeve, but he did not harm her. She said defendant screamed at her and slapped the windshield of her car. Officer Lemings testified that as he spoke with Jennifer in the house, someone threw a rock through the window, and it landed at their feet. Jennifer grabbed her child and ran outside. About 10 minutes later, Lemings found defendant walking toward the house. He was intoxicated and admitted he threw the brick. Lemings arrested defendant for being drunk in public; he did not charge him with any other offenses. Lemings conceded that based on Jennifer’s statements, defendant could have been charged with vandalism, possession of stolen property, criminal disturbance, assault with a deadly weapon, assault on an officer, and child endangerment.

3. At trial, Jennifer testified about the September 2008 incident and explained how defendant threw a cinder-block brick through the window while she was talking to the officer. She testified defendant was arrested, and she thought he had been charged with 14 offenses, including domestic violence, being drunk in public, and endangering an officer. She also believed that all the charges were eventually dropped, and defendant told her that “he could do anything and he would always get away with it.” Jennifer testified that she stopped having intimate relations with defendant because of their fighting. After the domestic violence incident, there were four or five times when she was asleep and defendant “forced himself on top of me.” She tried to push him off and said no, but it did not work, and “I was forced to have sex with him that night.” The most recent incident was a few weeks before Jennifer contacted the police in this case. In 2008, Jennifer was scared of defendant and felt she and the children were in danger. She did not know how to leave him and started seeing a counselor at a women’s center for help. Jennifer Discovers the Websites In 2009, defendant, Jennifer, and the two children were living on East Coolidge in Modesto. Jane was nine years old. They had a desktop computer, which was in the master bedroom. In January or February 2009, Jane told her mother that her vagina was sore or itchy, and there was some blood. Jennifer took Jane to the doctor, and he prescribed an ointment for the irritation. In May 2009, Jennifer was working on the desktop computer and tried to retrieve a document. As she checked the computer’s memory, she discovered that someone had deleted “a multitude” of pornographic websites from the browsing history. She was able to access the computer’s history, which revealed several websites had been searched about sexual acts between fathers and daughters, rape, incest, and foot fetishes. She was shocked to find that these websites had been accessed on her computer.

4. After finding these websites, Jennifer spoke to Jane when they were alone in the house. She asked Jane if defendant had touched or done anything to her. Jane “just looked at me dumbfounded and said no.” Jennifer and the Children Leave Jennifer testified she was already afraid of defendant “because of how he was with me.” After she found the pornographic and incest websites, Jennifer was afraid “he was going to move” to Jane. Jennifer contacted her counselor and asked for advice about how to leave defendant.

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