People v. Prudnikov CA3

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 25, 2024
DocketC099129
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Prudnikov CA3 (People v. Prudnikov CA3) 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. Prudnikov CA3, (Cal. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

Filed 9/25/24 P. v. Prudnikov CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (Sacramento) ----

THE PEOPLE, C099129

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. 21FE003491)

v.

ANDREY PRUDNIKOV,

Defendant and Appellant.

After a jury trial, defendant Andrey Prudnikov was convicted of two counts of raping Haley Doe. On appeal, he challenges the sufficiency of the evidence of one of his convictions, contends the trial court erred in failing to provide a lesser included instruction, and claims his consecutive sentence on count two was unauthorized. He further requests we modify the criminal protective order issued at the time of sentencing. We shall modify the judgment to impose the consecutive sentence on the forcible rape conviction and order the modification of the protective order, but otherwise affirm.

1 LEGAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND On or around May 19, 2020, Haley Doe celebrated her birthday at her friend’s house. Doe’s friend threw a birthday party for her and approximately 20 to 25 people attended the party. Her friend lived in the back of the house and the friend’s brother, Prudnikov, lived in the garage. During the party, Doe drank an unknown amount of alcohol and used cocaine. Prudnikov attended the party, but he generally stood around quietly or stayed in the garage. The party lasted until May 21, but Doe didn’t have any alcohol or cocaine after the night of the 20th. Sometime the morning of May 21, after most everyone had left, Prudnikov smacked Doe on her butt. Doe told him “I don’t like that. Don’t do that.” Prudnikov appeared to laugh it off. Doe left the house, but later returned. After returning to her friend’s house, Doe sat on the couch and watched Netflix on her phone while she waited for her boyfriend to come over. She was wearing a pair of leggings, a zip-up workout top, and underwear. Doe fell into a deep sleep on the couch. Doe later awoke because she felt something heavy on top of her that smelled like alcohol and cigarettes. At this point, she knew a person was on top of her, but she did not know the person’s identity; the room was dark, and the person had a blanket over his face. She assumed it was her boyfriend and told the person to get off of her. She felt the person put pressure on her chest with his head, then noticed that she was no longer wearing her pants and underwear. She said, “before it even happened, I had felt . . . tapping, like, as if . . . someone was . . . trying to . . . enter inside” her. It felt like pressure from an erect penis against her vagina, which the person rubbed up and down over her clitoris, vagina, and between her “lips.” She described the motion by moving her hand up and down as if she were “paint[ing] a wall.” She clarified: “That’s what woke me up was the tapping, the tapping feeling and the weight and everything.” She later reiterated that she was unconscious while her pants and underwear were removed and “I did not wake up until I felt the initial pressure, and like, his head in my chest, that’s when I finally woke up.”

2 The person then pushed his penis inside her vagina and used his hand to move his penis back and forth approximately two or three times. Doe told the person to “get off of [her],” and he replied, “Shh.” Doe kneed the person and pushed him off of her. The person fell off the couch and landed on his knees. The blanket fell away, and Doe realized that it was Prudnikov. Prudnikov’s pants and boxers were pulled down to his knees. Doe grabbed the blanket and ran into a bedroom at the back of the house, where another friend was asleep. Doe screamed that she was just raped. Doe called her father, told him that she had been raped, and asked if he could pick her up. Doe’s father called 911 and law enforcement arrived at Doe’s location about the same time as her father. An officer collected her clothes, and she subsequently underwent a medical exam. Dr. Angela Vickers testified that she had examined Doe for evidence of sexual assault. Prudnikov’s DNA was found on Doe’s mons pubis and vulva.1 In her testimony, Dr. Vickers explained the external part of the female genitalia is comprised of the mons pubis, which is on top of the pelvic area, where a woman would have pubic hair, and the labia majora, also known as the vulva, which are the outer “lips.” The internal genitalia includes the labia minora, which are just inside the labia majora, the clitoris, and the area between the “lips.” Prudnikov testified in his own defense. According to Prudnikov, Doe had no clothes on her bottom half when she made sexual advances toward him. When he refused to have sex with her, Doe yelled, “Well, then, now I’ll tell everyone that you raped me.” Doe pulled the blanket over herself and ran to a friend’s room and told the friend that Prudnikov had raped her.

1 Evidence of DNA results was provided by Ryan Nickel, a criminologist with the District Attorney Laboratory of Forensic Services.

3 The jury was instructed with CALCRIM No. 1003, which instructed them that to prove Prudnikov guilty of rape of an unconscious person, “the People must prove that: [¶] 1. The defendant had sexual intercourse with a woman; [¶] 2. The woman was unable to resist because she was unconscious of the nature of the act; [¶] AND [¶] 3. The defendant knew that the woman was unable to resist because she was unconscious of the nature of the act. [¶] Sexual intercourse means any penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or female genitalia by the penis. Female genitalia includes the labia majora, labia minora, clitoris or vestibule of the vagina. Ejaculation is not required. [¶] A woman is unconscious of the nature of the act if she is unconscious or asleep or not aware that the act is occurring.” On May 1, 2023, a jury found Prudnikov guilty of one count of forcible rape (Pen. Code, § 261, subd. (a)(2); count one)2 and one count of rape of an unconscious person (§ 261, subd. (a)(4); count two) and found a factor in aggravation that Doe was particularly vulnerable to be true.3 The trial court subsequently sentenced Prudnikov to an aggregate term of 12 years in state prison, comprised of six years (middle term) on count one, and a consecutive six years (middle term) on count two. It also issued a criminal protective order pursuant to section 646.9, subdivision (k). Prudnikov filed a timely notice of appeal.

2 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code. 3 The jury found the aggravating factor that the crimes involved great violence to be not true and the prosecutor dismissed the third allegation regarding Prudnikov’s prior convictions in a bifurcated proceeding.

4 DISCUSSION I Rape of an Unconscious Person Prudnikov contends there was insufficient evidence to convict him on the charge of rape of an unconscious person. We disagree. In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction, we review the record in the light most favorable to the judgment to determine whether it contains substantial evidence — that is, evidence that is reasonable, credible, and of solid value — from which a reasonable trier of fact could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. (People v. Lindberg (2008) 45 Cal.4th 1, 27.) We do not reweigh the evidence or reevaluate the credibility of witnesses, but rather presume in support of the judgment the existence of every fact that could reasonably be deduced from the evidence. (Ibid.) A judgment will be reversed only if no rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.

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People v. Prudnikov CA3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-prudnikov-ca3-calctapp-2024.