People v. Quintero CA6

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 19, 2020
DocketH045232
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Quintero CA6 (People v. Quintero CA6) 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. Quintero CA6, (Cal. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

Filed 11/19/20 P. v. Quintero CA6 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE, H045232 (Santa Clara County Plaintiff and Respondent, Super. Ct. No. C1108673)

v.

NOE CALDERON QUINTERO,

Defendant and Appellant.

A jury convicted defendant of multiple sex offenses involving two victims, and unauthorized use or theft of a vehicle. As to the sex offenses, he argues the trial court erred by admitting expert testimony on Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome and by not giving a unanimity instruction in connection with a forcible lewd conduct charge. As to the theft offense, he challenges the conviction on statute of limitations grounds. He also identifies errors in penalty assessments imposed. Although we reject the challenges related to defendant’s convictions, we will modify the judgment to correct the miscalculated penalty assessments, and affirm the judgment as modified. I. BACKGROUND1 Defendant sexually abused his niece, M. on multiple occasions over a three- or four-year period, starting when she was around 10 years old after she moved to Modesto in 1999. The abuse included sodomy and forced oral copulation. M. disclosed the abuse to her grandmother when she was 18 years old.

1 We refer to the victims by their first initial to protect their privacy. (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.90(b)(4).) Defendant began sexually abusing his cousin’s six-year-old daughter, S. in 2005. The molestations stopped in 2010, when S.’s mother found defendant in S.’s bedroom in the middle of the night. Defendant was standing in front of S. who was sitting on her bed with her nightgown pushed up and legs spread. A felony complaint was filed in 2011, and an arrest warrant issued for defendant at that time. The complaint charged defendant with committing several sex offenses against S., and with unlawfully taking S.’s brother’s car after S.’s mother halted the last assault. Defendant had left the home in the car (a Nissan Altima), abandoned it in a nearby city, borrowed his then-girlfriend’s truck, and was arrested three years later in Los Angeles. Defendant was ultimately charged in an amended information with three counts of oral copulation of a child under age 10 (counts 1, 2, 6; Pen. Code § 288.7, subd. (b)); four counts of lewd acts on a child under age 14 (counts 3, 4, 9, 12; Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a)); one count of aggravated sexual assault on a child under age 14 (count 5; Pen. Code, § 269, subd. (a)); five counts of lewd acts by force on a child under age 14 (counts 7, 8, 11, 16, 23; Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (b)(1)); four counts of sodomy by force (counts 13, 14, 18, 20; Pen. Code, § 286, subd. (c)(2)); three counts of kidnapping to commit a sexual offense (counts 15, 19, 21; Pen. Code, § 209, subd. (b)(1)); three counts of oral copulation by force (counts 17, 22, 24; Pen. Code, former § 288a, subd. (c)(2)); and one count of theft or unauthorized use of a vehicle (count 10; Veh. Code, § 10851, subd. (a)). Counts 1 through 9 charged offenses committed against S., and counts 13 through 24 charged the earlier offenses involving M. The offenses in counts 11 and 12, alleged to have occurred in 2009 or early 2010, involved defendant’s then-girlfriend’s niece and nephew when they were under age five. Counts 3, 4, 7–9, 11–14, 16–18, 20, and 22–24 included multiple victim allegations. (Pen. Code, § 667.61, (b), (e).) The four victims testified at trial. At that time, M. was 27 years old, S. was 17 years old, and the younger children, who were unable to identify defendant as having molested them, were 10 and 11 years old. The prosecution called several other witnesses, 2 including M.’s grandmother, S.’s mother, S.’s brother, the younger victims’ mother, defendant’s former girlfriend, and an expert in Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome (CSAAS). Defendant presented expert testimony regarding memory recall error, false reporting, and child suggestibility. He argued M. and S. had fabricated their allegations, and the younger children were recalling false memories. He also argued the touching described by the nephew did not prove sexual intent. The jury convicted defendant on 20 of the 24 charges. Defendant was found not guilty of count 12 (lewd act on the nephew) and count 19 (kidnapping M. to commit a sexual offense). The jury was unable to reach verdicts on count 6 (sexual penetration with S. in a truck) and count 11 (lewd act on the niece). Defendant was sentenced to an aggregate term of 258 years to life.

II. DISCUSSION

A. EXPERT TESTIMONY REGARDING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE ACCOMMODATION SYNDROME Expert testimony is admissible if it is “[r]elated to a subject that is sufficiently beyond common experience that the opinion of an expert would assist the trier of fact.” (Evid. Code, § 801, subd. (a).) “ ‘[E]ven if the jury has some knowledge of the matter, expert opinion may be admitted whenever it would “assist” the jury. It will be excluded only when it would add nothing at all to the jury’s common fund of information, i.e., when “the subject of inquiry is one of such common knowledge that men of ordinary education could reach a conclusion as intelligently as the witness.” ’ ” (People v. McAlpin (1991) 53 Cal.3d 1289, 1300 (McAlpin).) The trial court has broad discretion to decide whether to admit expert testimony, and we review the trial court’s decision for abuse of discretion. (People v. McDowell (2012) 54 Cal.4th 395, 426.) The ruling will not warrant reversal “ ‘unless the trial court exercised its discretion in an arbitrary,

3 capricious or patently absurd manner that resulted in a manifest miscarriage of justice.’ ” (People v. Hovarter (2008) 44 Cal.App.4th 983, 1004.) CSAAS reflects a body of clinical research identifying a wide range of common behaviors displayed by children known to have been sexually abused. CSAAS is not a diagnostic tool, and it is not admissible to prove that a child was molested. (People v. Patino (1994) 26 Cal.App.4th 1737, 1744; accord, People v. Bledsoe (1984) 36 Cal.3d 236, 247, 251 [rape trauma syndrome evidence is not admissible to prove a rape occurred].) But our Supreme Court recognizes that expert testimony on CSAAS is admissible to rehabilitate a witness’s credibility when the defendant suggests that a child’s conduct after an alleged molestation is inconsistent with his or her claim of molestation. (McAlpin, supra, 53 Cal.3d at p. 1300.) The Supreme Court explained in McAlpin: “ ‘Such expert testimony is needed to disabuse jurors of commonly held misconceptions about child sexual abuse, and to explain the emotional antecedents of abused children’s seemingly self-impeaching behavior.’ ” (Id. at pp. 1300–1301.) The prosecution argued in limine that CSAAS evidence would assist the jury in assessing the testifying victims’ credibility by dispelling misconceptions regarding failed or late reporting, inconsistent statements, continuing to live or visit with the perpetrator, and recanting original reports. The court ruled the testimony was admissible to explain myths and misconceptions, but not to diagnose whether someone is a victim. At trial, the expert described secrecy, helplessness, entrapment or accommodation, delayed and unconvincing disclosure, and retraction or recanting as five types of behavior commonly seen in child victims of sexual abuse.

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People v. Quintero CA6, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-quintero-ca6-calctapp-2020.