People v. Relaford

2016 COA 99, 409 P.3d 490, 2016 Colo. App. LEXIS 920
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 30, 2016
DocketCourt of Appeals 15CA0124
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 2016 COA 99 (People v. Relaford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Relaford, 2016 COA 99, 409 P.3d 490, 2016 Colo. App. LEXIS 920 (Colo. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

Opinion by

JUDGE BERGER

¶ 1 A jury convicted defendant, David A. Relaford, of twenty-seven offenses related to sexual assaults against two child victims, and the trial court sentenced him to an aggregate indeterminate term of 204 years to life under the Colorado Sex Offender Lifetime Supervision Act of 1998 (SOLSA), §§' 18-1.3-1001 to —1012, C.R.S. 2015. Relaford appeals the judgment of conyiction and the sentence imposed.

¶ 2 Relaford argues that the trial court reversibly erred in admitting (1) expert testimony about the credibility of child victims of sexual assault and (2) numerous sex toys and pornography found at his home. He also argues that SOLSA is unconstitutional. We address and reject these contentions and affirm.

I. Facts and Procedural History

¶ 3 In the summer of 2011, seven-year-old O.S. and his adoptive mother lived with Rela-ford at his house. Several weeks after O.S. and his mother moved out, O.S. told his mother that Relaford had sexually assaulted him, His mother called the police, and a police detective conducted a forensic interview with O.S.

¶ 4 During the interview, O.S. described multiple incidents in which Relaford sexually assaulted him. O.S. said that Relaford sometimes used sex toys during the assaults and they had watched a pornographic movie and looked at pornographic magazines together. O.S. also told the detective that he had witnessed Relaford sexually assault another child, M.D., an eight-year-old girl who lived nearby and was friends with O.S.

¶ 5 The detective conducted a forensic interview with M.D. M.D. initially denied that anything had happened with Relaford. About twenty-five minutes into the interview, the detective began to ask more focused questions about M.D.’s relationship and experiences with O.S. and Relaford. The detective told M.D. that O.S. said that he had seen something happen to M.D. when M.D. was at his house. About fifteen minutes later, the detective told M.D. that'she (the detective) knew what had happened but that “it need[ed] to come from M.D.” M.D. respond *493 ed, “Dave [Relaford] has actually done it to me.”

¶ 6 Like O.S., M.D. detailed several instances of sexual assault by Relaford, including at least one instance in which he used a sex toy. M.D. also described watching pornographic movies with Relaford and looking at pornographic magazines at his house.

¶ 7 The People charged Relaford with five incidents of sexual assault against O.S. and six incidents against M.D., differentiated by the location where each incident occurred. For each incident, Relaford was charged with one count of sexual assault on a child and one count of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust. He was also charged with four counts of committing sexual assault on a child as part of a pattern of abuse and one count of second degree kidnapping (based on M.D.’s statement that during one assault, Relaford took her from the living room of his home into his bedroom).

¶ 8 Both victims testified at trial, and video recordings of their forensic interviews were admitted and played for the jury. The interviewing detective also testified regarding the interviews and the investigation of Relaford, including the search of his home (under a warrant) and his police interview.

¶ 9 The detective testified that the police had found numerous sex toys and pornographic videos and magazines at Relaford’s house and property. Many of the places where the sex toys and pornography were found were consistent .with the victims’ descriptions of those locations. Both victims also said that Relaford used Vaseline during the assaults, and O.S. testified that Relaford got the Vaseline from the bathroom. Vaseline was found in Relaford’s bathroom, Additionally, O.S.’s description of several of . the sex toys Relaford used during the assaults matched the appearance of some of the toys found. A sex toy that M.D. gave to her mother after her forensic interview was also admitted into evidence. Her mother testified that M.D. had told her that Relaford had given M.D. the toy with instructions to use it on herself.

¶ 10 The sex toys were submitted for DNA testing. The prosecution’s DNA expert testified that DNA samples from one of the sex toys O.S. had identified matched O.S.’s and Relaford’s DNA. DNA samples from the sex toy M.D. said Relaford had given her matched M.D.’s DNA.

¶ 11 The-prosecution also presented testimony from the nurses who had examined the victims. The nurse who examined O.S. testified that the findings she made during her examination of his anus were consistent with the disclosures he had made to her about, the sexual assaults by Relaford. The nurse who examined M.D. testified that she did not observe any injuries attributable to the disclosures M.D. had made to her about the sexual assaults, but that did not mean M.D. had not been sexually assaulted.

¶ 12 Another part' of the prosecution’s case-in-chief was evidence of statements Re-laford made during' the investigation, The detective testified that during her interview of Relaford, he had initially told her that he had been alone with both children, that the children had never been in his bedroom, and that his pornography was locked up where the children could not access it. However, after the detective told Relaford that items had been collected for DNA tests, he said the children could have gotten into his bedroom and “snooped,” and that he had never been alone with the children.

¶ 13 The detective also testified about a letter Relaford had written to his girlfriend after his arrest, which she had given to the police. In the letter, Relaford said that he had once masturbated in their tent when he was alone, and then he had “cleaned up” with soap and water. He said that when he went camping with O.S., O.S. vomited in almost the same' spot. The prosecution argued that these ■ statements were significant because O.S. alleged that Relaford had sexually assaulted-him when they were camping,, and before Relaford wrote the letter, the detective had told him essentially that if the police found his DNA and the kids’ DNA mixed together, it would be very bad for him. .

'¶ 14 Relaford’s defense at trial was primarily that the victims’ testimony was not believable. Among other things, defense counsel-emphasized that (1) O.S. and M.D, testified to certain details that they had omit *494 ted in their forensic interviews; (2) M.D. initially denied that Relaford had sexually assaulted her; and (3) O.S.’s description in his interview regarding some of Relaford’s physical characteristics was inaccurate.

¶ 15 The jury convicted Relaford on all charges. The trial court sentenced Relaford to twenty-four years’ imprisonment for -kidnapping, to be served consecutively to fifteen consecutive sentences of twelve years to life that were concurrent to eleven sentences of six years to life for the sexual assault convictions.

II. Expert Testimony

A, Additional Facts

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2016 COA 99, 409 P.3d 490, 2016 Colo. App. LEXIS 920, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-relaford-coloctapp-2016.