People v. Reyes CA4/2

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 8, 2021
DocketE073754
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Reyes CA4/2 (People v. Reyes CA4/2) 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. Reyes CA4/2, (Cal. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

Filed 3/8/21 P. v. Reyes CA4/2

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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, E073754

v. (Super.Ct.No. FWV18000219)

EUSTAQUIO GARCIA REYES, OPINION

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from the Superior Court of San Bernardino County. Michael A. Knish,

Judge. Affirmed in part; reversed in part with directions.

Lizabeth Weis, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and

Appellant.

Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney

General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General, Arlene A. Sevidal and James M.

Toohey, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

1 I. INTRODUCTION

A jury found defendant Eustaquio Garcia Reyes guilty as charged of 10 counts of

sexually molesting three girls, Does 1, 2, and 3.1 The jury also found a One Strike law,

multiple victim allegation true—namely, that counts 3 through 10 involved multiple

victims under the age of 14 years. (§ 667.61, subds. (e), (j)(2).) In a bifurcated trial, the

court found that defendant had one prior strike conviction (Pen. Code, § 667, subds. (b)-

(i))—namely, a 1990 Florida conviction for violating former Florida Statutes section

794.041.

Defendant was sentenced to an indeterminate term of 460 years to life, comprised

of 10 consecutive terms: two 30 year-to-life terms (15 years to life, doubled) on counts 1

and 2, and eight 50 year-to-life terms (25 years to life, doubled) on counts 3 through 10.

In this appeal, defendant raises two claims of error: (1) insufficient evidence supports his

lewd act conviction in count 3, and (2) insufficient evidence shows that his 1990 Florida

conviction for violating the former Florida Statutes section 794.041, constitutes a prior

strike under California law.

We conclude that substantial evidence supports defendant’s lewd act conviction in

count 3. Regarding defendant’s second claim of error, the People concede, and we agree

1 In counts 1 through 3, involving Doe 1, defendant was convicted of oral copulation on a child age 10 years or younger (Pen. Code, § 288.7, subd. (b), count 1); (undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code); sexual penetration of a child age 10 years or younger (§ 288.7, subd. (b), count 2); and a lewd act on a child age under age 14 years or younger. (§ 288, subd. (a), count 3) In counts 4 and 5, involving Doe 2, and in counts 6 through 10, involving Doe 3, defendant was convicted of a lewd act on a child age 14 years or younger. (§ 288, subd. (a).)

2 that insufficient evidence shows defendant’s 1990 Florida conviction constitutes a prior

strike under California law. Thus, we reverse the true finding on the prior strike

allegation and defendant’s sentence, and we remand the matter for a retrial on the prior

strike allegation and for resentencing. In all other respects, we affirm the judgment.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Substantial Evidence Supports Defendant’s Lewd Act Conviction in Count 3

Defendant claims that insufficient evidence supports his lewd act conviction in

count 3, one of the three counts involving Doe 1. (§ 288, subd. (a).)2 We conclude that

substantial evidence supports the conviction.

1. Relevant Background

Defendant and his girlfriend lived in one of four houses located on a single, large

property. Family members of defendant’s girlfriend, including Doe 1, lived in the other

houses. Doe 1 was born in February 2002 and was 17 years old at the time of trial in

August 2019.

Doe 1 testified that when she was eight or nine years old, she was alone in a room

with defendant in defendant’s house. When asked whether anything of a sexual nature

happened at that time, Doe 1 said, “Yeah”; and when asked to describe what happened,

Doe 1 said, “[H]e would undress me, take pictures, touch me, touch my vagina, show me

the videos, and he would take out a white liquid and put it in my vagina.” The prosecutor

then asked Doe 1 to describe each of the things that defendant did.

2 See footnote 1, ante.

3 Doe initially responded that she was in defendant’s room, lying on the bed with

her clothes completely off, and defendant was taking pictures of her with his camera.

When asked whether defendant did anything else to her on the day he took the pictures of

her, Doe 1 said, “Yes. The other stuff I said.” But, when asked whether defendant

touched her while he was taking pictures of her with his camera, Doe 1 said she did not

remember. And, when asked whether defendant did the “other things” she “said” on the

same day he took the pictures, Doe 1 said, “No.”

Next, Doe 1 was asked about the videos that defendant showed her. Doe

responded that when she was eight or nine years old she was lying on defendant’s bed.

Defendant was standing next to the bed, holding his laptop computer, and showing her a

video of a man and a woman having sex. Defendant told Doe 1 that he wanted her to do

those things to him.

Next, Doe 1 was asked to describe how defendant touched her vagina. Doe 1

responded, “He just put his fingers in me, and then he would like rub his penis and put a

white liquid in my vagina with his fingers.” When this occurred, Doe 1 was eight or nine

years old, she was completely naked in defendant’s house, and no one else was in the

house; but Doe 1 did not recall where she and defendant were in the house when this

occurred.

When asked for further details of how defendant touched her vagina, Doe 1 said

that he used his “two fingers,” and he touched her vagina under her clothing. When

asked where he touched her vagina, she said, “the inside”; and the touching caused her to

4 feel pain “in the inside” of her vagina. He moved his fingers around and “kept rubbing

on” the inside of her vagina with his fingers.

Next, Doe 1 was asked about the white liquid that defendant put on his fingers and

inserted into her vagina. Although Doe 1 recalled that she was eight or nine years old

when this happened, she did not remember where she was in defendant’s house when it

happened, or whether it happened on the same or a different occasion than the time

defendant rubbed the inside of her vagina with his fingers. Doe 1 did recall defendant

was rubbing his penis, white liquid came out of his penis, and his pants were down but

not completely off. Doe 1 testified, “he was rubbing it [(his penis)]; and then after, he put

the liquid in me in my—in my pussy.” She did not recall whether she felt any pain when

this occurred.

Doe later testified that, on another occasion when she was eight or nine years old,

she was sitting on a couch in defendant’s house when defendant licked her “vagina.”

Doe was not wearing her “bottom clothes” or any underwear, and defendant was sitting

on the floor in front or her.

2. Applicable Law and Analysis

In reviewing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting a criminal

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Bluebook (online)
People v. Reyes CA4/2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-reyes-ca42-calctapp-2021.