People v. Saavedra

234 Cal. Rptr. 3d 544, 24 Cal. App. 5th 605
California Court of Appeal, 5th District·Decided June 15, 2018·No. F073923·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinion

DETJEN, J.

INTRODUCTION

Salvador Saavedra (defendant) stands convicted, following a jury trial, of committing forcible lewd acts on a child under age 14 ( Pen. Code, 1 § 288, subd. (b)(1); counts 1 & 2), sexual intercourse or sodomy with a child 10 years of age or younger (§ 288.7, subd. (a); count 3), oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 years of age or younger (§ 288.7, subd. (b); counts 4 & 11), forcible sodomy (§ 286, subd. (c)(2); count 5), forcible rape (§ 261, subd. (a)(2); count 6), aggravated sexual assault of a child (sodomy; § 269, subd. (a)(3); counts 7-9), and forcible oral copulation of a child under age 14 (§ 288a, subd. (c)(2)(B); count 10). As to counts 1, 5, 6, *547and 10, the jury found true a multiple victim allegation. (§ 667.61, subds. (a), (e)(4).) As to count 2, the jury found defendant personally used a firearm in commission of the offense. (§ 12022.53, subd. (b).) Defendant was sentenced to a total term of 18 years plus 180 years to life in prison, and ordered to pay various fees, fines, and assessments. *608On appeal, defendant contends: (1) The evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions on counts 1 and 11; (2) Trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to admission of the complaining witnesses' out-of-court statements to a detective, and for requesting CALCRIM No. 207 ; (3) The giving of an instruction that consent is not a defense to duress (see People v. Soto (2011) 51 Cal.4th 229, 233, 119 Cal.Rptr.3d 775, 245 P.3d 410 ( Soto ); cf. People v. Cicero (1984) 157 Cal.App.3d 465, 484-485, 204 Cal.Rptr. 582 ( Cicero ), disapproved by Soto , supra , at p. 248 & fn. 12, 119 Cal.Rptr.3d 775, 245 P.3d 410 ) violated due process; (4) The trial court erroneously instructed that the offense charged in count 11 was a general intent crime; and (5) The abstract of judgment must be corrected. In the published portion of this opinion, we reject defendant's due process claim, and conclude he was not prejudiced by the erroneous intent instruction. In the unpublished portion, we agree the abstract of judgment must be corrected, but otherwise reject defendant's remaining contentions. We also conclude a remand to permit the trial court to determine whether to exercise its discretion to strike the firearm enhancement on count 2 is unwarranted. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment.

FACTS **

DISCUSSION

I-II***

III

PURPORTED ERRORS IN JURY INSTRUCTIONS

A. Consent as a Defense to Section 288, Subdivision (b)(1)

In Soto , supra , 51 Cal.4th at pages 233, 238, and 248, 119 Cal.Rptr.3d 775, 245 P.3d 410, the California Supreme Court held that consent of the victim is not a defense to the crime of aggravated lewd conduct on a child under age 14, as proscribed by section 288, subdivision (b)(1).14 With respect to counts 1 and 2, the trial court here gave CALCRIM No. 1111 in pertinent part as follows:

*609"The defendant is charged in Counts 1 and 2 with a lewd or lascivious act by force or by fear on a child under the age of 14, specifically [G.], in violation of Penal Code Section 288(b)(1). To prove that the defendant is guilty of this crime the People must prove that, one, the defendant willfully touched any part of a child's body either on the bare skin or through the clothing .... Two, in committing the act the defendant used force, violence, duress, menace or fear of unlawful immediate injury to the child or to someone else. Three, the defendant committed the act with the intent of arousing, appealing to or gratifying the lusts, passions or sexual desires of himself or the child. And four, the child was under the age of 14 at the time of the act. [¶] ... [¶]
*548"The force used must be substantially different from or substantially greater than the force needed to accomplish the act itself.
"Duress means the use of direct or implied threat of force, violence, danger, hardship or retribution sufficient to cause a reasonable person to do or submit to something that he or she would not otherwise do or submit to. In deciding whether the act was accomplished by duress consider all the circumstances including the age of the child and her relationship to the defendant. [¶] ... [¶]
"It is not a defense that the child may have consented to the act ." (Italics added.)

Defendant contends it was error to give the emphasized portion of the instruction. He asserts that at the time he allegedly committed the lewd acts, the state of the law was such that consent indeed was a defense to the element of force or duress; the law did not change in this regard, and the defense of consent did not become unavailable, until 2011, when the California Supreme Court decided Soto . Defendant argues: "Since Soto had the effect of expanding criminal liability under ... section 288, subdivision (b) and since this expansion occurred after [defendant] committed the alleged crimes, the [emphasized] language in CALCRIM No. 1111 violated [defendant's] right to due process." Defendant implicitly concedes his conviction on count 2, with respect to which the jury found he personally used a firearm, was not affected, but he contends his conviction on count 1 must be reversed, because the question whether he used force to commit the charged act and whether G. consented to the act was a close one.

We conclude defendant's due process rights were not violated by the giving of the challenged portion of CALCRIM No. 1111. The jury was properly instructed-even with respect to aggravated lewd acts alleged to have occurred before Soto was decided-that the child's consent was not a defense.

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People v. Saavedra, 234 Cal. Rptr. 3d 544, 24 Cal. App. 5th 605 (Cal. Ct. App. 2018).

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