People v. Toliver

270 Cal. App. 2d 492, 75 Cal. Rptr. 819, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 1551
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMarch 7, 1969
DocketCrim. 4963
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 270 Cal. App. 2d 492 (People v. Toliver) 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. Toliver, 270 Cal. App. 2d 492, 75 Cal. Rptr. 819, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 1551 (Cal. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

BRAY, J. *

Defendant appeals from judgment of conviction after jury verdict of count I, violation of Penal Code section 261 (statutory rape); count II, violation of Penal Code section 288 (lewd and lascivious conduct with a child; count III, violation of Penal Code section 266h (pimping) ; and count IY, violation of Penal Code section 266h (pimping —different female). 1

Defendant’s motion for new trial and application for probation were denied. Sentences as to counts II, III and IY were to be served concurrently with each other; sentence as to count I was stayed pending appeal and during the serving of *494 a sentence under count II and thereafter to he stayed permanently.

Questions Presented

1. Reasonable belief that the prosecutrix Cheri was 14 years of age or older is not a defense to a charge of violation of Penal Code section 288. Moreover, no such defense was raised in the trial court.

2. The element of nonmarriage was established by circumstantial evidence.

3. There was a double conviction.

Evidence

As the only attack on the sufficiency of the evidence is limited to the matters hereinafter discussed only a brief statement of the evidence is necessary.

Cheri, a 13-year-old girl and a ward of the juvenile court, hitchhiked a ride from Hayward to Stockton with two boys. The three met one Tom and it was arranged that Cheri would prostitute herself to raise money for gas. Tom “sold” Cheri to defendant for $5. Defendant took Cheri to a hotel room where Cheri had intercourse with a “gentleman” for the price of $8, which defendant received. Defendant gave the two boys $3 of this amount. Defendant offered Cheri an apartment and clothes in return for her engaging in prostitution, but first finding out if she was “woman enough” or “capable enough to do the job” by having intercourse with her. Defendant later admitted to Ann, hereinafter mentioned, that Cheri was on the street for him.

Ann, who had several aliases, was picked up by the police in company with Cheri. Ann was 19 years of age. She first met defendant in October 1967. They had discussed her engaging in acts of prostitution. For three or four days she engaged in it for him, during which time she turned five to seven “tricks” at a price of $10 each. If she solicited the “trick” she gave the money to defendant. If he solicited it, he kept the money. She received no money whatever.

Defendant did not testify. He offered no defense to the charge of pimping for Ann. His defense to the Cheri charges was an alibi.

1. Belief of Cheri’s age.

Defendant’s only attacks on the sufficiency of the evidence relate to count I, statutory rape, and count II, violation of section 288 of the Penal Code (lewd and lascivious conduct *495 with “a child under the age of fourteen years”). As to the first offense, his only contention is the evidence did not show nomnarriage to the victim, and as to the latter offense, his only contentions are that the evidence did not show that defendant believed or had reason to believe that Oheri was under 14 years of age at the time of the acts complained of and that the jury should have been instructed that defendant could not be convicted of violation of Penal Code section 288 unless the jury found that defendant believed or had reason to believe that Cheri was 14 or over. 2 3****No evidence nor instruction was offered on this subject by defendant, and the prosecution offered no evidence that Cheri appeared older or younger than 14.

In People v. Hernandez (1964) 61 Cal.2d 529, 536 [39 Cal.Rptr. 361, 393 P.2d 673, 8 A.L.R.3d 1092], the Supreme Court for the first time held that a showing by defendant that he had in good faith a reasonable belief that the prosecutrix was 18 years old or more would be a defense to a prosecution for violation of Penal Code section 261, subdivision 1 (statutory rape). Defendant would have us apply the Hernandez rule to this prosecution under section 288 and reverse the judgment of conviction so that possibly he could raise such a defense at a new trial. It does not appear just how he would reconcile his defense that he could not have been guilty of lewd and lascivious conduct with Cheri when he was somewhere else at the time she claimed it occurred with a claim that he did it but believed she was 14 or over.

Moreover, we are convinced that such belief is not a defense under section 288, and that the philosophy applying to violations of that section is entirely different from that applying to violations of section 261, subdivision 1. 3 “The very refusal to distinguish between a child of tender years and an adult may be said to be characteristic of some of those who engage in the sort of conduct of which defendant has been convicted.” *496 (People v. Tober (1966) 241 Cal.App.2d 66, 73 [50 Cal.Rptr. 228]—Charge of lewd and lascivious acts on the body of a 10-year-old child.)

In People v. Clark (1953) 117 Cal.App.2d 134, 143 [255 P.2d 79], a prosecution under section 288 for lewd and lascivious conduct with a 12-year-old child, the trial court instructed the jury that the fact that a defendant believed that the victim was past the age of 14 years was immaterial. There was evidence that in a conversation the night of the occurrence the defendants or some of them had stated that they did not know that the girl was 12 years old, that they thought she was older, and that if they had known she was only 12 they would not have done anything to her. Concerning the instruction, the reviewing court said, “There was no prejudice under the circumstances. ’

In Hernandez, supra, 61 Cal.2d 529, the court in effect considered that section 288 is for protection of infants or children as to whom persons commit lewd and lascivious acts at their peril. Hernandez points out that in a broad sense consent can be an element of statutory rape, on the principle that a female whom a male may reasonably believe to be older than 18 can consent to the act of intercourse. On the other hand, violation of section 288 does not involve consent of any sort, thereby placing the public policies underlying it and statutory rape on different footings. It is significant that the younger age and greater penalty of section 288 suggest that more than punishment for violating the moral standards of the community is involved. 4 Under the Roman and common laws, childhood was considered to exist until puberty, which was determined to be at age 14. (1 Burdick, Law of Crime, §§ 155, 156, pp.

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Bluebook (online)
270 Cal. App. 2d 492, 75 Cal. Rptr. 819, 1969 Cal. App. LEXIS 1551, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-toliver-calctapp-1969.