People v. Trujillo CA5

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 26, 2013
DocketF063616
StatusUnpublished

This text of People v. Trujillo CA5 (People v. Trujillo CA5) 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. Trujillo CA5, (Cal. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Filed 2/26/13 P. v. Trujillo CA5

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

THE PEOPLE, F063616 Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. VCF241469) v.

JACOB ROY TRUJILLO, OPINION Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Tulare County. Gary L. Paden, Judge. Deborah L. Hawkins, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Michael A. Canzoneri and Barton Bowers, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. -ooOoo- Defendant Jacob Roy Trujillo was found guilty of a total of four acts of molestation against two child victims. With sentence enhancements for a prior strike, among other things, he received a determinate sentence of 13 years plus an indeterminate sentence of 60 years to life. In this appeal, Trujillo argues that the convictions on two of the counts were not supported by sufficient evidence. He also argues that, of six witnesses who gave propensity testimony under Evidence Code section 1108, two should have been excluded. We disagree and affirm the judgment. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORIES The district attorney filed an information on January 5, 2011, charging Trujillo with four counts: (1) a lewd act upon J.V., a child under 14, consisting of kissing her using his tongue (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a));1 (2) communicating with J.V. (by discussing sex with her) with intent to commit an enumerated sex offense2 (§ 288.3, subd. (a)); (3) a lewd act upon M.H., a child under 14, consisting of touching her vaginal area (§ 288, subd. (a)); and (4) oral copulation with the vagina of M.H., a child under 10 (§ 288.7, subd. (b)). For sentence-enhancement purposes on all counts, the information alleged a prior strike (§§ 667, subds. (b)-(i), 1170.12, subds. (a)-(d)) and a prior serious felony (§ 667, subd. (a)(1)), both based on a first degree burglary (§ 459) of which Trujillo was convicted in 1990. On counts 1 and 3, the information alleged a multiple- victim special circumstance. (§ 667.61, subd. (b).) Trujillo owned a property in Pixley with three houses. He lived in one and rented one to the family of M.H. M.H.‟s father testified at trial that on April 13, 2009, when M.H. was five years old, she came in from outside and told him Trujillo “licked her down there.” She said she told him to stop and she was going to tell her father. Trujillo was a long-haul trucker and kept his truck, which had a sleeping area in the cab, parked on the property. M.H. testified at trial that Trujillo gave her and her brothers some candy. Her brothers then went away, leaving M.H. alone with Trujillo. He

1Subsequent statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise noted. 2Thejury was instructed that the enumerated offense it had to find an intent to commit was section 288, subdivision (a), a lewd act upon a child under 14.

2. also gave her a big teddy bear. Then M.H. was in Trujillo‟s truck with him, on the bed. He touched her with his lips. She demonstrated where he touched her by circling the crotch on a diagram of a girl. Trujillo told her not to tell her father. This incident was the basis of counts 3 and 4 of the information. M.H.‟s brothers, who were 10 and 12 at the time of trial, testified. They said Trujillo gave chocolate bars to all three siblings that day. He gave a fourth chocolate bar to the older brother and told him to take it to their father. The boys went in their house to take the candy to their father, while M.H. remained with Trujillo. After hearing what happened, M.H.‟s father called the police and went with M.H. to confront Trujillo. Trujillo‟s wife asked M.H., “Who hurt you?” M.H. replied, “Jacob and Dillon,” referring to Trujillo and a cousin of M.H.‟s father. On cross-examination, M.H. testified that Dillon once pulled down his pants and her pants and did “something nasty” to her in a closet. M.H.‟s father called M.H.‟s mother, who came home from work. The mother testified that when she got home, M.H. was scared, thought she was in trouble, had her head down, and was crying and sad. A sexual assault nurse examiner swabbed M.H.‟s inner thighs, mouth, and genitals. DNA testing of one of the inner thigh samples revealed two profiles, one of M.H.‟s own DNA and one belonging to a male. Trujillo‟s DNA profile matched that of the male contributor. The profile matched one in 4.8 billion Hispanics, 1 in 2.7 billion Caucasians, and 1 in 11.9 billion African Americans. It was impossible to determine what sort of fluid or tissue the DNA came from. It was possible that the DNA had been transferred to M.H.‟s thigh without contact between her and Trujillo as, for instance, through contact between M.H. and surfaces inside the truck on which Trujillo had sat. Testing of M.H.‟s underwear also revealed male DNA, but the sample was too small for further identification.

3. J.V., born in May 1999, and 12 years old at the time of trial, is Trujillo‟s granddaughter, the daughter of Trujillo‟s daughter K.T. J.V. testified at trial about events that took place during two visits with Trujillo. The first visit was around 2005, when J.V. was six, but could have been a year earlier or a year later. J.V. and her family were staying with Trujillo for Thanksgiving at Trujillo‟s house in Arizona. J.V. testified that she was sleeping in a bedroom and woke up in the morning and went into the living room. Her mother was asleep in the living room. Trujillo was lying on the living room floor. He told J.V. to lie down next to him. Then he put his hand under her pajama pants and into her underpants and touched her “private spot.” “„Does that feel good?‟” he asked. J.V. did not tell anyone about this at the time because she did not know whether it was right or wrong and did not want to get Trujillo in trouble. The second visit was in June or July of 2008, when J.V. was nine. Trujillo was then living in Pixley. Trujillo drove to Santa Clara, where J.V.‟s family lived, and picked up J.V. and her younger sister. The two girls stayed with Trujillo for about a month. One night, J.V. was lying awake in bed when Trujillo came into the room where J.V. and her sister slept. J.V. pretended to be asleep. Trujillo‟s dog was with him and Trujillo was talking on the phone. He stopped talking and picked J.V. up, cradling her like a baby. Then he kissed J.V. on her lips. J.V. testified that “it was not like in the tongue but it was only like a regular kiss and that‟s it.” J.V. did not remember telling an interviewer that she felt Trujillo‟s tongue. After Trujillo left the room, J.V. woke up her sister and said she was scared, did not know what to to, and wanted to go home. The jury watched a video recording of an interview J.V. gave as part of the police investigation on January 20, 2010. J.V. told the interviewer that Trujillo kissed her on the lips “[w]ith his tongue in my mouth.” This incident was the basis of count 1 of the information. Later during the same visit, Trujillo asked J.V.‟s sister if she had changed her underwear. The sister said no. K.T. testified that when her daughters were small, she did not insist they change their underwear every day. Trujillo then put his hand inside J.V.‟s

4. pants and underwear, touched her genitals, withdrew his hand, and said, “„Well do you want to smell like this?‟” Still later during the 2008 visit, J.V. was in Trujillo‟s room and Trujillo told her to lie down on the bed.

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People v. Trujillo CA5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-trujillo-ca5-calctapp-2013.