State of Washington v. Gabriel M. Gomez

Court of Appeals of Washington·Decided January 22, 2019·No. 35402-4·Unpublished

Opinion

FILED

JANUARY 22, 2019

In the Office of the Clerk of Court WA State Court of Appeals, Division III

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON DIVISION THREE

STATE OF WASHINGTON, ) No. 35402-4-III )

Respondent, )

)

v. ) UNPUBLISHED OPINION )

GABRIEL M. GOMEZ, )

)

Appellant. )

LAWRENCE-BERREY, C.J. — Gabriel Gomez appeals his conviction for third degree child molestation. He argues: (1) the trial court erred when it admitted three different instances of ER 404(b) evidence, (2) he received ineffective assistance of counsel, (3) the prosecutor committed prosecutorial misconduct during closing argument, (4) the cumulative error doctrine warrants a new trial, (5) two community custody conditions are vague and should be struck, (6) appellate costs should not be imposed if the State is the prevailing party, and (7) his criminal filing fee and other discretionary costs should be reversed and struck. We affirm his conviction but remand for the trial court to strike the contested community custody conditions and court costs.

State v. Gomez

FACTS

Background facts In 2006, Gabriel Gomez, then in his early 20s, began attending the Word of Faith Church. Soon after, he began volunteering in the church’s youth programs, including overseeing children’s ministry and supervising teenagers in youth ministry.

Around 2007 or 2008, N.A. began attending Word of Faith Church. At the time, she was 7 or 8 years old. It was around this time when she met Mr. Gomez in his role as a volunteer with children’s ministry.

As N.A. became older, she joined the youth ministry team. As part of the youth ministry team, N.A. assisted with the media team that Mr. Gomez supervised. This is when their relationship began to change.

Mr. Gomez began commenting to N.A. how she looked when she wore a skirt or how pretty and beautiful she was. Mr. Gomez would make comments to N.A. about other girls he liked in the youth ministry, and he discussed with her a formula to determine whether two people could date if they had a significant age difference. Mr. Gomez bought N.A. a stuffed animal and developed nicknames for her such as, “little pretty,” “little rabbit,” and “little bunny.” Report of Proceedings (RP) at 295.

State v. Gomez

The two of them began working even more closely in 2015 when N.A. started working in the sound room. The sound room was a close, tight space, which contained media equipment for the church. While working in the sound room, Mr. Gomez would put his hand on top of N.A.’s while she moved the computer mouse, purportedly to show her how to do something. He also would put his arms around her body to show her something on the computer.

Shortly before her 16th birthday in January 2016, N.A. was working in the sound room when Mr. Gomez came up behind her, wrapped his arms under hers, and put his palms on each of her breasts. N.A. did not tell anyone right away. She was afraid Mr. Gomez would call her a liar, everyone would look at her differently, or people would think she was a troublemaker.

Around this time, church leadership received a complaint from a church member, 18-year-old Christie Walker. Ms. Walker reported that Mr. Gomez recently had asked her out, and she wanted leadership to tell Mr. Gomez to stop texting her. Church leadership promptly asked Mr. Gomez to resign from youth ministry while it investigated. Later, leadership removed Mr. Gomez from the church.

State v. Gomez

N.A. heard that Mr. Gomez resigned from youth ministry because of Ms. Walker’s complaint. She then spoke with church leadership about what Mr. Gomez recently did to her. The report prompted church leadership to contact Child Protective Services.

Detective Holly Baynes interviewed N.A. and recorded her statement. N.A. said that Mr. Gomez touched her breasts “‘a little bit’” and said the touching may have been accidental. RP at 319.

The State charged Mr. Gomez with third degree child molestation. To prove its case, the State had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Gomez (then 32 years old) had “sexual contact” with N.A (then 15 years old). RCW 9A.44.089. “Sexual contact” means “any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person done for the purpose of gratifying sexual desire of either party or a third party.” RCW 9A.44.010(2).

Pretrial motions to admit ER 404(b) evidence Before trial, the State moved to admit ER 404(b) evidence that the church had repeatedly asked Mr. Gomez to modify his behavior of hugging young people in the church. The State argued that the evidence was necessary to show absence of mistake or accident. Mr. Gomez responded that the evidence was highly prejudicial and created the impression that “because he is kind of the creepy guy at church he has got to be a child

State v. Gomez

molester.” RP at 14. The trial court granted the State’s motion, and explained, “The act of hugging an individual is not itself a criminal act . . . . [T]he risk of unfair prejudice is outweighed by probative value.” RP at 14-15.

Mr. Gomez also moved to exclude ER 404(b) evidence that he attempted to date Christie Walker. The State argued that the evidence was admissible to explain why N.A. reported the molestation when she did. Mr. Gomez responded that he had no intention of making an issue over N.A.’s delay in reporting. The court commented that the State had a right to explain why N.A. spoke to church leadership and, unless a fuller version of the story was told, the jury would be unable to understand the link. The court preliminarily ruled that the evidence would come in and asked whether the evidence could be presented in a neutral way and whether a limiting instruction should be given. In response, Mr. Gomez responded that there was no evidence that what he did was a crime, and the State again was simply trying to present him as “the creepy guy at church who is molesting and grooming children when that’s just simply not the case.” RP at 19. Mr. Gomez suggested the State simply say, “[N.A.] came forward with an allegation and go from there.” RP at 19. The trial court granted the State’s motion and explained: Without the evidence, the jury would be left to “speculate erroneously as to how it is this young lady was contacted and what it was that prompted the disclosure.” RP at 24.

State v. Gomez

Trial At trial, the State elicited testimony about Mr. Gomez’s conduct with teenage girls/women in the church. Koni Kincaid, a youth pastor at the church, testified that she repeatedly asked Mr. Gomez to modify his behavior around young women. She cited an incident where a college-age woman reported that she and Mr. Gomez were in the sound room, and he stood very close to her and touched her sides. This prompted Ms. Kincaid to ask Mr. Gomez to not hug minors, but instead give side hugs.

Eric Slater, the director of youth education, testified that he repeatedly asked Mr.

Gomez to modify his behavior around young women and girls. “I constantly had to bring it to Koni’s attention . . . that [Mr. Gomez] would go behind girls and tickle their sides.” RP at 248. He also would see Mr. Gomez hovering over girls or touching their hand while they manipulated the computer mouse. He testified that he told Mr. Gomez to stop this behavior, which he described as “borderline completely inappropriate.” RP at 249.

Mr. Slater testified he eventually removed Mr. Gomez from the church due to concerns about his texting and involvement with 18-year-old Ms. Walker. He explained, “[W]e felt that he used his position of leadership to persuade [sic] a relationship with someone directly involved, directly underneath him in the ministry.” RP at 265 (alteration in original).

State v. Gomez

N.A. testified that she had known Mr. Gomez as a youth leader in the church for many years. She said he occasionally invaded her personal space in the media sound room by putting his arms around her or putting his hand on top of hers and moving the computer mouse.

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