State v. Castoreno

874 P.2d 1173, 255 Kan. 401, 1994 Kan. LEXIS 90
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedMay 27, 1994
Docket69,474
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 874 P.2d 1173 (State v. Castoreno) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Castoreno, 874 P.2d 1173, 255 Kan. 401, 1994 Kan. LEXIS 90 (kan 1994).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

*402 Allegrucci, J.:

This is a direct appeal by Gregory Castoreño from his jury convictions of aggravated criminal sodomy and rape. The district court initially sentenced Castoreño to concurrent terms of 15 years to life. Upon his motion for modification, the district court reduced his sentence to a controlling term of six years to life.

On October 23, 1989, the. victim, T.H., shared an apartment with Carrie Winters. Both T.H. and Carrie had daughters who lived with them. That evening, three people T.H. knew dropped by, and they were drinking. In addition, Allen Teetzel and Greg Castoreño, whom T.H. previously had not known, showed up.

T.H. had made arrangements to go visit a friend who lived about a mile away. She asked one of the people she knew to give her a ride, but he did not have enough gasoline. She accepted a ride with Teetzel and Castoreño, who said they were going in the right direction.

As they were walking to the truck, Teetzel and Castoreño pointed out the silhouette of a naked woman on the tailgate, and T.H. “said it looked pretty nice.” Once in the truck, the two men started fondling T.H. She was sitting between them with Teetzel driving. T.H. testified that Teetzel touched her legs and that Castoreño felt her legs and her chest. When she realized that they were not going to her friend’s place, T.H. kicked the passenger side door several times, but could not get past Castoreño.

Teetzel drove to a field. He and Castoreño told T.H. that she was being a tease and that they were going to teach her not to be a tease again. Castoreño held her by her waist and dragged her from the truck as T.H. kicked. Teetzel grabbed her ankles, Castoreño took her arms, and they put her on the ground.

Teetzel took off T.H.’s shorts and had vaginal intercourse with her while Castoreño held her arms and put his penis into her mouth. Then Castoreño had vaginal intercourse with T.H. while Teetzel held her arms and put his penis into her mouth.

T.H. testified that she was forced to have sex with Castoreño. She testified that she lay on top of Castoreño because she was scared and that was what he wanted. Castoreño expressed anger that Teetzel had ejaculated during intercourse because Castoreño *403 “was afraid that [T.H.] was going to go to the cops.” Castoreño told T.H. that “he didn’t want [her] to be with anybody else because [she] was his from now on,” and he said that if he found out she was “with someone else” that “he was going to cut [her] tits off.”

Teetzel had intercourse with T.H. a second time. Castoreño was not involved. He went over near the truck to “relieve” himself. T.H. testified that Castoreño wanted to have intercourse again, but that she dissuaded him by suggesting that she would “do this again Friday” if she could go home. Teetzel and Castoreño took T.H. back to her apartment.

Castoreño testified that while the group was still at the apartment, T.H. had reached up to put “handcuffs on the chandelier, and [he] noticed the bottom part of her breast.” He asked her if she was wearing “anything under there,” and she said she was not. He also testified that he “ducked under the table” and that she pulled the leg of her shorts to the side to show her pubic hair to him. He testified that she put her arms around him and Teetzel as they walked from the apartment to the truck and that “[s]he would jitter away” when he grabbed her buttocks. He testified that in the truck, he was caressing her breast and running his hand up her leg and that “[s]he seemed to enjoy it.” He testified that she spread her legs further apart in response, put her arm around him, and kissed him. He testified that they drove about 15 minutes to get to the field because T.H. said, “Not in the truck,” but consented to parking. Castoreño said that T.H. “was tipsy” and that “[s]he slid out of the truck.” His account of what happened in the field differed significantly from T.H.’s only in that he testified that her participation was not forced.

Castoreño first contends that the district court erroneously instructed the jury about witness credibility. The district court gave the following instruction on witness credibility:

“It is for you to determine the weight and credit to be given the testimony of each witness. You have a right to use common knowledge and experience in regard to the matters about which a witness has testified. You may take into account the witness’ ability and opportunity to observe and know the things about which he has testified, the witness’ memory, manner and conduct while testi *404 fying, any interest the witness may have in the result of this trial, and the reasonableness of the witness’ testimony considered in the light of all the evidence in this case. In other words, you are to reach conclusions which reason and common sense lead you to make from all the credible testimony and evidence in the case.
“A witness may be discredited by contradictory evidence, by a showing that he testified falsely concerning a material matter, or by evidence that at some other time the witness has said or done something, or failed to say or do something, which is inconsistent with the witness’ present testimony, if you find that any witness has testified falsely on an important matter, you have a right to distrust the testimony of that witness on other matters, and you may reject all or part of the testimony of that witness, or you may give it such weight as you think it deserves.”

The pattern instruction consists in its entirety of the first two sentences of the instruction given in this case. See PIK Crim. 3d 52.09.

No objection was made to this instruction.

“The standard of review applied to jury instruction error requires an objection before the jury retires, stating distinctly the matter objected to and the grounds for the objection, unless the instruction or the failure to give the instruction is clearly erroneous. K.S.A. 22-3414(3). State v. Crabtree, 248 Kan. 33, 39, 805 P.2d 1 (1991).” State v. Thomas, 252 Kan. 564, 576, 847 P.2d 1219 (1993).

This court has stated that “[a]n instruction is clearly erroneous when a reviewing court reaches a firm conviction that, if the trial error had not occurred, there is a real possibility that the juiy would have returned a different verdict.” State v. Novotny, 252 Kan. 753, 755, 851 P.2d 365 (1993).

Castoreño contends there is a real possibility that the jury would have returned a verdict of not guilty had the significantly expanded witness credibility instruction not been given. He reasons that the instruction tipped the balance against him in this case, which was a credibility contest between T.H. and him.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
874 P.2d 1173, 255 Kan. 401, 1994 Kan. LEXIS 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-castoreno-kan-1994.