People v. Chavez

1

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. RUBEN SOTO CHAVEZ, Defendant and Appellant.

E079912

California Court of Appeals, Fourth District, Second Division

June 5, 2024

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. No. INF1800450 Matthew C. Perantoni, Judge. Affirmed.

Laura Schaefer, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Assistant Attorney General, A. Natasha Cortina, Christine L. Bergman, and Lynne G. McGinnis, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

MENETREZ, J.

A jury convicted Ruben Soto Chavez of committing numerous sex offenses against his minor niece, Jane Doe, including that he forcibly raped and impregnated her when she was 13 years old. (Pen. Code, § 261, subd. (a)(2); unlabeled statutory citations are to this code.) The jury found true the allegation that Chavez personally inflicted great bodily injury on Jane in committing that offense, so the trial court imposed the mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole for that conviction under the One Strike Law. (§ 667.61, subds. (a), (c)(1), (d)(6) (j)(1).)

On appeal, Chavez challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the great bodily injury enhancement. He also argues that the trial court prejudicially erred by (1) admitting certain evidence, (2) giving the jury a purportedly ambiguous instruction on the definition of great bodily injury, (3) not instructing the jury on bodily harm for another enhancement, and (4) not giving the jury a unanimity instruction for certain offenses. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

I. The initial report and investigation

Jane was born in mid-April 2000. Chavez was born in 1963 and is Jane's paternal uncle. Jane's parents died one year after she was born. Jane and her younger brother, John Doe lived with their paternal grandmother after their parents died. Jane's paternal grandmother died around Mother's Day in 2012, when Jane was 12 years old.

After Jane's paternal grandmother died, Chavez moved into her house to take care of Jane and John. When Chavez moved in to Jane's residence, he was married to Maria and had three adult sons, who lived with Maria. Maria did not move in with Chavez to take care of Jane and John.

In late November 2014, Jane gave birth to baby Doe. Baby Doe was born 223 days (or seven months and nine days) after Jane's 14th birthday.^[1] When Jane disclosed her pregnancy to Maria, Jane said that she did not know who the father was. A teacher of Jane's adopted baby Doe.

In March 2018, Jane told Melanie F. (a friend of one of Chavez's sons) that Chavez had recently hit her because he believed that Jane was flirting with someone else. Melanie asked Jane if Chavez had ever "touched" her, and Jane responded, "[H]e raped me. He rapes me every day. He started raping me when my grandma died ...." Jane disclosed that Chavez was the father of baby Doe. Jane admitted being suicidal, explaining, "I'm tired of this abuse. I'm tired of his rape that he's doing to me. I'm tired of everything." Melanie worked at a high school and reported the abuse to a school resource officer, who contacted law enforcement.

A criminalist examined DNA samples taken from Chavez, Jane, and baby Doe and concluded that there was "strong evidence" that Chavez and Jane were baby Doe's biological parents. The criminalist reported that it was approximately 520 trillion to 920 quadrillion times more likely that baby Doe's biological parents were Jane and Chavez than that they were two random people.

II. The charges

Chavez was charged by information with: (1) four counts of forcible rape (§ 261, subd. (a)(2)) alleged to have occurred during different specified periods when Jane was aged 13 (count 1), 14 (count 3), and 15 (counts 4 &5); (2) two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct under section 288, subdivision (a) (counts 6 &7); and (3) two counts of forcible lewd and lascivious conduct (§ 288, subd. (b)(1); counts 2 &8). The four counts of lewd and lascivious conduct were alleged to have occurred before Jane turned 14 years old.

With respect to counts 1 and 2-a forcible rape count and a forcible lewd and lascivious conduct count alleged to have occurred when Jane was 13 years old-the information alleged that in committing those offenses Chavez personally inflicted both (1) great bodily injury in violation of sections 12022.53, 12022.7, and 12022.8 and within the meaning of section 667.61, subdivision (d)(6) (§ 667.61(d)(6)) and (2) bodily harm while she was under the age of 14 within the meaning of section 667.61, subdivision (d)(7) (§ 667.61(d)(7)).

III. Jane's account

Jane was 22 years old when she testified at trial. A forensic interview of Jane was conducted in March 2018, when she was 17 years old. A video recording of that interview was played for the jury, and a transcript of the interview was admitted into evidence. There were some discrepancies between Jane's testimony and her interview.

At trial, Jane explained that she had lied about certain things during the forensic interview because Maria drove Jane to the interview and told Jane to lie.

Jane was in the sixth grade when Chavez moved in and began caring for her and John. She said that everything was fine for the first two months after he moved in. Then, one night when Jane was 12 years old, Chavez came into her bedroom while she was asleep. Jane awoke to find Chavez touching and rubbing her breasts and vagina over her clothing. When Jane described the incident to the interviewer, she referred to her body parts as her "boobies" and "the line." Jane pretended to be asleep throughout the encounter.

Approximately one week later, Chavez came back into Jane's bedroom at night. He touched Jane's vagina over her clothing, attempted to grab her breasts, and attempted to pull off her pajama pants. Jane told Chavez "[n]o" and pushed him. Chavez responded by hitting Jane on the back "really hard," knocking the wind out of her. Chavez then "just left the room."

The next time that Chavez came into Jane's bedroom and attempted to take off her clothes he was "a little more aggressive." Jane told Chavez "no" and tried "to fight back, but [she] didn't want to get beat up by [Chavez] again." Chavez removed Jane's pajama pants and attempted to put his penis in her vagina but was not successful.

Chavez returned to Jane's bedroom the next night and told her, "I'm just doing this so you could learn," by which he explained that he wanted her to "learn [for] the future." Jane responded, "I'm just a kid....I'm going to learn when I'm older. I'm not going to learn from a family member." Chavez "forced" Jane-"[h]e removed all of [her] clothes," "opened [her] legs," and put his penis in her vagina. Jane said that Chavez "went too hard," "continued and continued until he stopped," and hurt Jane. Chavez ejaculated inside of Jane. Jane was crying but tried to hold back her tears because she did not want Chavez to see her "weakest part," "get mad," and abuse her. Chavez "was like kind of smiling" and told Jane that she would be "in trouble" if she told anyone.

Jane said that after the first incident of successful penetration similar encounters occurred repeatedly and "a lot." Chavez inserted his penis into her vagina and ejaculated inside of her approximately three to four times per week, though he occasionally would not touch Jane for a period of about two weeks. Chavez wore a condom only once. Jane had to pretend that she "liked it" because otherwise Chavez would "get mad." In addition, Chavez touched Jane's breasts and vagina about four times per week, both over and under her clothing. Jane explained that the pattern-that several times per week Chavez touched her breasts and vagina, and put his penis inside of her, and ejaculated- started after Mother's Day 2012 and occurred throughout 2012 and 2013, through the beginning of 2014.

Jane started menstruating sometime in 2013. Her menstrual cycle was regular until sometime in 2014, when Jane noticed that she had not menstruated for a few months. She did not then know how babies were created, but she learned by doing online research at school to understand what was happening to her body. Jane felt the baby move inside her stomach and conducted further research about pregnancy.

Jane realized that she was pregnant when her stomach started getting big, when she was around five months pregnant. Jane masked her pregnancy by wearing John's t-shirts and sweatshirts. Chavez told Jane that she was pregnant and that it was "too late to do an abortion." When Jane was about seven to eight months pregnant and could no longer hide the pregnancy, Jane told Maria that she was pregnant. Chavez told Jane to lie to Maria about who had impregnated her, and Jane did. Once Jane told Maria that she was pregnant, Jane moved into Maria's house for the duration of the pregnancy, and Chavez stopped touching Jane.

The day after Jane told Maria about the pregnancy, Maria took Jane to see a gynecologist. Jane attended a total of three doctor's appointments before she gave birth to baby Doe. During the third appointment, the doctor told Jane that she had to go the emergency room "real fast, because the baby was already coming." Jane testified that the baby was "full term" when she was at the third doctor's appointment. An investigator from the district attorney's office testified that in April 2021 Jane told him that "she was full term when her baby was born" and that Chavez had started having sex with her when she was 13 years old.

In late November 2014-223 days (or seven months and nine days) after Jane's 14th birthday-Jane gave birth to baby Doe. Jane...