People v. Dhillon

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. BEANT KAUR DHILLON, Defendant and Appellant.

F082484

California Court of Appeals, Fifth District

February 23, 2023

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Kern County, No BF175768A Kenneth C. Twisselman II, Judge.

Cliff Gardner and Daniel Buffington, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Louis M. Vasquez, Amanda D. Cary and William K. Kim Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

MEEHAN, J.

INTRODUCTION

This case stems from the death of an infant born to defendant Beant Kaur Dhillon's 15-year-old daughter Jane, who gave birth alone in a bathroom of her family's home. After discovery of the infant's body buried behind the family's house, defendant was accused of drowning the child and failing to seek medical assistance for Jane after she gave birth. Defendant was convicted by jury of first degree murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a); count 1),^[1] assault on a child (the baby) under the age of eight years resulting in death by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury (§ 273ab, subd. (a); count 2); and willful harm, injury or endangerment of a child (Jane) (§ 273a subd. (a); count 3). The trial court sentenced defendant to a determinate term of four years on count 3, followed by a consecutive indeterminate term of 25 years to life on count 1. The court imposed a term of 25 years to life on count 2, which was stayed under section 654.

At trial, a forensic pathologist opined the infant's cause of death was drowning based solely on defendant's confession to police. Defense counsel failed to object to this testimony, and we agree with defendant that this constituted ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC). We conclude, however, there is no reasonable probability that, but for the admission of this opinion testimony, the result of the proceeding would have been different. (Strickland v. Washington (1984) 466 U.S. 668, 687 (Strickland).) Additionally, finding no instructional error and concluding there is substantial evidence to support the jury's verdict on count 2, we affirm.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Defendant and her late husband, Jagsir, were both born in India; they came to the United States separately. Defendant originally came to the United States with her first husband, whom she divorced after three months of marriage in 1999 because he was addicted to drugs, and his father abused defendant. Defendant then married Jagsir in 2002 and, while living in New York, they had two children: eldest daughter Jane and younger son J.S. Although defendant obtained permanent resident status, Jagsir was unable to achieve legal status in the United States. Defendant had received nursing training in India and worked as a certified nursing assistant after her marriage to Jagsir. By all accounts, Jagsir was physically and emotionally abusive to defendant and the children, and defendant tried to leave him on several occasions, once driving from New York to Indiana with the children after Jagsir had beaten her. Due to the stress and abuse in the household, Jane started cutting herself, became depressed and attempted suicide in 2016 when she was 13 years old. Also by 2016, defendant's nephew Bakshinder and defendant's parents were living with the family in New York.

In November 2016, the family moved to Bakersfield, California, along with Bakshinder and defendant's parents; another nephew of defendant's named P. was also living with them in California. In January 2017, Bakshinder, who was about 23 or 24 years old at the time, began molesting 14-year-old Jane, and Jane became pregnant in 2018. Jane and Bakshinder visited an abortion clinic in the summer of 2018 where an ultrasound was performed but, by Jane's account, when they returned for a second appointment, Jane's pregnancy was too advanced for an abortion. The clinic's managing physician indicated Jane was seen for a second time on July 10, 2018, at 17.6 weeks along, but the clinic performs abortions until 19 weeks and five days.

On November 12, 2018, after experiencing labor pains since the previous day, Jane locked herself in the family's upstairs bathroom, filled the bathtub with a few inches of water, and delivered the baby by herself in the bathtub. According to Jane, she pulled the umbilical cord from the placenta, wrapped the baby in a shawl, and laid down on the floor with the baby. She did not drain the bathtub water. She later told police she tied the cord in a knot, but at trial could not remember doing so. The baby was crying and Jane unsuccessfully attempted to nurse him. By this time, defendant, Jane's mother, was knocking on the bathroom door and managed to get inside. At trial, Jane described seeing Bakshinder and her mother in the bathroom when the door was opened and her mother asking about the identity of the baby's father, but she could not recall telling her mother she had been raped. She could not recall who picked up the baby; she thought perhaps it was her mother, but conceded it could have been Bakshinder. After he was taken from her, Jane remembered hearing the baby crying as though he were being taken out of the bathroom and down the stairs. She did not see her mother or anyone else do anything to the baby. The next thing Jane remembered was being taken to the shower in her mother's bedroom by either her mother or her grandmother, and then she got into her mother's bed.

Jane's father, who typically worked until 2:00 a.m., returned to the house at some point, and Jane could hear her parents talking although not what they were saying. Jane never had any specific conversation with anyone the next day about what had happened; she was never taken to the doctor nor was she asked if she wanted to go; other than her mother and grandmother, no one attended to her; and her parents told her not to say anything about what had happened because it would be a "big embarrassment" and would bring shame to the family. Bakshinder later told Jane the baby was given up for adoption, which she chose to believe. Ultimately, the baby died that night and was buried in the backyard of the family's home.

On February 26, 2019, Jagsir became irate with Jane and, in front of Jane's brother J.S., told Jane the baby had died, and it was buried in the backyard. Jane went to school, but she was very upset and told a counselor that her father had threatened her. The counselor called the police, and officers responded to Jane's school. Jane told officers about her father's threats, but when they said she might still have to return home, she told them about the baby.

According to responding officers, Jane told them she had a baby in 2018 and, while she had been told the baby was adopted, she believed it might be buried in the backyard of her home; she identified the baby's father only as a boy from school. Jane said she had delivered the baby alone in a bathroom at her home; after the delivery, there was blood everywhere and the baby started crying. Jane said she screamed for help, but no one came, and she passed out. She awoke in her grandmother's bed, and the baby was gone. She said her brother told her the baby was buried in the backyard.

Officers also questioned J.S. at his school. J.S. told them when the baby was born, Jane was in the bathroom for a long time, and when their mother opened the bathroom door, J.S. saw Jane's feet and a lot of blood and he fainted. J.S. mentioned he heard a baby crying, but did not see one. At some point in time, J.S.'s mother had told him the sound of a baby crying was from her cell phone. When J.S. awoke after fainting, he was in his grandmother's bed, and his cousin P. told him the baby had been taken to a fire station and adopted. He also reported that when he awoke from fainting and was in his grandmother's bedroom, he saw his mother carrying a heavy-appearing garbage bag down the stairs. J.S. did not see where the bag was taken, but he thought it was taken into the backyard. He said Jane told him about the backyard, and he believed the pregnancy occurred because Jane had been raped.

Officers then interviewed defendant at home. Defendant described discovering that Jane had locked herself in the bathroom, defendant opened the bathroom door with a key, and saw a lot of blood. Defendant denied hearing the baby cry before she opened the bathroom door. When defendant asked Jane what had happened, Jane said someone had raped her in the locker room at school, and she showed defendant the baby under the sink. Defendant said the baby was not crying, breathing or moving; he appeared white and bluish in color, and he was dead. Defendant did not see how developed the baby was, but Jane said she was eight months along. Defendant indicated the baby was buried in the backyard, and she had placed him there. Jane refused to go to the hospital, although she was bleeding badly. Defendant told her husband what had happened, but together they could not get Jane to reveal any other details about the baby's father, and defendant said she doubted Jane's allegation of rape because she had lied to them in the past. After interviews at the family home were concluded, the case was turned over to homicide detectives, and defendant, Jagsir, Jane and J.S. were taken to the police station and questioned again.

Police personnel exhumed the infant's body in the backyard that afternoon. Upon digging approximately two feet down into a mound of soil that appeared more raised than surrounding areas, a salt-like substance was discovered. After a bit more digging, the baby's body was discovered; it was not...