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Filed 1/6/21 P. v. Spear CA1/1

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or 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

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

THE PEOPLE,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

BILLY SPEAR,

Defendant and Appellant.

 A158302

 (Lake County

 Super. Ct. No. CR952216)

Billy Spear was committed to the Department of State Hospitals for an 

indefinite term after a jury found him to be a sexually violent predator (SVP) 

within the meaning of the Sexually Violent Predators Act (SVPA).1 On 

appeal, he contends that his commitment cannot stand because there was 

insufficient evidence that his diagnosed mental disorder predisposes him to 

commit sexually violent crimes. We affirm.

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL

BACKGROUND

Spear has schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, which is “a

combination of a mood disorder with psychosis.” In particular, he

1 Welfare and Institutions Code, section 6600 et sequitur. All further 

statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code unless 

otherwise noted.
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“experiences mania . . . mixed with auditory or visual hallucinations and 

delusion.” He began showing symptoms of the disorder in the early 1990’s, 

when he was in his twenties. 

The “sexually violent offense” qualifying Spear as an SVP occurred in

Sonoma County in 2010. Spear followed a female stranger on the street and, 

when she stopped at a crosswalk, he “smiled at her and said ‘pussy.’ ” He 

also called her “Daphne,” an “apparent reference to a female character in the 

Scooby Doo cartoon.” She tried to walk away from him, but he “grabbed” her, 

pushed her against a fence, and “was fondling and groping her” as she 

resisted. At one point, he “pushed on her vagina and slightly inserted his 

finger in her vagina” through her clothes. 

As a result of this incident, Spear was convicted of genital penetration 

under Penal Code section 289, subdivision (a)(1), and sentenced to three 

years in prison. After serving this term, he was found to be a mentally 

disordered offender and returned to a state hospital for treatment. He was 

paroled in 2014 but failed to register as a sex offender, and he quickly

returned to prison. 

A few months after Spear was again paroled, in mid-2016, a woman

was riding a bus in Lake County when Spear boarded and “kept trying to talk 

to [her]” as she ignored him. Spear then sat by her and “lunge[d] at [her] and 

tried to kiss [her]” but did not actually touch her. As a result of this incident, 

he was convicted of false imprisonment under Penal Code section 236 and 

sentenced to four years in prison. 

In November 2018, shortly before Spear was due to be paroled, the 

People filed a petition seeking Spear’s indefinite commitment to a state 

hospital as an SVP. The trial court found probable cause existed for the 

commitment, and a jury trial was held in August 2019. At trial, evidence was 
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presented about several of Spear’s other crimes in addition to the 2010 

genital penetration and the 2016 false imprisonment.

In 1994, while “in a psychotic state,” Spear stabbed his mother and her 

dog. He was charged with attempted murder but found not guilty by reason 

of insanity, and he spent the next few years in a state hospital receiving 

treatment. 

Over a decade later, in 2007, Spear approached a woman who was in 

her car near an ATM in Butte County. After asking her whether she had a 

boyfriend and telling her she was pretty, Spear forced his way into the car 

and “[got] on top of her,” putting his hand on her thigh. Spear was charged 

with carjacking, but he was ultimately convicted only of misdemeanor battery 

under Penal Code section 242. 

In 2009, Spear beat up a homeless woman in San Francisco. He told 

the police that “he thought that maybe it was an undercover police officer and 

it was really a male.” Spear was convicted of battery with serious bodily 

injury under Penal Code section 243, subdivision (d). 

In addition, three female correctional officers testified about incidents 

that occurred shortly after Spear was jailed in early 2010 for the genital 

penetration. First, when Spear was being booked, he motioned for one of the

officers to approach, “pulled out his penis[,] and started masturbating” while 

saying “[t]hat he was going to get at [her] or get [her].” He was also “making 

these very disturbing facial gestures like sticking his tongue out and wagging 

his tongue back and forth.” On another occasion, when the same officer 

opened a food port to deliver breakfast, Spear “placed his penis on the food 

port and then continue[d] to masturbate” and say “he was going to get [her] 

and . . . that [she] like[d] it, that [she] want[ed] it.” 
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Second, another officer testified that when she opened a food port to 

deliver dinner, Spear “was standing in the doorway right at the food port 

masturbating” and “kind of leering at [her].” He did not stop when she 

ordered him to do so. 

Finally, a third officer testified that on one occasion Spear called her 

over to his cell. When she approached, he was masturbating and “thrusting 

his hips” while “his eyes look[ed] at [her] and his mouth was doing this 

thing.” He did not stop when she told him to do so, and he again

masturbated and tried to make eye contact with her when she did her rounds 

later that night. Spear was charged with indecent exposure as a result of the 

incidents in jail, but he was found incompetent to stand trial. 

Four psychologists testified as experts at the SVP trial: Drs. Charles 

Flinton, Robert Owen, Shoba Sreenivasan, and Christopher North. All four 

experts agreed that Spear had schizoaffective disorder and posed an aboveaverage risk of sexually reoffending if released. Drs. Flinton, Owen, and 

Sreenivasan opined that Spear’s schizoaffective disorder made him likely to

engage in sexually violent behavior, but Dr. North disagreed. Accepting the

opinion of the first three experts, the jury found that Spear was an SVP, and 

the trial court ordered him committed to a state hospital for an indefinite 

term. 

II.

DISCUSSION

A. General Legal Standards

To support a person’s commitment under the SVPA, the People must 

prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person is an SVP. (§ 6604.) This 

requires a jury or court to find that the person has been convicted of a 

sexually violent offense against at least one victim and has a “diagnosed 

mental disorder that makes [him or her] a danger to the health and safety of 
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others in that it is likely that he or she will engage in sexually violent 

criminal behavior” if released from custody. (§ 6600, subd. (a)(1); People v. 

Yates (2018) 25 Cal.App.5th 474, 477.) A “ ‘[d]iagnosed mental disorder’ 

includes a congenital or acquired condition affecting the emotional or 

volitional capacity that predisposes the person to the commission of criminal 

sexual acts in a degree constituting the person a menace to the health and 

safety of others.” (§ 6600, subd. (c).)

We review a person’s commitment as an SVP for substantial evidence. 

(People v. Poulsom (2013) 213 Cal.App.4th 501, 518.) “ ‘Under this standard,

[we] “must review the whole record in the light most favorable to the 

judgment below to determine whether it discloses substantial evidence—that 

is, evidence which is reasonable, credible, and of solid value—such that a 

reasonable trier of fact could find [the person is an SVP] beyond a reasonable 

doubt.” ’ ” (Ibid.)

B. There Was Substantial Evidence that Spear’s Mental Disorder 

Predisposed Him to Engage in Sexually Violent Behavior.

1. Additional background

We begin by discussing in more detail the expert testimony about 

whether Spear’s schizoaffective disorder predisposed him to engage in 

sexually violent behavior. The experts generally agreed that the disorder 

hindered Spear’s ability to manage his behavior and impulses. This was 

especially evident because Spear was “unable to control his behavior despite 

repeatedly experiencing negative legal and [other] consequences,” and he 

acted out even “in a very structured locked setting.” Although the symptoms 

of schizoaffective disorder can be managed with medication, Spear admitted, 

and his record confirmed, that he did not consistently take his medication. 

Indeed, he was not on medication during any of the crimes described, with

the exception of the 2016 false imprisonment. Dr. Owen observed that “this 
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is a man who either doesn’t completely respond well to his medications or 

doesn’t consistently take them and some of these psychotic symptoms 

appear.” 

In addition, while schizoaffective disorder “does [not] necessarily entail 

a propensity to commit sex crimes,” Dr. Flinton testified that Spear’s disorder 

“manifests in sexually violent behavior.” The psychologist explained that “in 

this particular case, there’s a clear pattern . . . [of] hostility towards women. 

[Spear] has delusions and thoughts about them and inability to control 

himself. And a script is acted out with making comments to women, ignoring 

their resistance, and pursuing them despite the consequences and . . . the 

suffering to the victim.” 

Similarly, Dr. Owen opined that Spear’s “problems fall into two 

categories[,] . . . violence or sex.” The psychologist observed that Spear’s most 

recent crimes—the carjacking, the genital penetration, the indecent 

exposures, and the false imprisonment—“all had sexual elements. So . . . his 

poor self-control now seems to affect his sexual impulses. And these crimes 

were very impulsive, and they were sexual, and he was very out of control.” 

And Dr. Sreenivasan testified that Spear’s disorder “has rendered him 

psychotic and hypersexual at various times, and under episodes of psychosis, 

he acts out. And the energy of hypersexuality that the bipolar piece adds, he 

acts out in a sexually[]assaultive manner towards females.” 

Dr. North, in contrast, opined that “if the schizoaffective [disorder] 

really . . . predisposed [Spear] to commit sex crimes, we would have much 

more evidence of arrests for sex offenses and for sexually[]violent offenses

over the 30 years that he suffered with [the] disorder than we have.” 

Although Spear “gets psychotic, and he becomes inappropriate, and he 
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becomes aggressive at times with women,” Dr. North believed his behavior 

“f[e]ll short of what we normally have in . . . [SVP] cases.” 

2. Analysis

Spear claims that there was insufficient evidence that his mental 

disorder “predisposes him to commit sexually violent predatory criminal acts, 

as opposed to random criminal acts of all sorts.” While he admits that “it is 

likely that [he] might commit either a sexually[]motivated, or sexually 

inappropriate, or violent act in the future,” he argues that since “[t]he 

evidence presented consisted of crimes that were either sexual or violent, but 

not both,” there was no showing that he was a “sexually violent predator” 

within the meaning of section 6600. 

To begin with, section 6600 plainly requires that a person have been 

convicted of only one “sexually violent offense” to qualify as an SVP. (§ 6600, 

subd. (a)(1).) Spear does not contest that the 2010 genital penetration 

qualified as a sexually violent offense. (See § 6600, subds. (a)(2)(A), (b).) 

Although “[c]onviction of one or more crimes enumerated in [section 6600] . . .

shall not be the sole basis for the determination” that a person is an SVP

(§ 6600, subd. (a)(3)), this provision does not mean that such a determination

requires evidence of more than one qualifying offense, as Spear seems to 

suggest. Rather, it means merely that a jury may not determine that a 

person is an SVP solely “based on prior offenses,” as there must also be

“relevant evidence of a currently diagnosed mental disorder that makes the 

person a danger to the health and safety of others in that it is likely that he 

or she will engage in sexually violent criminal behavior.” (§ 6600, 

subd. (a)(3).)

Nor can we agree with Spear’s implication that a person must have 

committed multiple sexually violent offenses in order to be found likely to 
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commit such offenses in the future. We will assume that, with the exception 

of the 2010 genital penetration, none of his crimes qualified as a “sexually 

violent offense” under section 6600. But several of them involved both sexual 

and violent components, and expert testimony specifically linked this 

criminal behavior to his mental disorder. Indeed, there was ample evidence 

that Spear’s disorder impeded his ability to control his behavior, especially 

when, as was often the case, he failed to take his medication. The fact that 

Spear’s uncontrolled behavior was simultaneously aggressive and sexual on 

several occasions, even if only one of his crimes rose to the level of a “sexually 

violent offense,” provided a sufficient basis to conclude that his mental 

disorder predisposed him to commit sexually violent crimes if released.

Finally, we reject Spear’s cursory claim that “the State failed to provide 

evidence that [he] is any kind of ‘predator,’ sexual or otherwise.” 

Section 6600 defines “predatory” as describing “an act directed toward a 

stranger, a person of casual acquaintance with whom no substantial 

relationship exists, or an individual with whom a relationship has been 

established or promoted for the primary purpose of victimization.” (§ 6600, 

subd. (e).) With the exception of Spear’s attack on his mother, the described

crimes were committed against strangers, making them classic “predatory” 

offenses. 

III.

DISPOSITION

The judgment is affirmed.
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_________________________

Humes, P.J.

WE CONCUR:

_________________________

Margulies, J.

_________________________

Sanchez, J.

People v. Spear A158302