Opinion ID: 1801680
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sufficiency of Evidence for Attempted Lewd or Lascivious Act on a Child

Text: Defendant contends the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction for attempting to commit a lewd or lascivious act upon Polly and the jury's special circumstance finding that he killed Polly while attempting to commit such an act. To determine the sufficiency of evidence to support a conviction or a special circumstance, an appellate court reviews the entire record in the light most favorable to the prosecution to determine whether it contains evidence that is reasonable, credible, and of solid value, from which a rational trier of fact could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. ( People v. Kipp (2001) 26 Cal.4th 1100, 1128 [113 Cal.Rptr.2d 27, 33 P.3d 450]; see also People v. Tafoya (2007) 42 Cal.4th 147, 170 [64 Cal.Rptr.3d 163, 164 P.3d 590].) Where, as here, the jury's findings rest to some degree upon circumstantial evidence, we must decide whether the circumstances reasonably justify those findings, `but our opinion that the circumstances also might reasonably be reconciled with a contrary finding' does not render the evidence insubstantial. ( People v. Earp (1999) 20 Cal.4th 826, 887-888 [85 Cal.Rptr.2d 857, 978 P.2d 15], quoting People v. Proctor (1992) 4 Cal.4th 499, 528-529 [15 Cal.Rptr.2d 340, 842 P.2d 1100].) (30) The crime of a lewd or lascivious act upon a child requires a touching of a child under the age of 14 with the specific intent of arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions, or sexual desires (§ 288, subd. (a)) of the defendant or the child. (31) An attempt to commit a crime has two elements: the intent to commit the crime and a direct ineffectual act done toward its commission. ( People v. Carpenter (1997) 15 Cal.4th 312, 387 [63 Cal.Rptr.2d 1, 935 P.2d 708].) For purposes of an attempt, [s]pecific intent may be, and usually must be, inferred from circumstantial evidence. ( People v. Cole (1985) 165 Cal.App.3d 41, 48 [211 Cal.Rptr. 242].) Evidence of prior crimes is probative of a person's intent on a later occasion. ( People v. Carpenter, supra, 15 Cal.4th at p. 379.) When a defendant's intent is `clearly shown, slight acts done in furtherance of that design will constitute an attempt, and the courts should not destroy the practical and common-sense administration of the law with subtleties as to what constitutes preparation and what constitutes an act done toward the commission of a crime.' ( People v. Memro (1985) 38 Cal.3d 658, 698 [214 Cal.Rptr. 832, 700 P.2d 446].) Here, evidence of defendant's preparation before kidnapping Polly, coupled with his prior history of sexual assaults on women, strongly indicates his intent to commit a lewd and lascivious act against Polly. Moreover, the absence of any prior relationship with Polly or any financial motive for abducting her points to a single conclusion: that defendant's crimes were sexually motivated. Witnesses saw defendant in Polly's neighborhood in the weeks before the crime; and just hours before her abduction, a witness saw defendant in Polly's neighborhood driving past the park on Polly's street corner about the time when Polly and her friend Gillian walked to the local market and played outside Polly's home. Thus, the jury reasonably could infer that defendant had been stalking Polly well in advance of his crimes. Defendant broke into Polly's home carrying prepared bindings and restraints. The bindings he used to tie up Polly and her friends and the cloth he used to strangle Polly had been previously cut in his car from the same piece of silky cloth, which might have originally been an article of women's lingerie or a nightgown. The peculiar cloth hood restraint, found near the Pythian Road site where defendant's car had become stuck in a ditch, not only was cut from the same silky material as the precut bindings, but it was so intricately shaped and knotted that the jury reasonably could infer that defendant prepared it in advance. Defendant's prior assaults against Frost and Frances M., and Dr. Dietz's testimony concerning paraphilia and cordophilia, further illuminated the purpose of these bindings and permitted the jury to conclude that defendant had planned the burglary and kidnapping and acted with a sexual motivation. In addition, the state of Polly's clothing evidenced a sexual purpose. Although she was still wearing her bra and panties, her pink shirt top had been untied, and her skirt was inverted around her with the nightgown pulled up, revealing her legs and lower torso. Defendant argues that the pulled-up clothing was caused by animal activity, as her skeleton was missing bones from the torso area. This theory is inconsistent, however, with the pictures of Polly's body at the Dutcher Creek location showing that the skirt was pulled up and inverted under her arms, which were folded across her lap. And defendant's theory is also inconsistent with eyewitness testimony that the nightgown was similarly pulled up. The position of Polly's arms makes it unlikely that animal activity was able to evenly invert her clothing and suggests that defendant pulled up and inverted the clothing when he placed her there. In addition, pathologist Dr. Chapman suggested that Polly's legs had been purposefully spread apart; he would not have expected both legs to be in that position if the body had been haphazardly thrown there. Aside from the physical evidence, there were statements by defendant indicative of an effort to hide sexual conduct with Polly at the Pythian Road site near Dana Jaffe's home. He first said he left none of his clothes on Jaffe's hillside, claiming he discarded his sweatshirt and the bindings while driving back to San Mateo. When Sergeant Meese told him the police had found his sweatshirt on Jaffe's property, defendant expressed surprise, hesitated, and then began to repeat that he didn't do nothin' to her on the hill. Defendant also initially denied going back up the hill after his roadside encounter with Shannon Lynch, but when Meese confronted him with Dana Jaffe's claim that she did not see defendant on the roadside when she drove down her private road about 20 minutes after defendant's encounter with Lynch, defendant admitted going back up the hill and blurted out, I didn't do it to her, man. Finally, despite having recalled the details of his encounter with the sheriff's deputies who pulled him out of the ditch, defendant suddenly claimed lapses of memory and gave equivocal answers when asked if he had sexually assaulted Polly. Defendant said that, if he did, he blocked it out of his mind, and that If I did anything to her, I don't want to know. Given that defendant also said that a sexual assault on Polly would be a hard one to admit to and had repeatedly expressed concern about being labeled as a child molester in prison, it was reasonable to assume that defendant, while confessing to Polly's murder, was determined to avoid admitting the sexual offense against her. Accordingly, the evidence amply supported the offense and special circumstance of an attempted lewd or lascivious act upon Polly.