Opinion ID: 2832196
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Child Endangerment Convictions

Text: California Penal Code section 273a(a) defines child endangerment as follows: Any person who, under circumstances or conditions likely to produce great bodily harm or death, wilfully causes or permits any child to suffer, or inflicts thereon unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering, or having the care or custody of any child, willfully causes or permits the person or health of that child to be injured, or willfully causes or permits that child to be placed in a situation where his or her person or health is endangered, shall be punished . . . . Child endangerment “can occur in a wide variety of situations: the definition broadly includes both active and passive conduct, i.e., child abuse by direct assault and child endangering by extreme neglect.” People v. Valdez, 27 Cal. 4th 778, 784 (2002). This statute is “intended to protect a child from an abusive situation in which the probability of serious injury is great,” but there is no requirement that great bodily injury actually result. Id. Creech’s primary argument regarding the child endangerment convictions is that it is harder to prove “great bodily harm or death” than it is to prove the elements of assault, which he maintains the prosecution failed to do. As we rejected his challenge to the firearm assault convictions, this argument does nothing to advance his challenge to the child endangerment convictions. Additionally, Creech argues that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the bird shot 16 CREECH V. FRAUENHEIM could have penetrated the house to reach the children. As with the assault charges, it was not necessary to prove that the children were actually injured; all that the prosecution had to establish was a likelihood of great bodily harm. We agree with the court of appeal that the evidence was sufficient to establish this element of the offense. As the state court explained, the prosecution was not required to offer evidence that the pellets could have penetrated Sofia’s or Zachary’s skin. Sofia was “in the study when Creech shot out its sevenfoot wide window.” As to Zachary, the jury could “reasonably infer that [he] could have been seriously injured had one of the shotgun blasts broken the sidelight window of the front door.” Thus, we conclude that it was neither contrary to nor an unreasonable application of clearly established Supreme Court law for the court of appeal to conclude that there was sufficient evidence for a rational factfinder to convict Creech of child endangerment.