Court Opinion

ID: 9720174
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:19:02.238879+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:13.965732
License: Public Domain

HAMLIN, J.
I dissent from part I of Justice Martin’s opinion holding there was insufficient evidence to support the jury’s finding that defendant was guilty of nine counts of rape of Gypsy. This holding follows from the lead opinion’s conclusion that “there is no substantial evidence that defendant accomplished the acts of sexual intercourse by means of fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury.” (Ante, p. 328.) The majority could properly have arrived at that conclusion as to all the rape charges only if it deemed the unequivocal testimony of the victim to be not reasonable in nature, credible and of solid value when considered in light of the totality of the circumstances. (People v. Barnes (1986) 42 Cal.3d 284, 303-307 [228 Cal.Rptr. 228, 721 P.2d 110].)
In this case, the victim testified unequivocally she followed defendant’s directions and submitted to his sexual acts because she was afraid not to do so. She explained she feared what might happen to her mother, her stepfather or her. That testimony was necessarily evaluated by the jury in light of *345the testimony of the victim, defendant and others that defendant and the victim’s stepfather Karl had a fistfight in 1983. A six-year-old victim could readily have considered her uncle’s directions to her while he was babysitting her in her grandmother’s home were authoritative and, under all of the circumstances of this case, that resistance would have been useless and likely to result in bodily injury to her, her mother or her stepfather.
As our Supreme Court reminded us in People v. Huston (1943) 21 Cal.2d 690, 693 [134 P.2d 758], disapproved on another point in People v. Burton (1961) 55 Cal.2d 328, 352 [11 Cal.Rptr. 65, 359 P.2d 433]: “Although an appellate court will not uphold a judgment or verdict based upon evidence inherently improbable, testimony which merely discloses unusual circumstances does not come within that category. [Citation.] To warrant the rejection of the statements given by a witness who has been believed by a trial court, there must exist either a physical impossibility that they are true, or their falsity must be apparent without resorting to inferences or deductions. [Citations.] Conflicts and even testimony which is subject to justifiable suspicion do not justify the reversal of a judgment, for it is the exclusive province of the trial judge or jury to determine the credibility of a witness and the truth or falsity of the facts upon which a determination depends. [Citation.]” (Cited with approval in People v. Barnes, supra, 42 Cal.3d at p. 306.)
Thus, I cannot agree with the lead opinion’s holding that there is “no evidence in this record from which the jury could have reasonably concluded that defendant committed any rape of Gypsy by means of fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury.” (Ante, p. 329.)
 I concur in the remainder of Justice Martin’s lead opinion. I would reverse the judgment and remand for new trial on all counts.