THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. DANIEL CAUDILLO, Defendant and Appellant.
Crim. No. 19805
Supreme Court of California
June 23, 1978
21 Cal.3d 562 | 146 Cal. Rptr. 859 | 580 P.2d 274
COUNSEL
F. Elaine Easley, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.
Wilbur F. Littlefield, Public Defender (Los Angeles), Harold E. Shabo and G. Keith Wisot, Deputy Public Defenders, as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant.
Evelle J. Younger, Attorney General, Jack R. Winkler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, S. Clark Moore, Assistant Attorney General, William R. Pounders and Michael Nash, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
John K. Van de Kamp, District Attorney (Los Angeles), Harry B. Sondheim, Donald J. Kaplan and Eugene D. Tavris, Deputy District Attorneys, as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.
OPINION
JEFFERSON, J.*—As charged in a six-count information, a jury found defendant Daniel Caudillo guilty of the crimes of kidnaping (
Defendant was sentenced to state prison for each offense. The sentences for kidnaping, robbery, rape, sodomy and oral copulation were ordered to run concurrently with the burglary sentence. With the exception of the burglary sentence, all the sentences were stayed, pending determination of any appeal as to the burglary conviction, the stays to become permanent upon completion of service of the burglary term.
Defendant appeals from the judgment. His contentions all relate to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the judgment and findings. He first claims that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction of any offense, a claim patently without merit. He also contends, and we agree, that the evidence adduced below of the movement of the victim was not of sufficient proportions to support the kidnaping conviction. Defendant makes a third contention, with which we agree—that there was insufficient evidence to support the jury‘s finding that, in the course of commission of the burglary, with intent to do so, he inflicted great bodily injury upon Maria, the occupant of the burglarized premises. We modify the judgment accordingly.
Due to the nature of the issues raised on this appeal, we set forth in some detail the evidence adduced below.
On May 2, 1975, Maria was sharing with Catherine a second-floor apartment in a large apartment complex in Montebello. Early in the morning on this date, after Catherine had left the apartment to go to work, Maria took the elevator to the subterranean garage where her car was parked. There she discovered that a tire on her vehicle was flat; she returned to the elevator intending to go to her apartment and summon help.
As she reached the second floor, the elevator stopped and the door opened. A man, later identified by Maria as defendant, jumped into the elevator and pushed her against the elevator wall, covering her mouth with one hand and pressing a carving knife to her throat. Maria was
Defendant immediately asked Maria if she had seen him. He cautioned her to be very quiet and, when the elevator door opened again, took her to a small windowless storage room beside the elevator on the second floor. The storage room was located between the elevator and Maria‘s apartment. Defendant was holding the knife so close to Maria‘s throat that she sustained a slight cut to her throat. Maria tried to pull the knife away from her throat and, in the process, cut two of her fingers. At one point, defendant held the knife to the back of Maria‘s neck—causing a laceration to her neck.
Defendant again asked Maria if she had seen him. In fear of further injury, Maria assured defendant that she had not, although she remembered seeing him on April 13, 1975, at the apartment house pool; defendant had stared at her on that occasion, and had offered her his pool chair. Sometime later she had seen him in the apartment complex parking lot, working on an automobile.
While they were in the storage room, defendant removed Maria‘s glasses and never returned them. He asked her if anyone was in her apartment; she said no. Defendant told her that as soon as everyone had left for work he would take her there. While they waited, defendant ordered Maria to raise her dress; she did so, reluctantly, and defendant rubbed his hands against her backside. He also asked Maria how much money she had.
Maria testified that defendant kept her in the storage room for approximately 20 minutes. Then, pressing the knife in Maria‘s back, defendant moved her down the hall from the storage room to her apartment,2 where Maria was compelled to open the door. She was pushed inside and blindfolded. After taking her to the bedrooms, defendant led her to the living room, where Maria heard him unzip his pants. He ordered her to undress. Defendant allowed Maria to keep on her panties, pantyhose and shoes; he directed her to “[t]urn around slowly.” Then defendant, seated on the living room sofa, pulled Maria toward him, pushed her to her knees and inserted his penis in Maria‘s
Defendant compelled Maria to stand, and inserted his fingers in her vagina. He asked her if she could get pregnant; she said she did not think so. Defendant then raped the victim.
Defendant asked Maria if she had a boyfriend. He said: “You better not lie to me. I know everything about you. I know what time you leave for work and I know what time you get home. I have seen you from afar and I have admired you for a long time.” Maria stated that she had a boyfriend. Defendant wanted to know if Maria and her boyfriend engaged in sexual activity; Maria did not answer.
Defendant then inserted his penis in Maria‘s rectum. Maria pulled away, telling defendant she was going to be sick. Maria had diarrhea, and evacuated her bowels twice. Defendant kept insisting that Maria satisfy him.
Defendant again forced Maria to orally copulate him; she gagged and spit. He returned to the theme of whether or not she had recognized him; she continued to tell him she had not.
Defendant raped Maria for the second time, but could not ejaculate. He again forced her to orally copulate him, and ejaculated in Maria‘s mouth; Maria gagged, spit and vomited. Still not content, defendant again inserted his penis in Maria‘s mouth, wiping away his victim‘s vomit.
Finally, defendant pushed Maria to the center of Catherine‘s bed; Maria was still blindfolded, although loosely. He left the bedroom, returning several times to bring Maria her clothes, purse and wallet. He threw the wallet at her, and ordered her to sit up. Through the blindfold, she examined the wallet; money was missing. Defendant demanded more money, and Maria found more in the wallet, which she gave him. Defendant took it, saying “I‘ll owe it to you.” He told her not to report his sexual attack upon her to anyone. “If you do report it to anyone it will be embarrassing for you only,” said defendant. He threatened to kill her if she told anyone. Thereupon defendant departed, taking $60 of Maria‘s money with him.
Maria lay on the bed for about 30 minutes, with the blindfold still over her eyes. She was afraid to get up. She finally did so, and searched the
Detective Carranza arrived and interviewed Maria. He showed her some mugshots, but defendant‘s picture was not among them. Later, Maria was able to identify defendant from looking at another group of photographs which included that of defendant. Maria‘s roommate, Catherine, also selected defendant‘s picture as the person who had approached Maria at the apartment house pool on April 13, 1975.
Dr. J. Richard Marshall testified that on the late afternoon of May 2, 1975, he was employed at the emergency care center at Beverly Hospital, Montebello, and examined Maria there. She was very upset, was weeping and agitated. He found what he described as two superficial knife cuts on Maria‘s neck, cuts which did not require suturing. He also found no visible injury, laceration or hematoma of the sexual organs or of the anus. Dr. Marshall took a slide which, after being analyzed, revealed that semen had been present in the victim‘s vaginal vault. He prescribed a mild tranquilizer, and Maria was discharged.
Defendant‘s defense was an alibi. He admitted visiting the victim‘s apartment building to see friends, but claimed that the charges against him were the result of Maria‘s mistaken identification.
I
Sufficiency of the Evidence to Identify Defendant as the Perpetrator of the Charged Offenses
Defendant attacks the sufficiency of Maria‘s testimony to identify him as the perpetrator of the various offenses committed against her, claiming that her powers of observation were poor and without corroboration, and that her testimony is insufficient to sustain defendant‘s conviction of any offense.
“This court must view the evidence in a light most favorable to respondent and presume in support of the judgment the existence of every fact the trier could reasonably deduce from the evidence. . . . The test on appeal is whether there is substantial evidence to support the
We note that “[i]n California conviction of a sex crime may be sustained upon the uncorroborated testimony of the prosecutrix. [Citations.]” (Ballard v. Superior Court (1966) 64 Cal.2d 159, 171 [49 Cal.Rptr. 302, 410 P.2d 838, 18 A.L.R.3d 1416].) Under present law, no special burden is placed upon such a prosecutrix, unshared by other witnesses in a criminal case, insofar as offering proof of the crime is concerned. (People v. Rincon-Pineda (1975) 14 Cal.3d 864 [123 Cal.Rptr. 119, 538 P.2d 247].) Any “[c]onfusion, or lack of clarity and positiveness in a witness’ identification testimony goes to [its] weight, . . .” (People v. Rist (1976) 16 Cal.3d 211, 216 [127 Cal.Rptr. 457, 545 P.2d 833].)
A review of Maria‘s testimony, including her identification of defendant as her attacker, establishes her testimony as “evidence that reasonably inspires confidence and is ‘of solid value.‘” (Redmond, supra, 71 Cal.2d 745, 756.) Maria‘s split-second recognition of defendant as he jumped into the elevator was based upon the fact that she had encountered him twice before around the building where she lived within several weeks prior to the date of the attack—a relatively short period of time. Under this circumstance, her fleeting observation of him before he stepped behind her did not dispel the certainty of her identification. His subsequent efforts to avoid that identification, by removing her glasses and blindfolding her were to no avail, due to the initial recognition. It is true that witnesses testified that they heard Maria explain to Detective Carranza that her assailant moved so swiftly she barely had time to see him; however, these witnesses also testified that when Maria was interviewed after the rape, she stated she had seen this individual before. In addition, Maria‘s testimony was supported by that of Catherine, who also selected defendant‘s picture from a group of photographs as the person who had, on a prior occasion, had approached Maria at the apartment‘s pool when Catherine was present.
There was nothing inherently incredible in Maria‘s detailed description of the sexual abuse to which she was subjected. Her testimony was largely unshaken by cross-examination. (Cf. People v. Headlee (1941) 18 Cal.2d 266 [115 P.2d 427]; People v. Carvalho (1952) 112 Cal.App.2d 482 [246 P.2d 950].) The alleged discrepancies complained of by defendant were minor in nature: a variation of 10 seconds in the time Maria observed
II
Sufficiency of the Evidence to Sustain the Conviction of Kidnaping
Defendant contends, and we agree, that the forcible taking of Maria for some unspecified distance from the elevator to the storage room, and from the storage room to her apartment, was not substantial movement within the meaning of
It is significant that the definition of the offense of kidnaping set forth in
The asportations involved in Stanworth and Stender, however, are to be compared with those found in cases such as People v. Thornton (1974) 11 Cal.3d 738 [114 Cal.Rptr. 467, 523 P.2d 267], People v. Brown (1974) 11 Cal.3d 784 [114 Cal.Rptr. 426, 523 P.2d 226], and Cotton v. Superior Court (1961) 56 Cal.2d 459 [15 Cal.Rptr. 65, 364 P.2d 241]. In Thornton, the defendant confronted his victim in a single-room laundromat facility, knocked her down and then dragged her to the rear of the facility where he committed various sexual acts. In holding this asportation to be slight and insubstantial, we stated: “Because the sexual assault there took place wholly within the confines of a single room in a laundromat, any asportation involved was not ‘into another part of the same county’ within the meaning of
In Brown, the defendant confronted his victim in the kitchen of her house and took her forcibly through various rooms, returning to the kitchen and then the living room. Finally, the defendant dragged the victim out of the back door and along the side of her house for a distance estimated to be not more than 75 feet. We held this movement of the victim to be insubstantial, stating: “The asportation of the victim within her house and for a brief distance outside the house must be regarded as trivial.” (Brown, supra, 11 Cal.3d 784, 789.)
In Cotton, a victim was dragged approximately 15 feet. To have deemed such an asportation as sufficient for the offense of kidnaping would have sanctioned an interpretation of
In the case at bench, the record does not provide us with exact distances; we know only that both the storeroom and Maria‘s apartment were located on the same floor of a multi-unit apartment building.
The People seek to introduce considerations—other than actual distance—as determinative of what constitutes “sufficient movement” of the victim to constitute the offense of kidnaping pursuant to
We perceive no legitimate rationale for holding as substantial the asportation involved here because it was accomplished in two stages with a delay between them. It appears that the asportations were both “trivial,” and cannot constitute substantial movement because there were
III
Sufficiency of the Evidence to Sustain the Finding That, During the Course of the Commission of the Burglary, Defendant Inflicted Great Bodily Injury Upon the Occupant of the Burglarized Premises
Defendant‘s final contention is that the evidence showing that he raped the victim twice, sodomized her and compelled her several times to orally copulate him is insufficient to support the jury‘s finding that he inflicted “great bodily injury” upon the victim within the meaning of
There can be no quarrel with the fact that defendant engaged in a sexual attack upon the victim of such an outrageous, shocking and despicable nature that the victim suffered extreme humiliation and distress due to the flagrant violation of her person and her privacy. The question presented, however, is whether she sustained “great bodily
Although the decisional law has established many rules of statutory construction, they all are basically guides in the judicial quest to determine the Legislature‘s intent so that the purpose of the legislation may be effectuated. Thus, we have said that “we must apply every statute in the case according to our best understanding of the legislative intent; . . .” (People v. Daniels, supra, 71 Cal.2d 1119, 1128.) In a similar vein, we have recently stated: “Therefore we must interpret the statute in question in accordance with applicable rules of statutory construction, fundamental among which are those which counsel that the aim of such construction should be the ascertainment of legislative intent so that the purpose of the law may be effectuated [citation]; that a statute should be construed with reference to the entire statutory system of which it forms a part in such a way that harmony may be achieved among the parts [citation]; and that courts should give effect to statutes ‘according to the usual, ordinary import of the language employed in framing them.’ [Citation.]” (People ex rel. Younger v. Superior Court (1976) 16 Cal.3d 30, 40 [127 Cal.Rptr. 122, 544 P.2d 1322].) In our search for legislative intent, we are also guided by the principle that “[i]n construing a criminal statute, a defendant ‘must be given the benefit of every reasonable doubt as to whether the statute was applicable to him.’ [Citation.]” (People v. Baker (1968) 69 Cal.2d 44, 46 [69 Cal.Rptr. 595, 442 P.2d 675].)
It seems clear that the Legislature, by providing for an enhancement of the punishment for burglary, robbery and rape, whenever the victim suffered great bodily injury, wished to provide deterrence in the hope that violent crimes involving serious injury to the victims would be lessened. The fact that substantially identical enhancement provisions were added to the three sections of the Penal Code simultaneously underscores the legislative intent to offer protection to potential victims. But this does not tell us the level of injury the Legislature had in mind.
In order that we may give effect to the statute “according to the usual, ordinary import of the language employed in framing [it]” (Younger, supra, 16 Cal.3d 30, 40), we now proceed to analyze the process by which the Legislature arrived at its decision to employ the term “great bodily injury” in
In 1967, when the great-bodily-injury enhancement provisions were added to
The term “great bodily injury,” added to
That the Legislature intended a different meaning to be ascribed to the use of the term “great bodily injury” in
The decisional law that has interpreted the term “great bodily injury” is somewhat in conflict. The first case construing the enhancement provision of
The Wells court approved an instruction which advised the jury that great bodily injury “refers to significant or substantial bodily injury or damage; it does not refer to trivial or insignificant injury,” and held that evidence that the victim had been knocked unconscious and had suffered numerous cuts, with scars still evident at time of trial, and intense headaches for several days, was sufficient to support such a finding.
In People v. Richardson (1972) 23 Cal.App.3d 403 [100 Cal.Rptr. 251], the court construed the great-bodily-injury provision of
The Cardenas court referred with approval to the dissenting opinion of Schauer, P. J., in People v. McIlvain (1942) 55 Cal.App.2d 322, 334 [130 P.2d 131], wherein he stated the view that the outrage to the person and feelings of the female—which constitutes the essential guilt of rape should be deemed great bodily injury.10
Cardenas also cited the Brown and Chessman cases, professing, apparently, to see no distinction between the term “bodily harm” (
Recently, the Legislature addressed itself to the problem of defining what constitutes “great bodily injury.” As part of the Uniform Determinate Sentencing Act of 1976, made to become effective July 1, 1977,
Thus it may be seen that the Legislature, while changing its mind with respect to a detailed definition of “great bodily injury” before that definition became effective, has now adopted a definition of “great bodily injury” that requires that the injury constitute a “significant or substantial physical injury,” the definition approved in Wells and Richardson. This definition of great bodily injury uses the exact language found in CALJIC Instruction No. 17.20 (1973 Revision), which was given to the jury in the instant case. In the CALJIC authors’ Comment to Instruction No. 17.20, reference is made to Wells and Richardson as authority to support the instruction.12 It is apparent, therefore, that the 1977 amendment to
We deem it significant that
That the Legislature did not intend to equate the concept of “great bodily injury” with the commission, in and of itself, of the crime of rape, is further supported by a consideration of the language used by the Legislature in defining, not only the crime of rape, but the crimes of sodomy and oral copulation as well. In defining rape, two categories set forth in
Subdivision (a) of
The 1976 version of subdivision (a) of
The construction indicated for
It is apparent to us, therefore, that in the context of
It follows that in using the same language in simultaneously amending
Nevertheless, the People make the same contention before us that was made in Richardson—that even if forcible rape itself is insufficient to
Moreover, even if the diametrically opposed interpretations urged upon us by defendant and the People are equally persuasive, “[w]hen language which is reasonably susceptible of two constructions is used in a penal law ordinarily that construction which is more favorable to the offender will be adopted. . . . ‘the defendant is entitled to the benefit of
It follows from our holding that forcible rape cannot, in and of itself, constitute great bodily injury for the enhancement-of-punishment provision of burglary (
We consider next the question of whether the defendant‘s commission of sodomy and oral copulation upon the victim in addition to rape constitutes great bodily injury for purposes of enhanced punishment under the burglary statute. We conclude that it does not. Since neither offense—rape, sodomy or oral copulation—by itself, constitutes a substantial or significant bodily injury to the victim, but only the lesser injury of “bodily harm” (Brown, supra, 29 Cal.2d 555, Chessman, supra, 38 Cal.2d 166; and Tanner, supra, 3 Cal.2d 279), we can find no logic in the theory that these offenses, added together, change from the lower level of “bodily harm” injury to the more serious consequence of substantial or significant physical injury to constitute “great bodily injury.” The physical effect upon the victim of rape remains essentially unchanged by the additional sexual offenses considered in the light of the acts necessary to constitute the commission of such offenses. Hence, the pyramiding of the sexual offenses of sodomy and oral copulation upon rape, without more, is insufficient to invoke the enhancement provision of
The People contend, however, that the evidence in the case at bench establishes that the victim suffered significant physical injury beyond the “bodily harm” inherent in the acts themselves of rape, sodomy and oral copulation. The physical effects to Maria, the victim—beyond the bodily invasions resulting from the acts of rape, sodomy and oral copulation—consisted of her gagging, spitting and vomiting from the oral copulations, and bowel evacuations from the sodomy. Dr. Marshall, who examined the victim at the hospital in the late afternoon of the same day on which the offenses were committed, found that she had incurred a superficial three-inch laceration at the front of her neck and a superficial one and one-half inch laceration on the back of her neck. Neither laceration required suturing. Dr. Marshall did not find any cuts on Maria‘s two fingers as testified to by her. He further testified that there was no apparent injury, laceration or hematoma to the sexual organs or to the anus. The victim did not testify that she suffered any pain resulting from the acts of rape, sodomy or oral copulation.
Whether the evidence of bodily injury in a specific case establishes injury of a significant or substantial nature, as contrasted with an injury that is trivial, insignificant or moderate, is normally a question of fact for jury determination. But the bodily injuries sustained by the victim in the instant case during the course of the combined sexual outrages perpetrated by defendant can at most be considered to be insubstantial in nature—certainly not of the magnitude to be termed significant or substantial. They were injuries that can logically only be described as constituting transitory and short-lived bodily distress. They do not fall within the contours of injuries that are severe or protracted in nature. The two neck cuts were superficial, with no indication of any permanent, protracted or visible disfigurement. The transitory and short-lived mani-
The judgment is reversed as to the conviction of kidnaping (count I). The judgment is modified to strike the finding that defendant inflicted great bodily injury upon Maria, as charged in count VI. In all other respects, the judgment is affirmed.
Bird, C. J., Tobriner, J., Mosk, J., and Manuel, J., concurred.
BIRD, C. J., Concurring.—I have given this case considerable thought, and I find I am compelled to sign the opinion of the majority since the legislative history of
The offenses committed by appellant on the victim in this case were “outrageous, shocking and despicable,” as the majority state. (Maj.opn., ante, at p. 575.) It has been noted that “[i]n the crime of . . . rape, the victim is not only deprived of autonomy and control, experiencing manipulation and often injury to the envelope of the self, but also intrusion of inner space, the most sacred and most private repository of the self. It does not matter which bodily orifice is breached. Symbolically they are much the same and have, so far as the victim is concerned, the asexual significance that forceful access has been provided into the innermost source of ego.” (Bard & Ellison, Crisis Intervention and Investigation of Forcible Rape, The Police Chief (May 1974) at pp. 68, 71.)
However, personal repugnance toward these crimes cannot be a legitimate basis for rewriting the statute as it was adopted by the Legislature. It is precisely because emotions are so easily called into play in such situations that extra precaution must be taken so that this court follows the legislative intent and not our own predelictions or beliefs. This court has no choice in this matter. It must accept the Legislature‘s
RICHARDSON, J., Concurring and Dissenting.—I concur in parts I and II of the majority opinion, and in the reversal of the judgment as to the kidnaping count. I respectfully dissent, however, from part III of the opinion, and from the modification of the judgment which strikes the finding that defendant inflicted great bodily injury upon his victim during commission of a burglary. In my view, the evidence amply supports a finding of great bodily injury.
As the majority explains,
The majority further properly construes
I need not describe in detail the various acts and offenses committed by defendant who, over a two-hour period, forcibly copulated the victim‘s vagina, mouth and anus. The victim was pushed, shoved, cut twice by a knife, raped, sodomized and abused to the point of vomiting, diarrhea and hysteria. Her neck wounds were, respectively, three inches and one
I would affirm the judgment as to the first degree burglary count.
Clark, J., concurred.
Notes
The last paragraph of
At the same time that
