People v. Duenas CA3

Filed 1/29/14 P. v. Duenas CA3 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published,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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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 THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT (San Joaquin) ----

THE PEOPLE, C071883

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super. Ct. No. SF109960A)

v.

GERARDO DUENAS,

Defendant and Appellant.

A jury found defendant Gerardo Duenas guilty of corporal injury upon a child and felony child abuse of his three-year-old daughter, B. In a trial to the court, defendant was found to have two prior strike convictions. Defendant was sentenced to concurrent terms of 25 years to life on each count.1

1 Defendant was subsequently resentenced pursuant to Penal Code section 1170.126 to a term of 14 years eight months.

1

On appeal, defendant contends the trial court prejudicially erred by: (1) admitting evidence of two uncharged acts of domestic violence by him against his wife, I.; and (2) admitting expert testimony regarding victim abuse. We reject both contentions. STATEMENT OF FACTS Defendant married 16-year-old I. in 1999 and they divorced in 2009. During the marriage they had five children, one of whom was B., who was born in 2004.2 According to I., defendant “hated” B. from the time of her birth. He struck her daily with a belt, pinched her, would not let their other children play with her, would leave her in a closet without food, and would make her face the wall when she displeased him. Charged Offenses In October 200,7 I. left home to go to a laundromat. At that time, B. was standing facing the wall in the living room. When I. returned home she found B. standing naked in a washroom tub, shaking and clinching her hands while defendant poured cold water over her. B.’s lower back and “rib area” were covered with bruises and red marks. I. asked defendant what he was doing and defendant said, “ ‘She just didn’t want to eat her food.’ ” On October 13, 2007, the day after I. gave birth to her youngest son, she returned home from the hospital and saw that B. had a “slash” or “gash” on her head. Fearful that defendant would kill B., I. packed B.’s clothes and medical records and took her to I.’s mother’s home for safe keeping. I. then returned to her home, gathered the rest of her children and moved into a trailer with her father. When relatives of I. saw the bruises and welts on B. they reported the matter to the police. On October 28, 2007, Officer Beverly Young conducted a welfare check on B. “head to toe.” B. “had bruising pretty much from the top of her body to the bottom. She