People v. Rico CA2/6

Filed 1/18/24 P. v. Rico CA2/6

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for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 This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.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

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION SIX

THE PEOPLE, 2d Crim. No. B324778 (Super. Ct. No. 2018021180) Plaintiff and Respondent, (Ventura County)

v.

RICCO RICO,

Defendant and Appellant.

Ricco Rico appeals his convictions by jury on one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 (count 1; Pen. Code, § 288.5, subd. (a)),1 two counts of lewd act upon a child under the age of 14 (counts 2 and 3; § 288, subd. (a)), one count of rape of an intoxicated person (count 4; § 261, subd. (a)(3), one count of oral copulation of an intoxicated person (count 5; § 287, subd. (i)), and one count of forcible oral copulation (§ 287, subd. (c)(2)(A)). Rico contends the trial court violated his due process

1 Unlabeled statutory cites are to the Penal Code.

rights when it admitted testimony from five women about uncharged acts of sexual assault and molestation (Evid. Code, § 1108, subd. (a)). We will affirm. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Victim E.R. (Counts 1 and 2) Rico’s daughter E.R. was born in 1996. She was 11 years old when Rico and her mother divorced. Rico began sexually abusing E.R. around this time. He would give her prescription pills to swallow before bed and ask her to sleep with him because he was lonely. She would wake up to find Rico touching her, forcing her hand to stroke his genitals, or even raping her. This happened two or three times a week. Rico also molested her during a camping trip to Lake Casitas and when the family traveled to a football game in Arizona. Victim J.R. (Count 3) Rico’s daughter J.R. was born to a different mother in 1995. Her parents never married. J.R. did not meet Rico until she was around nine years old, when her mother lost custody due to substance abuse and J.R. chose to live with Rico and his then- wife rather than enter foster care. Rico molested her on the Lake Casitas camping trip as well. J.R. remembered him lying next to her, sticking his hand down her pants, touching her vaginal area, then reaching up her shirt and touching her breasts. J.R. turned away and Rico laughed at her. She told no one about the incident because she feared returning to foster care. Victim M.R. (Counts 4, 5, and 6) M.R. is Rico’s paternal half-sister and 15 years younger. She first met Rico when he began staying in New Mexico over summer break. M.R. began visiting California because she