People v. Edwards CA6

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Operative Information

In February 2023, the Santa Clara County District Attorney charged Edwards by information with forcible rape (§ 261, subd. (a)(2); count 1) with the allegation that the

1 Unspecified statutory references are to the Penal Code. victim was a minor 14 years of older (§ 264, subd. (c)(2)) and rape of an intoxicated person (§ 261, subd. (a)(3); count 2).2 B. The Trial 1. The Percipient Witnesses

In February 2021, T.D., then 16 years old, was at Edwards’s apartment complex with her best friend B.T. and B.T.’s boyfriend, E.E. Edwards was E.E.’s father. B.T., T.D., and E.E. had brought a “jumbo size” bottle of Jack Daniel’s. T.D. had “a lot” to drink that night: T.D. recalled that the group finished about half the bottle, and she estimated she drank “at least . . . five shots” of Jack Daniel’s herself. B.T. estimated that E.E. drank half the bottle, while T.D. drank most of the rest. They also smoked marijuana. T.D. felt “[g]oofy,” her vision was blurry, she was slurring her words, and B.T. had to help her walk. T.D. had little memory of the events: She needed help to walk back to Edwards’s apartment, and the next thing she…