People v. Tran CA1/2

BACKGROUND

I. Factual Background A. General Background Tran and his ex-wife Veronica1 were married for 11 years, divorced in 2020, and have two sons, born in 2012 and 2014. They separated in March 2018, after Veronica discovered Tran had been unfaithful, with multiple people, for years. He moved out, at her request, but returned after a week because their son had a “horrible” week at school. Tran and Veronica had been sleeping in separate bedrooms since before the separation,2 and continued to do so. In May 2018, Tran’s mother died, and he moved to her house in Concord, but he stayed at the couple’s Antioch house part or all of the weekends to be with the children. Veronica met Nicholas Collaco in May 2018, when she contacted him to invite his six-year-old daughter to her son’s birthday party. Collaco was single and Veronica told him she was separated.3 They continued to communicate, their texts progressed from casual to flirty, and they got together one morning in the backyard of Veronica’s house, smoking marijuana while her children were inside, and another time at Collaco’s

1 We refer to Veronica Tran by her first name to avoid confusion. No disrespect is intended. 2 Veronica…