People v. Pineda CA1/2

BACKGROUND

The Evidence At Trial Prosecution Case Jane Doe’s testimony Jane Doe was born in March 2007 and was 14 years old when she testified at trial. Defendant was a close friend of, and around the same age as, Doe’s father. Doe described a period of sexual encounters with defendant, beginning in the summer of 2018 when she was 11 years old. At that time, Doe lived with her father, mother, and younger brother in a studio in Richmond. The

2 We restate here the portions of our prior opinion pertaining to issues unaffected by the grant of review. (See post, at pp. 14–29.)

2 studio had been converted from a garage and was attached to the main house, where defendant, his mother, sisters, niece, and cousins lived. A door connected the living room in the studio to the kitchen in the main house. In late May 2018, Doe’s brother was born prematurely and required hospitalization for approximately four months. Doe’s parents spent much of their time at the hospital during these months. They wanted Doe to stay home and had defendant’s mother watch her. Some time that summer when her parents were at the hospital, Doe, who had a friend name Jaime (the same name as defendant’s),…