The People v. Morales CA4/3

FACTS

The Incident When Virginia testified in late 2011, she was 29 years old. In March 2004, Virginia and her half sister, P., who was then 12 years old, were staying in a guest house of her employers, who were not home at the time. P. was visiting in order to help Virginia paint the bathroom of the guest house. At about 2:00 o‟clock in the morning, there was a knock on the door. Someone was calling Virginia by name. She was not expecting anyone, but she recognized defendant‟s voice and went to the door. Defendant was the husband of Maria, another sister of Virginia and P. Virginia described what defendant said when she opened the door: “He said he needed my help because my sister was really sick and she was in the car, and he wanted to take her to the hospital.” As she turned around, defendant entered the room and told Virginia he wanted to sleep with her. Virginia smelled alcohol and she ran toward her cell phone and

2 defendant grabbed it and threw it under the couch. He then pushed Virginia onto the bed and went into the bathroom. Virginia ran “to grab the house phone, and that is when he came back from the bathroom with a knife, and he pulled the cords from the wall.” She…