People v. Medrano CA1/4

I. BACKGROUND

In a January 2023 fourth amended information, the Contra Costa County District Attorney charged Medrano with 32 criminal counts, accompanied by numerous allegations, for alleged sex crimes he committed

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

2 against his daughters—eight counts regarding Jane Doe 12 and 24 counts regarding Jane Doe 2.3 A trial began in December of 2022, when Doe 1 and Doe 2 were 19 and 18 years old respectively. The strength of the evidence overall and the timeline of events is important to Medrano’s appeal, so we will detail those matters. Evidence was presented that Medrano, about 50 years old at the time of trial, returned to Richmond, California after an absence of a few years to care as a single parent for Does 1 and 2. The prosecution, relying largely on the girls’ trial testimony and their 2020 Children’s Interview Center (CIC) interviews, contended he sexually assaulted them at different times between

2 Regarding Jane Doe 1, Medrano was charged with one count of

aggravated sexual assault (rape) of a child under 14 years of age (§ 269, subd. (a)(1); count 1); two counts of forcible rape of a child 14 years of age or…