Moses

Defendant and appellant, Daniel Clair Moses (defendant), was convicted of two counts of detention of a child (his two children [Kayleigh, age five at the time of trial, and Kyle, age four at the time of trial]) with intent to deprive another (the children’s mother, Renee Moses [Renee]) of the right to custody, in violation of Penal Code section 278.5.

The court denied probation and sentenced Moses to state prison for the middle term of two years on each count, to run concurrently. Defendant filed a timely notice of appeal and now raises three issues: (1) was there sufficient evidence of defendant’s intent to deprive Renee of her custodial rights to sustain a conviction of child detention; (2) is contempt a lesser included offense of section 278.5; and (3) did the trial court state adequate reasons for imposing a prison sentence thereby denying probation. We conclude the court correctly denied defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal under section 1118.1; contempt is not a lesser included offense to section 278.5; and the court did not err in denying defendant probation.

Procedural and Factual History

In October 1994, defendant was charged by information with two…