Escudero

A jury found defendant Ralph Escudero guilty of committing a lewd and lascivious act on a child under the age of 14 (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a)), and he was sentenced to a term of eight years in state prison and ordered to pay victim restitution. He appeals.

In the published part of this opinion, we reject defendant’s claim that the trial court erred in allowing the introduction of evidence of defendant’s uncharged acts of sexual assault against two adult women. In his view, those crimes against adult women did not have any tendency in reason to prove he had a propensity to commit lewd and lascivious acts with a girl when she was seven years old. As we will explain, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the other crimes had substantial probative value despite the differences in ages of the victims.

Consistent with common experience, the Legislature has found that persons who commit sex offenses often have a propensity to commit sex crimes against more than one victim. For this reason, the Legislature enacted Evidence Code section 1108, subdivision (a), which provides that, in a criminal action in which the defendant is accused of a sex crime,…