Mobley

In this opinion, we determine the trial court does not have a sua sponte duty to instruct the jury on the definition of “developmental disability” for convictions under Penal Code sections 288a, subdivision (g) and 286, subdivision (g), respectively.

Robert Leroy Mobley was convicted by a jury of 17 counts of unlawful sodomy committed upon 2 young men in their early 20’s who “because of a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability” were incapable of giving legal consent for such acts. (§ 286, subd. (g).) The jury found Mobley not guilty of unlawful oral copulation of one of the young men. (§ 288a, subd. (g).) After a bifurcated court trial, Mobley was found to have previously suffered two out-of-state convictions that qualified as “strikes” under the three strikes law (§ 667, subds. (b)-(i)) and also constituted serious felony convictions within the meaning of section 667, subdivision (a)(1). The court sentenced Mobley to a total prison term of 435 years to life.

Mobley appeals, raising claims of instructional error, insufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions and the truth of one of his out-of-state priors, error in the admission of his…