People v. Cota CA6

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND2

On May 15, 2000, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a rape. The victim was a woman in her late 40s who requires a wheelchair to get around. She lived in a special housing complex and was taking out her garbage one evening when a man approached her from behind. The man told her to be quiet or he would hurt her. He directed her to return to her apartment, and he followed, redirecting her wheelchair when she tried to go a different direction. The man pushed her wheelchair into the apartment, then assaulted her in her bedroom. She provided a description of the subject to the deputies, and a DNA sample was obtained from a bite mark on the victim’s breast. However, no immediate match was made and no suspect identified. In March 2011, the Department of Justice notified the Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory that a “DNA CODIS hit”3 had been made, implicating Cota. Cota was interviewed by a detective in March 2012, who determined Cota was a maintenance worker at the victim’s apartment complex in May 2000. Cota agreed to provide a DNA sample, which matched the sample taken from the victim, and he was subsequently…