People v. Cruz CA1/5

I. BACKGROUND

Further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless

otherwise indicated.

1 Appellant was married to Jane Doe II’s mother and began molesting Jane Doe II in 2010, when she was in the third or fourth grade. The first act of abuse occurred when he exposed “his privates” to her; he then started putting his penis “on” her vagina and in her “bottom” on multiple occasions. At about the same time, appellant began hitting Jane Doe II with his hands and with his shoes. He told her not to tell anybody about the sexual abuse because he would go to jail and lose everything. Jane Doe II was very afraid and believed that if she disclosed the abuse she and her siblings would not be able to live with their mother.2 Appellant lived with Jane Doe I’s mother beginning in 2014. When Jane Doe I was in the sixth grade, appellant began molesting her. He raped her on five occasions and threatened to harm Jane Doe I’s mother if Jane Doe I disclosed the rapes. Jane Doe I had seen appellant hit her mother several times. She did not initially tell her mother about the rapes because she believed her mother preferred appellant to her, but at some point after the third rape her mother…