People v. Munoz CA6

I. BACKGROUND

Jane Doe reported in 2016 that defendant forced her to have sexual intercourse in 2012 when they were both 19 years old. Officers recorded a lengthy pretext call Doe made to defendant, and in 2017 he was charged with forcible rape (Pen. Code, § 261, subd. (a)(2); count 1) and forcible sodomy (Pen. Code, § 286, subd. (c)(2); count 2). Trial was held in 2020. Defendant was found guilty of forcible rape and not guilty of forcible sodomy. He was sentenced to a three-year prison term. According to evidence at trial, defendant and Doe met in late 2009, when they were 17 years old. Defendant lived with his family, and Doe lived with her parents in a nearby town. Both were raised in the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith, which disapproved of premarital sexual intimacy and encouraged chaperoned dating. Doe was a baptized member of the religion; defendant was not. In 2010, defendant contacted Doe through social media and in 2011 they started a relationship. Doe’s and defendant’s recollections of the relationship diverge at that point, and they testified to vastly different accounts of their relationship before, during, and after the 2012 rape. Doe’s Version of Events Doe described…