Chutan

A jury convicted Juan Chutan of committing continuous sexual abuse and five specific forcible lewd acts upon a child, Eloísa. It also specifically found .the continuous abuse was accomplished by force, violence and duress. Chutan insists the trial court erred by (1) admitting involuntary statements he made as a result of police violations of Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 [ 86 S.Ct. 1602 , 16 L.Ed.2d 694 , 10 A.L.R.3d 974 ] and Massiah v. United States (1964) 377 U.S. 201 [ 84 S.Ct. 1199 , 12 L.Ed.2d 246 ]; (2) admitting the victim’s out-of-court statements in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to confront his accuser; (3) permitting the prosecution to impeach him with statements he made to a social worker; (4) receiving his admissions about three lewd acts for which no corpus delicti was established; and (5) providing the jury a defective definition of reasonable doubt. We find no merit in any of these contentions and affirm the judgment.

By the time she reached the tender age of seven, Eloísa would probably have given anything to live in what Joyce Kilmer referred to as “The tragic house, the house with nobody in it.” 1 Her house was even more distressing…