People v. Eden CA1/4

Background On July 11, 2016, the People filed a petition seeking to commit defendant as a SVP. On February 3, 2017, the court found probable cause to believe that defendant was a SVP and ordered him held for trial. The matter was originally set for trial on May 8, 2017, but continued for reasons discussed below until May 17, 2021.

1 At trial, the following evidence was presented regarding defendant’s prior qualifying convictions: In 1990, defendant pled guilty to kidnapping (Pen. Code, § 207, subd. (a)) and assault with intent to commit rape, with an attached personal- use-of-a-firearm allegation (Pen. Code, §§ 220, 12022.5), and was sentenced to five years in prison. Evidence established the following factual basis for the crimes: Defendant approached the victim in a parking lot as she was loading groceries into her car and used a gun to force her to drive him out of the parking lot. He told her, “I’m going to rape you, and if you don’t do what I say, I’ll shoot you, nobody will ever see you again.” He forced her to go to another location and park the car, where he fondled her breasts and touched her between her legs. After a few minutes, he told the victim to get out of the car…