People v. Silva CA1/1

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background As we note briefly below, defendant appeals from two cases tried to different juries in the superior court, one involving criminal threats and annoying phone calls, and the other involving lewd acts on a child. We summarize only the facts pertaining to the lewd acts case, as defendant raises no issues on appeal relating to the criminal threats case. 1. G.S.’s Testimony G.S. was 14 years old at the time of trial. Defendant was her mother’s ex-boyfriend. He lived with B.S. (G.S.’s mother), G.S., and her sisters in Vallejo when G.S. was 10 years old. When defendant first moved in, G.S.’s older sister lived with them, as did her younger sister. G.S. had a good relationship with defendant at first, but after her older sister moved out, “[t]hings in the house started getting more violent” and defendant started touching G.S. G.S. heard defendant throwing her mother in the closet and sometimes they would argue and “he would hit her really bad.” G.S. did not see defendant hit her mother, but she heard them yelling and arguing with each other. Defendant started touching G.S. after her older sister moved out, but she did not remember when that was or if…