People v. Vasquez CA2/5

FACTS

The two sisters (born in 2002 and 2007) were removed from their parents’ custody at a very young age by the Department of Children and Family Services. They were placed with their paternal grandmother. Defendant Vasquez, who was married to the grandmother but was not biologically related to the sisters, was their step-grandfather. The sisters lived with their grandmother and Vasquez in a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles. They all slept in the single bedroom with the sisters in a bunk bed (later, a queen-sized bed), and Vasquez and their grandmother in their own bed. At some point, the sisters’ uncle and his family began living in the same apartment; the four of them slept in the living room. The sisters’ grandmother died in 2016, when the girls were 13 and 9 years old. Vasquez became their legal guardian. In 2018, the sisters separately reported to their social workers that Vasquez had sexually abused them. Vasquez was charged with seven counts of committing lewd or lascivious acts upon a child under the age of 14 (counts 1 to 3 and 12 to 15; Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a)) and eight counts of sexual intercourse or sodomy of a child 10 years of age or younger (counts 4 to…