People v. Sanchez CA1/2

BACKGROUND

A. The Charges and the Preliminary Hearing In April 2019, the district attorney filed a felony complaint charging Sanchez with the above-described offenses. On October 1, 2019, the superior court held a preliminary hearing. The evidence presented at the preliminary hearing consisted of testimony by Darryl Holcombe, a senior inspector for the district attorney’s office who supervised Contra Costa County’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC). Holcombe testified he was investigating on an online dating app called “Skout,” posing as a 14-year-old girl named “Emily”; was contacted by Sanchez, who after hearing Emily was 14 years old, continued to message with “Emily” over two days about her looks, her sexual experience and his desires, arranged to meet her at a park in Martinez, arrived at the park in a vehicle, circled around the park as if looking for her and texted to ask what she was wearing. Holcombe detained Sanchez as he was driving away from the park and Sanchez identified himself, provided his phone number, which Holcombe identified as the one with which he (as “Emily”) had been texting, and admitted to communicating with a 14-year-old girl named…