P. v. Rodriguez

Filed 6/1/07 P. v. Rodriguez CA1/1
Opinion following remand from U.S. Supreme Court
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for
publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication
or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION ONE
THE PEOPLE,
Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
ALFREDO GOMEZ RODRIGUEZ,
Defendant and Appellant.
A108071
(Mendocino County
Super. Ct. No. SCUKCRCR04-60854-
2)
Under a plea agreement, defendant Alfredo Gomez Rodriguez pleaded guilty to
committing a lewd and lascivious act on a child under the age of 14 and admitted a
special allegation that he engaged in substantial sexual conduct with the victim. The trial
court sentenced him to the upper term sentence of eight years. Defendant appealed from
the imposition of the upper term sentence, contending that the trial court committed
prejudicial error by: (1) disregarding significant mitigating factors shown in the record,
and (2) relying on aggravating circumstances neither admitted in his plea nor proven
beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury. We affirmed the judgment in an opinion issued on
September 29, 2005.
On February 20, 2007, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari, vacated
the judgment, and remanded the case to this court for further consideration in light of
Cunningham v. California (2007) 549 U.S. ___ [127 S.Ct. 856] (Cunningham). We have
recalled the remittitur and afforded the parties an opportunity to file supplemental briefs
on the effect of Cunningham on the issues presented. We now vacate defendant’s upper

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term sentence and remand the case to the trial court for the limited purpose of conducting
sentencing proceedings in accordance with the requirements of Blakely v. Washington
(2004) 542 U.S. 296 [124 S.Ct. 2531] (Blakely) and Cunningham.
I. BACKGROUND
Defendant was charged by information with committing a lewd and lascivious act
on a child under the age of 14 (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a); count one), 1 forcible oral
copulation on a child under the age of 14 (§ 288a, subd. (c)(1); count two), and sodomy
on a child under the age of 14 (§ 286, subd. (c)(1); count three). The information further
alleged that defendant committed substantial sexual conduct with his child victim
(§ 1203.066, subd. (a)(8)), and committed the charged offenses in conjunction with the
commission of a kidnapping (§§ 207, subd. (b), 667.61, subd. (e)(1)).
Under a negotiated disposition, defendant pleaded guilty to count one and
admitted the section 1203.066, subdivision (a)(8) special allegation. He entered a Harvey
waiver (People v. Harvey (1979) 25 Cal.3d 754) permitting the court to consider the
dismissed counts in sentencing. The trial court sentenced defendant to the upper term
sentence of eight years. Defendant timely appealed from his sentence.
The following is based on the probation officer’s presentence report and testimony
given at the preliminary hearing:
E. is the 13-year-old cousin of defendant’s wife. On April 2, 2004, E. and her 15-
year-old sister were dropped off in the early evening at the residence of defendant and his
wife, to spend the night. The girls were to sleep in the home of defendant and his wife
that night because E.’s sister had gotten into an argument with their father. Defendant’s
wife and her four children were staying at another relative’s residence that night.
Defendant had told E. and her sister they could stay at the apartment and he would be
gone for the night. Defendant suggested that E. sleep in his bedroom and her sister could
sleep in the kids’ room. E. had never stayed in defendant’s residence without her cousin,
his wife, being there, and she had never stayed in their bedroom.
1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code.

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E. went to sleep on top of defendant’s bed, covered by her sleeping bag. She was
woken up at around 6:30 the next morning by defendant who had pulled the sleeping bag
off of her. Defendant, then 31 years old, was standing over her naked and wearing a
condom on his erect penis. He locked the bedroom door. Defendant crawled on top of
E., pushed her down, removed her pajamas and underwear, and pushed her legs apart.
She tried to push him away and told him to stop but he pushed her back down on the bed
and began to fondle her breasts, and touch her all over her body. She told him to stop
three or four times, but he did not comply. He orally copulated her, forced her to have
intercourse, and then sodomized her.
After a while, defendant took off his condom, threw it to the floor, and began to
masturbate. He then grabbed E.’s hair and told her to open her mouth. When she said
no, defendant pulled harder on her hair so she opened her mouth. Defendant placed his
penis into her mouth and told her to “ ‘suck on it,’ ” but she refused and just left her
mouth open with his penis inside.
When defendant stopped, he told E. to take a shower. After showering, E. got
dressed and defendant drove her to her father’s house. On the way, he told E. that if she
told anyone he would get his brother or cousin to do the same thing to her. E. did not
report defendant out of fear, and because he was family.
Sometime between April and June 2004, E. wrote a letter describing what had
happened on the morning of April 3. She had intended to send the letter to a television
show that was doing a program on rape, but had never mailed it. E.’s grandmother found
the letter in E.’s school backpack on June 25, 2004, and called police. E. was
interviewed by Detective Derek Scott of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, and
recounted to him the events described in her letter. 2
2 E. wrote in her letter that defendant told her he would deny it and “hurt her” if
she told anyone. She did not state that defendant threatened to get his brother or cousin
to do the same thing to her.

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When confronted with E.’s accusations, defendant admitted that he and E. had
engaged in the sex acts she described, but he maintained that she had asked him to try
these acts with her. He stated that he knew what he did was wrong. Defendant denied
forcing E. to have sex with him and denied threatening her at any time.
II. DISCUSSION
Defendant contends that the trial court’s imposition of an upper term sentence was
erroneous because the court: (1) implicitly made “findings,” unsupported by the record,
that certain mitigating factors proposed by defendant did not exist; and (2) made findings
of aggravating circumstances in a manner that violated Blakely. Although we find no
error in the trial court’s consideration of mitigating factors, we agree that the trial court’s
findings concerning aggravating circumstances were improper in light of Blakely.
A. Mitigating Factors
The probation officer found one factor in mitigation under California Rules of
Court, rule 4.423: “The defendant has no known prior adult criminal history . . . .” In
defendant’s sentencing memorandum and at the sentencing hearing, defendant’s trial
counsel identified other mitigating factors in addition to his lack of a prior record,
including the following: (1) the event occurred under unusual circumstances that are not
likely to recur; (2) defendant admitted to law enforcement upon contact that he had
sexual relations with the victim; and (3) defendant’s family was both supportive of and
dependent on him.
Before imposing sentence the trial court discussed aggravating and mitigating
circumstances as follows: “The record reflects that the defendant entered a plea of guilty
or no contest to . . . lewd or lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 years. [¶] He
also admitted the first special allegation . . . that [he] had substantial sexual conduct with
a victim under the age of 14. [¶] The court has reviewed the criteria affecting the
defendant’s eligibility for probation [and] [n]otes that under 1203.066(a)(8), the
defendant is statutorily ineligible for a grant of probation because of the substantial
sexual conduct. Probation is therefore denied. [¶] The court has reviewed the
circumstances in aggravation versus the circumstances in mitigation. [¶] In mitigation,

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[the court] notes that the defendant has no known prior adult criminal history. [¶] In
aggravation, the court notes that the defendant apparently threatened the victim by
threatening to have his brother or cousin do the same thing to her if she told anyone,
which discloses a high degree of cruelty and callousness. [¶] There is some demonstration
of planning because the defendant lured the victim to sleep in his room to commit the act.
[¶] Additionally, the defendant engaged in violent conduct. As I . . . read this, it was a
rape. That indicates that the defendant is very likely a danger to society. [¶] The court
puts a great deal of emphasis on that one aggravating factor alone and, for that reason,
believes that the aggravated term is appropriate. [¶] The defendant is hereby then
sentenced with respect to count 1 . . . to a period of the aggravated term of eight years in
the state prison.”
According to defendant, since the court expressly mentioned only one factor in
mitigation––defendant’s lack of a prior criminal history––it must have found,
erroneously, that no other factors in mitigation were true. Defendant emphasizes three
circumstances that went unmentioned by the court––his early acknowledgement of
wrongdoing, the unlikeliness of a recurrence of the offense, and family factors.
Defendant maintains that these circumstances were each fully supported by the evidence
and should have been weighed in favor of a midterm or mitigated sentence. But rather
than arguing on appeal that the trial court abused its discretion in failing to give due
weight to these factors, defendant contends that the substantial evidence test must govern
our review. In his view, the trial court’s failure to cite these factors must be reviewed as
if it were an implicit factual finding––unsupported by any substantial evidence in the
record––that these factors did not exist.
We are not persuaded. Defendant treats the trial court’s statement of its reasons
for imposing the upper term as if it was supposed to serve as an exhaustive list of facts
found true and not true by the court. It was not. When the trial court selects an upper
term, it must make “a concise statement of the ultimate facts which the court deemed to
constitute circumstances in aggravation or mitigation justifying the term selected.” (Cal.
Rules of Court, rule 4.420(e); see also, § 1170, subd. (b) [“[t]he court shall set forth on

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the record the facts and reasons for imposing the upper or lower term”].) By opting to
mention only one mitigating factor in its “concise statement” the court was in no way
excluding the existence of other mitigating factors, either implicitly or otherwise. The
court may well have been signaling that it did not lend much weight to defendant’s
proposed mitigating factors (apart from his clean criminal record) but it is impossible to
read more into it than that.
Even if the existence of a particular circumstance in mitigation is undisputed, the
weight or significance, if any, that the court attaches to that circumstance is a matter
within its discretion. (See People v. Avalos (1996) 47 Cal.App.4th 1569, 1583.) Subject
to ordinary appellate review for abuse of discretion, the trial court in this case was free to
minimize or disregard any of the factors defendant offered in mitigation, and it was under
no requirement to state its reasons for doing so. (People v. Lamb (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d
397, 401; People v. Salazar (1983) 144 Cal.App.3d 799, 813.)
Although defendant attempts to frame his objection on appeal as a nonwaivable
challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, it boils down in the end to a complaint about
“the manner in which the trial court exercise[d] its sentencing discretion and articulate[d]
its supporting reasons.” (People v. Scott (1994) 9 Cal.4th 331, 356.) We therefore agree
with the People’s position that defendant waived his current claim by failing to timely
raise it in the trial court. (Ibid.) In any event, we would find no abuse of discretion even
if the issue had been properly preserved for appellate review.
The trial court properly declined to give influential weight to the mitigating factors
defendant has emphasized on appeal. First, defendant never in fact fully acknowledged
his wrongdoing. Instead of admitting that he raped the victim, he insisted that she had
seduced him. This denial compounded the harm to the victim by rupturing formerly
close family relationships, including that between the victim and her cousin.3 Second,
defendant’s claim that the incident occurred under unusual circumstances and is not
3 This was discussed in the probation report and referred to in the victim impact
statement made by E.’s grandmother.

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likely to recur is unconvincing. As the trial court noted, defendant’s commission of a
forcible rape makes him a danger to society. The “unusual circumstance” in this case
was simply that the female victim was sleeping at defendant’s house when his own
family was staying elsewhere overnight. But defendant returned to the house to attack
the victim at 6:30 a.m. while her sister slept in a nearby room. That defendant was
unable to resist the impulse to sexually assault his wife’s 13-year-old cousin in those
circumstances does little to establish that his risk of committing future sexual offenses is
low. Finally, although defendant has family support and his immediate family is
dependent on him, he has maintained family support in part by falsely impugning the
conduct of his young victim. Although the hardship that defendant’s prison term will
work on his wife and children is unfortunate, that is not alone sufficient to warrant a
lesser sentence in view of the severity of his criminal conduct.
The court twice stated during the sentencing hearing that it had in fact considered
the defendant’s statement in mitigation as well as the probation officer’s report.4 We find
no error, abuse of discretion, or insufficiency of the evidence in the trial court’s
identification or consideration of mitigating factors.
B. Blakely Error
In reliance on Blakely, supra, 542 U.S. 296, defendant claims that the trial court
violated his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial by imposing an upper term sentence on
4 Before hearing argument, the court stated: “The court has read the . . . probation
officer’s report and recommendation. I’ve also read the defendant’s statement in
mitigation of the sentence. [¶] I’m inclined to go along with the probation officer’s
recommendation. This was, in the court’s opinion, essentially a rape of a young child.”
At the close of argument, the court stated: “Well, as I read the defense statement in
mitigation, it’s based upon some contest as to, in part, whether this was in fact a rape. So
we have a contest as to the facts. [¶] The court still finds that this is violent conduct as
apparently determined by the probation department from the police reports . . . .
[¶] [reading from probation report] [Defendant] came back to the bed and took off her
shirt. She said she pushed [defendant] off and said, ‘Alfred stop,’ but he kept going.
[end of reading] Well, that’s violence.”

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the basis of aggravating circumstances neither admitted by him as part of his plea nor
found true by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
The People contend that defendant’s Blakely claims must be rejected without
consideration of their merits because he: (1) failed to obtain a certificate of probable
cause before filing his appeal, and (2) failed to raise the issue of Blakely error in the trial
court even though his sentencing took place after the Blakely opinion was filed. Neither
of these claims was raised in the People’s original briefing in this case despite ample
notice in defendant’s briefing that he had not obtained a certificate of probable cause or
raised his Blakely claim in the trial court. The People made a decision instead to rest
solely on the argument that the California Supreme Court’s decision in People v. Black
(2005) 35 Cal.4th 1238 foreclosed defendant’s Blakely claim on the merits. In our view,
the People have therefore waived both of these procedural barriers to our consideration of
the Blakely claim.
We hold that the trial court violated defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a jury
trial by imposing an upper term sentence on the basis of aggravating circumstances
neither admitted by him as part of his plea nor found true by a jury beyond a reasonable
doubt. We decline to follow the People’s suggestion that we stay these proceedings and
await direction from the California Supreme Court on the proper remedy for this error,
and will instead remand for resentencing in light of Blakely.
III. DISPOSITION
The upper term sentence of eight years is vacated and the case is remanded to the
trial court for the limited purpose of conducting sentencing proceedings in accordance
with the requirements of Blakely and Cunningham.5 In all other respects, the judgment is
affirmed.
5 We are not suggesting what the sentence should be or limiting the various
options open to the court on remand.

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_________________________
Margulies, J.
We concur:
_________________________
Marchiano, P.J.
_________________________
Stein, J.

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