Campos v. State

• Decision Date: 18 December 2015
• Docket Number: CR–13–1782.
• Citation: 217 So.3d 1
• Parties: Roland Gilbert CAMPOS III v. STATE of Alabama.
• Court: Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals

217 So.3d 1

Roland Gilbert CAMPOS III

v.STATE of Alabama.

CR–13–1782.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

Dec. 18, 2015.

Rehearing Denied March 11, 2016.

Certiorari Denied Aug. 12, 2016

Alabama Supreme Court 1150680.

Ronald Smith, Huntsville, for appellant.

Luther Strange, atty. gen., and John M. Porter, asst. atty. gen., for appellee.

WELCH, Judge.

Roland Gilbert Campos III was convicted of two counts of sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years old, violations of § 13A–6–69.1, Ala.Code 1975, and of two counts of first-degree sodomy, violations of § 13A–6–63(a)(3), Ala.Code 1975. The trial court sentenced Campos to 20 years' imprisonment for each sexual-abuse conviction and to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole¹ for each sodomy conviction; the sentences were to run concurrently. Campos filed a timely motion for a judgment of acquittal and a motion to reconsider his sentence. Following a hearing, the trial court denied both motions. This appeal follows.

The evidence adduced at trial indicated the following. In the summer of 2011, Campos moved in with his then girlfriend, C.J., and her four-year-old daughter, K.S., and her five-year-old son.² C.J. trusted Campos, and Campos often kept the children if they were sick or if C.J. took the other child somewhere. Campos, who was referred to by everyone in the house as "Rolly," was 32 years old when he moved in with C.J. and her children.³

One day in February 2013, C.J. picked K.S. up from C.J.'s mother, who had gotten K.S. from school because K.S. was sick. On the drive home, C.J. told K.S. that because she could not go to school the next day and C.J. had to work, she would have to stay with Campos. K.S., who had just turned six that December, "kept saying momma, momma, I don't want to. Can I stay with Grammy?" (R. 143.) C.J. told K.S., "[N]o, you can stay with Rolly." (R. 143.) K.S. asked her mother if she could stay with her uncle, and C.J. told K.S. that her uncle lived too far away. C.J. asked K.S. why she did not want to stay with Campos. K.S., replied, "I just don't." (R. 143.) K.S. continued to tell C.J. that she did not want to stay with Campos. Again, C.J. asked why, and K.S. said that she could not tell C.J. because C.J. would get mad. C.J. told K.S. that she would get mad if K.S. did not tell her why she did not want to stay with Campos. K.S. told C.J. that Campos made her do "gross things." (R. 144.) C.J. asked K.S. to tell her what kind of things Campos made her do, and C.J. testified that "that's when she took her hands and placed them near her private parts and she said he makes me do things with my hands. And she moved them up and down." (R. 144.) C.J. testified that she "froze for a moment," gathered her thoughts, and then asked K.S. what else Campos did. (R. 144.) K.S. said, "[M]omma, he makes me stick it in my mouth." (R. 145.) C.J. asked K.S. if there was anyone else that does that to her, and K.S. said that "it's just Rolly and I wasn't supposed to tell you because he would be mad at me." (R. 145.)

C.J. took K.S. to Angela Churchwell's house, which was located a few houses down from C.J.'s house. Churchwell often kept C.J.'s children, and K.S. referred to her as "Mom Number Two." (R. 172.) C.J. told Churchwell about K.S.'s allegations against Campos. Churchwell told C.J. that Campos had picked up her son and that C.J. should go get him. C.J. asked Churchwell to speak to K.S. while C.J. went to get her son.

Churchwell pulled K.S. into a bedroom so they could speak privately. She told K.S. that C.J. had told her that Campos had done some things to her and asked K.S. to tell her what happened with Campos. K.S. told her that she could not tell her because Campos would hurt her. Churchwell assured K.S. that she was safe and again requested that K.S. tell her what had happened. K.S. told her that "he was taking her hands and making her put them on him." (R. 169.) She acted it out for Churchwell, cupping her hands together. Churchwell demonstrated the action for the jury. K.S. then said that "he made her put her mouth on it. And that sometimes she would get sick because it was so gross." (R. 170.) Churchwell testified that K.S. called "it" "his tail," a term children sometimes use to describe a penis and that K.S. pointed to the penis area. K.S. also said that "he takes it and rubs it on me down there." (R. 170.) Churchwell asked K.S. why K.S. did not tell her about what had happened before then and K.S. said, "[B]ecause he said he would make it worse, he would put it all the way in." (R. 170.)

When C.J. arrived home to get her son, she told Campos what K.S. had told her. Campos replied, "[W]ell, just don't leave her alone with me because I didn't do it." C.J. told him that was not a possibility and that she would "get to the bottom of it." (R. 146.) C.J. reported Campos to law enforcement, and Campos moved out shortly thereafter.

C.J. testified that she would leave K.S. alone with Campos whenever her son had Cub Scouts or when K.S. was sick and C.J. had to work. Her son began going to Cub Scouts in August or September 2012. C.J. testified that K.S. told her that the abuse started around the time C.J. drove the red car, which, according to C.J., was in the spring and summer of 2012.

K.S., who was seven years old at the time of trial, testified that she referred to Campos as "Rolly" and that he told her to put her mouth on his private and then wiggle it back and forth. He told her that he would give her candy if she did it and that she would taste nothing but candy. Before that, he told her to wiggle her hands back and forth, and he showed K.S. what to do. K.S. testified that he licked her private part and that she was five years old when the incidents occurred. K.S. testified that Campos did these things when her mother was gone and that he told her that if she told anyone what he did then "he would shove it all the way down her throat and it would hurt really bad." (R. 187.) K.S. testified that his "weiner" had hair on it and that it did not taste good. She said that it made her sick, and she would throw up afterwards. (R. 188.) She could not remember if Campos had ever touched her private parts with his hands.

Linda Steele, a senior trainer and child-forensic-review specialist with the National Children's Advocacy Center, conducted a forensic interview with K.S. at the center on February 8, 2013. K.S. was six years old at the time of the interview. The video of that interview was admitted into evidence.

Investigator Melissa Webster with the Madison County Sheriff's Office observed Steele's interview with K.S. Following the interview, Webster met with Campos at the National Children's Advocacy Center and informed him of K.S.'s allegations. Webster testified that Campos's body language during the interview was "very frozen. Just sitting still, not moving. Trying to stare me down." (R. 86.) Webster found it odd that he never moved and "felt like he was trying to intimidate [her] by playing a stare-down game with [her]." (R. 87.) Webster testified that Campos admitted that he had touched K.S. on two occasions. "Once in the presence of mom, bent over his knees ... looking at her private area," but he could not remember why. (R. 88.) "Another time her mother was not home, he said he put some ointment on her private area because she ... wasn't wiping good or something." (R. 88.) Campos told Webster that K.S. was a truthful child and that "if [K.S.] said it happened, it happened, just not with [him]." (R. 88.) Webster asked Campos about other suspects, and Campos gave her the name of C.J.'s stepfather. Webster testified that she found K.S. credible because "[s]he not only told what happened, but she gave details, what it taste[d] like, what her hands had to do. And kids normally can't tell you that if it didn't happen to them at that age." (R. 130.)

Campos testified on his own behalf at trial and denied that he had ever sexually abused K.S. Campos admitted that he had seen K.S. naked twice. The first time occurred when K.S.'s "tee-tee" was hurting and, because C.J. was not at home, he had to put ointment on K.S. The second time occurred when K.S. was covered in little red bumps and C.J. told him to look at her. Campos testified that he did not feel comfortable doing those things and that he let C.J. handle those situations if she was at home.

I.

Citing Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), and its progeny, Campos argues that the trial court erred in applying the enhancement set forth in § 13A–5–6(a)(1), Ala.Code 1975, to his sentences for first-degree sodomy. He argues that the application of the enhancement ran afoul of Apprendi because, he argues, the jury did not make a determination as to the ages of the victim and Campos, an element necessary to impose the enhanced penalty.⁴

Along with his convictions for sexual abuse, Campos was convicted of two counts of first-degree sodomy which, as a Class A felony, has a sentencing range of 10 years to 99 years or life. § 13A–5–6(a)(1), Ala.Code 1975. The trial court sentenced Campos under Section 13A–5–6(d), Ala.Code 1975. § 13A–5–6(d) applies additional penalties for certain sex offenses when the defendant's and victim's ages are within a certain range:

"In addition to any penalties heretofore or hereafter provided by law, in all cases where an offender is convicted of a sex offense pursuant to Section 13A–6–61, 13A–6–63, or 13A–6–65.1, when the defendant was 21 years of age or older and the victim was six years of age or less at the time the offense was committed, the defendant shall be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole."

"A person commits the crime of sodomy in the first degree if ... [h]e, being 16 years old or older, engages in deviate sexual intercourse with a person who is less than 12 years old." § 13A–6–63(a)(3), Ala.Code 1975. If the defendant is 21 years of age or older and the victim is six years of age or younger, the minimum...