People v. Betts

• Citation: 34 Cal.4th 1039,23 Cal.Rptr.3d 138,103 P.3d 883
• Decision Date: 13 January 2005
• Docket Number: No. S111309.,S111309.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court (California)
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. John Paul BETTS, Defendant and Appellant.

23 Cal.Rptr.3d 138

34 Cal.4th 1039

103 P.3d 883

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. John Paul BETTS, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S111309.

Supreme Court of California.

January 13, 2005.

Rehearing Denied March 16, 2005.¹

Certiorari Denied June 20, 2005.

Jeffrey J. Stuetz, Herndon, under appointment by the Supreme Court, and Waldemar D. Halka DeSalava for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Robert M. Foster, Garrett Beaumont, Warren P. Robinson, Frederick R. Millar, Jr., and Steven T. Oetting, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

Certiorari Denied June 20, 2005. See 125 S.Ct. 2949.

GEORGE, C.J.

Defendant John Paul Betts was convicted in the Riverside County Superior Court on a number of counts involving lewd acts committed on a child. Some of these acts were committed in California but outside of Riverside County, and some were committed outside of the state. His convictions were affirmed by the Court of Appeal. We granted review to consider the following issues: (1) When a criminal prosecution is brought in California and the alleged criminal activity occurred in part outside California, is the determination whether a California court has jurisdiction over the criminal proceeding to be made by the trial court or by a jury? (2) Was the evidence in this case sufficient to support the conclusion that California courts have jurisdiction to adjudicate defendant's crimes? (3) Is the question of venue a matter to be determined by the trial court or by a jury? (4) Was venue proper in Riverside County for prosecution of a crime completed in Los Angeles County?

In People v. Posey (2004) 32 Cal.4th 193, 8 Cal.Rptr.3d 551, 82 P.3d 755, we addressed the third of these questions, concluding the issue of venue is a matter to be resolved by the trial court. For the reasons discussed below, we conclude with regard to the remaining issues presented here that (1) the question whether a California court has jurisdiction to adjudicate a charge of a crime committed in whole or in part outside of the state similarly is a matter to be determined by the trial court rather than by a jury; (2) the evidence in this case was sufficient to support the exercise of jurisdiction by a California court over all of the alleged crimes; and (3) venue for the offenses that were completed in Los Angeles County was proper in Riverside County. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeal affirming defendant's conviction is affirmed.

I.

Defendant was convicted of four counts of committing a lewd act on a child (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a))² involving victim Nichole, who was 11 years of age at the time of the offenses. Defendant also was convicted of three similar offenses involving, victim Breanna, who was nine years of age when the offenses occurred—one count of committing a lewd act by use of force or menace (§ 288, subd. (b)(1)), one count of committing a lewd act (§ 288, subd. (a)), and one count of attempted commission of a lewd act (§§ 21a, 288, subd. (a)).

The evidence at trial established the following facts. Defendant was a long-haul truck driver. The charged offenses took place during three trucking trips, each of which began in Hemet, in Riverside County. Shortly before the first trip, defendant married Linda, who also was a truck driver. When not on the road, they lived in Hemet, staying either with Linda's mother or with Linda's daughter, who had four children, including the two victims Nichole and Breanna. Two or three days after defendant and Linda were married, defendant suggested that Nichole, who was then 11 years of age, accompany him and Linda on a trucking trip to North Carolina. Linda had expected the trip would be a honeymoon. The trip began in Hemet. Defendant and Linda took turns driving and sleeping, with defendant normally driving during the day and Linda at night. The truck had a sleeping area behind the cab with bunk beds.

During the night on the second day of the trip, while Linda was driving, defendant entered the lower bunk where Nichole was sleeping and touched her in a lewd manner. Nichole subsequently told Linda that she did not like sleeping with defendant. As a result, Linda put the top bunk down so Nichole could sleep there. Defendant protested that it was illegal for Nichole to sleep in the top bunk while the truck was moving. On several other occasions during the trip, while Linda was driving, defendant entered the lower bunk and pressed up against Nichole in a lewd manner. All of these incidents of lewd conduct occurred while the truck was travelling somewhere outside of California.

When Linda and defendant returned to Hemet, their employment required them to leave on a trip to Oregon the same day. Defendant mentioned, in the presence of Breanna and Nichole, that he might have time to stop at their aunt's house in Oregon. When Nichole and Breanna, who was then nine years of age, said they wanted to go on the trip, defendant agreed. At some point during this trip, Linda and Nichole left the truck at a rest stop while Breanna was sleeping on the bottom bunk. Defendant lay down on the bed with her. He put his leg over her and, when she tried to avoid him, grabbed her leg, causing her to fall.

Some months later, defendant took Breanna and her younger sister, Christine, on an overnight trip from Hemet to Los Angeles. Christine had asked to go on this trip, and because Breanna did not want her sister going by herself, she volunteered to accompany her. That night, after he had stopped to unload the truck, defendant tried to remove Breanna's pants. Later that night, when Breanna was sleeping in the bunk, appellant pressed against her and touched her in a lewd manner.

The prosecution also presented evidence at trial that defendant previously had molested two girls, each then nine years of age, in the winter of 1982-1983. One was the daughter of defendant's girlfriend, with whom he resided. The other was the daughter of a friend of defendant's, who sometimes spent the night at defendant's house.

After the preliminary hearing, defense counsel filed a motion under section 995, seeking to set aside the information on the ground that no evidence had been presented establishing that any of the offenses had taken place in Riverside County. The court denied that motion, stating that it appeared defendant had an ongoing plan and the intent to commit the alleged acts each time he picked up the children in Hemet. After presentation of the prosecution's case at trial, defense counsel moved to dismiss the counts involving Breanna based on lack of jurisdiction and venue. Defense counsel argued that the evidence did not establish that defendant had the intent to commit the offenses when he was in Riverside County or in California, because he did not invite Breanna to go on the trips to Oregon and Los Angeles; rather, the evidence established that she had volunteered to go. The court denied the motion, finding the circumstantial evidence sufficient to demonstrate that defendant intended to molest Breanna when he agreed to take the girls on the trips, particularly because he already had molested Nichole on the first trip.

Defense counsel never requested that the issues of territorial jurisdiction or venue be submitted to the jury. The court instructed the jurors that, although the information charged that the crimes occurred in Riverside County, if they found that the lewd acts occurred they did not have to decide whether these acts occurred in Riverside County. The court also instructed the jury that the question of the court's jurisdiction was not for them to decide. Defense counsel objected to the court's giving this particular instruction, but agreed that jurisdiction was not an issue for the jury.

The Court of Appeal affirmed defendant's convictions. It rejected defendant's argument that he had the right to a jury trial on the issues of venue and territorial jurisdiction, concluding that those issues do not concern the guilt or innocence of the accused.

II.

It long has been established that a state will entertain a criminal proceeding only to enforce its own criminal laws, and will not assume authority to enforce the penal laws of other states or the federal government through criminal prosecutions in its state courts. (See Huntington v. Attrill (1892) 146 U.S. 657, 13 S.Ct. 224, 36 L.Ed. 1123 ["Crimes and offenses against the laws of any state can only be defined, prosecuted, and pardoned by the sovereign authority of that state."].) At common law, courts applied a narrow principle of territorial jurisdiction in criminal cases and, with some exceptions, a particular crime was viewed as occurring for purposes of jurisdiction in only one location, conferring jurisdiction over the offense upon only a single state. (See 1 LaFave et al., Criminal Procedure (2d ed.1999) § 16.4(c); Williams, Venue and the Ambit of the Criminal Law (1965) 81 Law Q.Rev. 518, 526; see, e.g., State v. Hall (1894) 114 N.C. 909, 19 S.E. 602 [North Carolina lacked jurisdiction where the defendant shot across state border, hitting and killing victim in Tennessee].) But conduct relating to criminal activity frequently is not confined to the borders of a single state, and strict application of territorial principles often can render problematic the prosecution of crimes involving more than one state. Although the constitutional limits of state courts' extraterritorial jurisdiction in criminal matters have not been precisely delineated, it is clear that states may extend their jurisdiction beyond the narrow limits imposed by the common law. For example, a state may exercise jurisdiction over criminal acts that take place outside of the state if the results of the crime are intended to, and do, cause harm within the state. (See Strassheim v. Daily (1911) 221 U.S. 280, 285, 31 S.Ct. 558, 55 L.Ed....