People v. Hubbart
| Decision Date | 08 May 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. H021322.,H021322. |
| Citation | 106 Cal.Rptr.2d 490,88 Cal.App.4th 1202 |
| Court | California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
| Parties | The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Christopher Evans HUBBART, Defendant and Appellant. |
Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, David P. Druliner, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Ronald A. Bass, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Catherine A. Rivlin, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Ross Moody, Deputy Attorney General, Attorneys for Plaintiff and Respondent The People.
Defendant Christopher Evans Hubbart appeals after a jury found him to be a sexually violent predator (SVP) within the meaning of the Sexually Violent Predators Act (SVPA) (Welf. & Inst.Code, § 6600 et seq.). The trial court ordered him committed to Atascadero State Hospital (ASH) for a two-year period.
On appeal, defendant contends: (1) the SVPA violates the state and federal constitutional guarantees of equal protection; (2) the SVPA violates the federal constitutional prohibitions against ex post facto laws and double jeopardy, and it violates the federal constitutional guarantee of due process; (3) defendant's commitment is invalid because he was not in legal custody at the time the petition for commitment was filed; (4) the trial court erred by instructing the jury on the standard of proof pursuant to CALJIC No. 4.19; (5) the trial court erred by admitting detailed evidence of 16 of defendant's sexual assaults; (6) the cumulative impact of the trial errors warrants reversal.
We will affirm the judgment.
We have previously summarized the SVPA in several cases, most recently in Butler v. Superior Court (2000) 78 Cal. App.4th 1171, 1174-1177, 93 Cal.Rptr.2d 468. (See also People v. Superior Court (Howard) (1999) 70 Cal.App.4th 136, 148-151, 82 Cal.Rptr.2d 481; People v. Butler (1998) 68 Cal.App.4th 421, 424-428, 80 Cal. Rptr.2d 357.) The California Supreme Court summarized the SVPA and some of the procedural history of this case in Hubbart v. Superior Court (1999) 19 Cal.4th 1138, 1143-1149, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 492, 969 P.2d 584.
On January 2, 1996, the District Attorney of Santa Clara County filed a petition to commit defendant as an SVP. The petition alleged that defendant was in the custody of the Department of Corrections, with a scheduled release date of January 25, 1996. Attached to the petition was a declaration by a deputy district attorney. The declaration alleged that defendant qualified for commitment under the SVPA because he had been convicted of sexually violent offenses against at least two victims and because two psychologists had diagnosed defendant as having a mental disorder such that he was likely to engage in acts of sexual violence without appropriate treatment and custody. The psychiatric evaluations were attached to the petition.
Defendant filed a demurrer to the petition on January 19, 1996, alleging that the SVPA was unconstitutional on its face and as applied to him. The trial court overruled the demurrer on February 9, 1996. Defendant then petitioned this court for a writ of mandate and a stay of the proceedings. After we denied writ relief, defendant petitioned for review in the California Supreme Court, which affirmed our decision, in Hubbart v. Superior Court, supra, 19 Cal.4th 1138, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 492, 969 P.2d 584.
The California Supreme Court rejected defendant's several due process challenges to the SVPA. First, the court held that the definition of "diagnosed mental disorder" was not overbroad for lack of an express "mental illness" requirement. (Hubbart v. Superior Court, supra, 19 Cal.4th at p. 1157, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 492, 969 P.2d 584.) Second, the court held that the definition of dangerousness was not overbroad, concluding that the SVPA "requires the trier of fact to find that an SVP is dangerous at the time of commitment" (id. at p. 1162, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 492, 969 P.2d 584) and precludes commitment based solely on evidence of prior sexually violent offenses (id. at pp. 1163-1164, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 492, 969 P.2d 584). Third, the court held that the SVPA does not need to guarantee effective treatment in order to comply with due process (id. at p. 1164, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 492, 969 P.2d 584), and it rejected defendant's "suggestion that the Act's treatment provisions are a sham" (id. at p. 1166, 81 Cal. Rptr.2d 492, 969 P.2d 584).
The California Supreme Court also rejected an equal protection challenge to the SVPA. It held that because the SVPA requires a finding of present dangerousness, it "does not permit the involuntary commitment of mentally disordered persons based on a definition of dangerousness materially distinct" from the definition used under analogous statutory schemes. (Hubbart v. Superior Court, supra, 19 Cal.4th at p. 1169, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 492, 969 P.2d 584.)
Finally, the California Supreme Court held that the SVPA did not offend the ex post facto clauses of the state and federal Constitutions, finding that defendant failed to demonstrate "that the SVPA imposes punishment or otherwise implicates ex post facto concerns." (Hubbart v. Superior Court, supra, 19 Cal.4th at p. 1179, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d 492, 969 P.2d 584.)
Defendant's jury trial ultimately commenced on February 7, 2000. He stipulated that he had been convicted of a qualifying sex offense against two or more victims. (Welf. & Inst.Code, § 6600, subd. (a).) Specifically, he had three 1973 convictions of forcible sodomy (Pen.Code, § 286), a 1973 conviction of forcible rape (former Pen.Code, § 261, subd. 3; see Stats.1970, ch. 1301, § 1, p. 2405),1 a 1982 conviction of forcible rape (former Pen.Code, § 261, subd. 2, see Stats.1970, ch. 1301, § 1, p. 2405), and a 1982 conviction of forcible oral copulation (Pen.Code, § 288a, subd. (a)).
Defendant testified for the People and on his own behalf. He began breaking into houses to watch women when he was about 15 or 16 years old. He first sexually assaulted a woman when he was a senior in high school; he reached out and touched her breast as she was walking by. He repeated that type of assault seven or eight times before 1971, and about eight to ten times after he started college in 1971. He would sometimes follow women home.
Defendant began to sexually assault women in their homes in 1972. He committed 25 or 26 such assaults that year, all of them in the Los Angeles area. He would drive around in the early morning and look for homes that had garage doors open, indicating the man of the house had gone to work. He would also look for children's toys, believing that mothers would be protective of their children and more likely to cooperate with him. He would bind the women's hands and cover their faces, then sexually assault them. The sexual acts included fondling their breasts, vaginal intercourse, and anal intercourse.
In November of 1972, defendant was arrested and indicted, then deemed a mentally disordered sex offender (MDSO). (Former Welf. & Inst.Code, § 6300 et seq.) He spent about six and a half years in treatment at ASH. In November of 1979, defendant was released from ASH. He went to live in the south Bay Area, where he continued to receive treatment from Dr. Gary Freitas, a therapist he had met at ASH.
Within a few months of his release, defendant committed another string of sexual assaults and burglaries. He committed about 50 burglaries in Sunnyvale and San Francisco, beginning in February of 1980. He committed two rapes in San Francisco, in December of 1980 and January of 1981, and then committed a string of sexual assaults in the Sunnyvale area. Called by the prosecution, defendant provided the details of these incidents at his SVPA trial.
In December of 1980, defendant saw a woman inside her home in San Francisco. He came back at about 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., with a flashlight and material for binding and gagging the victim. He entered through an open window in the back of the house. He woke the victim by putting his hand over her mouth. He told her, "just do what I say and it will be all right." He tied her hands behind her back, gagged her, and covered her eyes. He fondled her breasts, inserted his finger into her vagina, and then attempted to sodomize her. He did not penetrate her anus because the victim told him no. Instead, he inserted his penis into her vagina. He unbound the victim before leaving.
In January of 1981, defendant saw a woman enter her San Francisco apartment. He found her physically attractive. He returned a few days later. He climbed an outside railing, opened a window, and entered the victim's apartment. He woke the victim by placing his hand over her mouth and told her to comply with him. He bound her hands, gagged her, and covered her eyes. He then fondled her breasts. He attempted to rape her, but she claimed she had a venereal disease, so instead he sodomized her.
On January 19, 1981, defendant entered an apartment at the Daisy Ridge apartment complex in Sunnyvale, at about 3:45 a.m. He woke the victim up and attempted to keep her quiet. He did not bind her in any way and he did not commit any sexual assault. On January 29, 1981, at about 5:15 a.m., defendant entered the same apartment, because he "had some thoughts about going back and probably fondling" the woman, who he found attractive. He encountered a second woman. He threatened to slit her throat if she screamed, then fondled her breasts.
On February 19, 1981, defendant entered another Sunnyvale residence at about 4:30 a.m. He intended only to take money, but he noticed the victim and decided to "do more." He left to obtain some materials. When he returned, he placed his hand over the victim's mouth, bound her hands behind her back, gagged her, and placed tape over her eyes. He fondled the victim's breasts and inserted a vibrator into her vagina. He also had the...
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