People v. Valdez

• Decision Date: 28 March 2002
• Docket Number: No. S095660.,S095660.
• Citation: 42 P.3d 511,118 Cal.Rptr.2d 3,27 Cal.4th 778
• Parties: The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Eva VALDEZ et al., Defendants and Appellants. The People, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Eva Valdez, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: California Supreme Court

118 Cal.Rptr.2d 3

27 Cal.4th 778

42 P.3d 511

The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Eva VALDEZ et al., Defendants and Appellants.

The People, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Eva Valdez, Defendant and Appellant.

No. S095660.

Supreme Court of California.

March 28, 2002.

Scott Concklin, under appointment by the Supreme Court, Redding, for Defendant and Appellant Eva Valdez.

Steven Shorr, under appointment by the Supreme Court, Castro Valley, for Defendant and Appellant Hiram David Lebron.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, David P. Druliner and Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Jo Graves and Arnold O. Overoye, Assistant Attorneys General, Carlos A. Martinez, Robert M. Morgester, Harry Joseph Colombo and Janis Shank McLean, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

BROWN, J.

In this case we address the mens rea for felony child abuse involving indirect infliction of harm. (Pen.Code, § 273a, subd. (a).)¹ Consistent with a long line of decisional authority, the jury was instructed that felony child endangerment could be committed if defendant Eva Valdez acted with criminal negligence. However, the Court of Appeal interpreted the statute differently, concluding a defendant must purposefully place the child in a hazardous situation, while possessing a subjective awareness of this risk. It therefore reversed defendant's conviction. We reaffirm criminal negligence is the appropriate standard, and therefore reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

On May 17, 1997, Thalia Escoto, the 11-month-old daughter of defendant Eva Valdez, died as the result of a brutal beating and shaking inflicted by defendant's live-in fiance, Hiram Lebron. For the first eight months of her life, Thalia received regular medical care and suffered no unusual injuries. By all accounts, including Lebron's testimony, defendant never mistreated her children.

In February 1997, Lebron moved in with defendant, Thalia, and defendant's two other children. On or about February 8, 1997, Lebron offered to care for the children while defendant worked. When defendant returned from work, Thalia was screaming and seriously burned on her left buttocks and side; the burn had a circular shape. Lebron told defendant the burn occurred while Thalia was momentarily left in a sink and the water became too hot. In April 1997, Thalia's arm broke when Lebron attempted to pull her from defendant's arms; defendant heard a popping sound. Defendant testified the injury could have also occurred while she was attempting to pull Thalia's arm from her car seat strap; she told friends she did not know how the injury happened. Later in April or in early May, Thalia received a black eye while in Lebron's care. He told defendant Thalia slipped and hit her head in the bathtub. The injury was so noticeable that when defendant went to pick up food stamps, the person helping her spoke to the police. Defendant continued to leave Thalia in Lebron's care. At some point Lebron also "yell[ed] in the baby's face" because Thalia was crying, and put his fist through a wall during an argument with defendant. Defendant told a friend that she was afraid because Lebron scared her children and that she was thinking of leaving him. She also told a friend she was afraid of Lebron's temper. Defendant was counseled by friends that too many accidents were happening for her to safely entrust Thalia to Lebron.

On May 17, 1997, Thalia died from severe beating and shaking injuries while in Lebron's care. Lebron told emergency room personnel Thalia had fallen from a bed. Medical testimony established that by the time of her death, Thalia had old injuries, such as a split upper and lower frenulum, perhaps resulting from a bottle or other object being forced into her mouth.

Defendant and Lebron were tried together with separate juries. Defendant testified, and while conceding she was at work at the time the fatal injuries occurred, attempted to provide exculpatory explanations for how Thalia had been injured. These explanations were inconsistent with the timing and severity of the injuries, which included skull fractures and massive internal bleeding.

Lebron was found guilty of assault resulting in the death of a child under eight (§ 273ab), and involuntary manslaughter (§ 192). Defendant was found guilty of felony child endangerment. (§ 273a, subd. (a).) The jury also found true the allegation defendant willfully caused or permitted Thalia to be injured or harmed, and that injury or harm resulted in death. (§ 12022.95.) Defendant was sentenced to two years in prison for violation of section 273a, subdivision (a), and to four years for the enhancement.²

The Court of Appeal reversed defendant's conviction. The court concluded the "mental state element for section 273a(a) felony willful endangerment is purposefully or intentionally causing or permitting a child to be placed in a situation where the child's person or health is seriously endangered; given this required purpose or intent, the accused must subjectively know or be aware of the danger. There is no `criminal negligence' mental state element in section 273a." (Fn.omitted.)

We granted the Attorney General's petition for review.

II. Discussion

A. Background

Section 20 provides, "In every crime or public offense there must exist a union, or joint operation of act and intent, or criminal negligence." (See also § 26, class Five [persons incapable of committing crime include those "who committed the act or made the omission charged through misfortune or by accident, when it appears that there was no evil design, intention, or culpable negligence"].)

Criminal negligence is "`aggravated, culpable, gross, or reckless ... conduct ... [that is] such a departure from what would be the conduct of an ordinarily prudent or careful [person] under the same circumstances as to be incompatible with a proper regard for human life (People v. Penny (1955) 44 Cal.2d 861, 879, 285 P.2d 926 (Penny).) "Under the criminal negligence standard, knowledge of the risk is determined by an objective test: `[I]f a reasonable person in defendant's position would have been aware of the risk involved, then defendant is presumed to have had such an awareness.'" (Williams v. Garcetti (1993) 5 Cal.4th 561, 574, 20 Cal.Rptr.2d 341, 853 P.2d 507, italics omitted [further stating "there can be no criminal negligence without actual or constructive knowledge of the risk"]; Walker v. Superior Court (1988) 47 Cal.3d 112, 136, 253 Cal.Rptr. 1, 763 P.2d 852 (Walker) ["criminal negligence must be evaluated objectively"].) Under section 20, criminal negligence "may be sufficient to make an act a criminal offense, without a criminal intent." (1 Witkin & Epstein, Cal.Criminal Law (3d ed. 2000) Elements, § 20, p. 225.)

Section 273a, subdivision (a) "is an omnibus statute that proscribes essentially four branches of conduct." (People v. Sargent (1999) 19 Cal.4th 1206, 1215, 81 Cal. Rptr.2d 835, 970 P.2d 409 (Sargent).) As relevant here, it provides: "Any person who, under circumstances or conditions likely to produce great bodily harm or death, [1] willfully causes or permits any child to suffer, or [2] inflicts thereon unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering, or [3] having the care or custody of any child, willfully causes or permits the person or health of that child to be injured, or [4] willfully causes or permits that child to be placed in a situation where his or her person or health is endangered, shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison for two, four, or six years."³ (§ 273a, subd. (a).)

Violation of section 273a, subdivision (a) "`can occur in a wide variety of situations: the definition broadly includes both active and passive conduct, i.e., child abuse by direct assault and child endangering by extreme neglect.' (People v. Smith (1984) 35 Cal.3d 798, 806, 201 Cal. Rptr. 311, 678 P.2d 886.) ... Section 273a(a) is `intended to protect a child from an abusive situation in which the probability of serious injury is great.' (People v. Jaramillo (1979) 98 Cal.App.3d 830, 835 .) `[T]here is no requirement that the actual result be great bodily injury.' (Ibid.)" (Sargent, supra, 19 Cal.4th at pp. 1215-1216,81 Cal.Rptr.2d 835,970 P.2d 409.)

In People v. Peabody (1975) 46 Cal. App.3d 43, 119 Cal.Rptr. 780, the defendant's four-month-old infant suffered multiple nonaccidental fractures. (Id. at pp. 45-46, 119 Cal.Rptr. 780.) There was no evidence that the defendant, as opposed to the baby's father, had inflicted the injuries. (Id. at p. 46, 119 Cal.Rptr. 780.) Thus, "the conviction can stand only under that portion of the statute which proscribes a person from wilfully causing or permitting a child to be placed in a health endangering situation under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm or death." (Ibid., italics omitted.) The court held that under these circumstances, section 273a, former subdivision (1) (now subdivision (a)) "requires proof of criminal negligence." (Peabody, at p. 48, 119 Cal.Rptr. 780.)

Since Peabody, numerous cases involving indirect abuse have interpreted section 273a, subdivision (a) as imposing a criminal negligence requirement. (See, e.g., People v. Kinkead (2000) 80 Cal.App.4th 1113, 1116-1117, 1119-1121, 96 Cal.Rptr.2d 121 (Kinkead) [the defendant fell asleep next to his three-year-old daughter, after ingesting methamphetamine, marijuana, and alcohol and being up for days, and asphyxiated her]; People v. Toney (1999) 76 Cal. App.4th 618, 620-622, 90 Cal.Rptr.2d 578 [child living in home with three-gallon pail of a caustic chemical that could melt the skin on contact on kitchen floor and with other hazards]; People v. Hansen (1997) 59 Cal.App.4th 473, 476-478, 481-182 [34-year-old man encouraged 14-year-old neighbor to play fatal game of Russian roulette]; People v. Deskin (1992) 10 Cal. App.4th 1397, 1399,...