HFiled 12/7/05 P. v. Beavers CA2/8

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

APPEAL from the judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Rufo Espinoza, Jr., Judge. Affirmed.

Edward H. Schulman, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Lawrence M. Daniels, and Ryan M. Smith, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

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Defendant and appellant Juan Desmond Beavers appeals from the judgment entered following a jury trial that resulted in his conviction of, among other things, continuous sexual abuse of S.B.^[1] He contends the evidence was insufficient to support the judgment. We disagree.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The Prosecution's Case

We view the evidence in accordance with the usual rules on appeal. (People v. Kraft (2000) 23 Cal.4th 978, 1053.) S.testified that she was one of seven children born to defendant. She was 16 years old at the time of trial. S.described defendant as an alcoholic who beat both S.and her mother, H. The police came to the family home several times but defendant was never arrested. For as long as S.could remember, defendant kept a shotgun in the house.

When S.was seven years old, defendant began showing her pornographic films. When S.was nine, defendant began touching her breasts and vagina, both inside and outside her clothing. Usually, these touchings occurred at night, in the living room, when everyone else in the house was asleep. S.was nine years old when the touching escalated into forced sexual intercourse. S.recalled that, on the first such occasion, defendant came into the room she shared with her siblings one night and instructed her to go into the living room. Once in the living room, defendant took off S.'s pajamas and had sexual intercourse with her on the couch. S.told defendant that he was hurting her, but defendant did not stop.

After that first instance, defendant had sexual contact with S.every other day for the next several years; S.estimated over a thousand times. If S.protested, defendant would get mad and hit her. S.'s siblings never woke up when defendant came into the bedroom they shared to get S.^[2] No one ever came into the room and saw defendant having sex with S. Even when the family lived in two motel rooms--a girls' room and a boys' room--and defendant would wake S.and bring her into the boys' room, no one ever woke up to see defendant having sex with S. And when the family moved from the motel room into a one-bedroom apartment, no one ever walked in on defendant having sex with S.in the kitchen of that apartment. During the time defendant was sexually abusing S., she told only her cousin Allactia what was happening.^[3] Later, S.told her best friend, Brittany W.^[4]

On March 23, 2001, the police came to S.'s home because defendant kicked her. Defendant left the house, but a few weeks later H. allowed him to come back. A few months later, in August 2001, S.was 13 years old when she told defendant that she would no longer have sex with him. A week later, on August 21, 2001, defendant accused S.of having sex with the man who lived upstairs. When S.denied it, defendant hit her in the face with his fists. During the argument, defendant tried to have sex with S., but she resisted. Defendant resumed hitting her and knocked out her tooth, which he then picked up and hit with a hammer. Defendant started choking S.and she thought he would kill her. When H. came home, defendant told her that S.was sleeping with the man upstairs. H. walked out of the house without saying anything. Defendant was holding his gun and threatened to kill himself, then walked out the back door. That evening, the police came to the house.^[5] A few months later, defendant returned to the house to pick up L. to take her to live with him in Arizona.

In June 2004, shortly before S.came to court to testify about the August 21, 2001, incident, she received a letter from defendant. On the back of the envelope, defendant wrote: â€