P. v. Perez
Javier Enrique Perez was convicted of one count of sexual penetration with a foreign object on nine-year-old Mario, and one count of committing a forcible lewd act on eight-year-old Andy. In plain English, he raped Mario with a toy light saber, broken at the tip, and forced Andy into participating in that rape. For these crimes he was sentenced to two consecutive terms of 15 years to life, for a total of 30 years to life. Perez was 16 years old when he committed the crimes. He presents four discrete challenges to the judgment.
(1) He claims there was insufficient evidence of force or coercion against the eight-year old.
(2) He claims his sentence is cruel and unusual as shown by recent federal and state high court case law, specifically Miller v. Alabama (2012) ___ U.S. ___ 132 S.Ct. 2455; Graham v. Florida (2010) ___ U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct 2011; and People v. Caballero (2012) 55 Cal.4th 262.
(3) He claims that under Miller, Graham and Caballero, California’s one-strike law is unconstitutional as applied to persons under age 18, because it left the trial court without any discretion to impose something less than 30 years to life.
(4) He claims that under older state high court case law, specifically People v. Dillon (1983) 34 Cal.3d 441 and In re Lynch (1972) 8 Cal.3d 410, his sentence is grossly disproportionate to his offenses.[1]
We affirm. In brief:
(1) There was substantial evidence Perez used both force and intimidation against Andy, including forcibly grabbing him and pulling his pants down.
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