P. v. Serna
A jury found defendant Rodney Serna guilty of violating Penal Code[1] section 288, subdivision (c)(1) (section 288(c)(1)) for committing lewd acts on a 15-year-old girl.[2] Based on five charges under section 288(c)(1), along with two additional charges not at issue here, the trial court sentenced defendant to five years in prison.
On appeal, defendant contends the judgment must be reversed because “[t]he trial court erred prejudicially by failing to give a mistake of fact instruction as to [the] age of the victim.†We conclude that mistake of fact as to the age of the victim is not a defense to a section 288(c)(1) charge and, accordingly, the trial court’s refusal to give such an instruction was not error. Therefore, we affirm.
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