P. v. Morales-Cuevas CA1/1
Defendant Armando Morales-Cuevas was accused of sexually abusing his stepdaughter (stepdaughter) beginning when she was nine years old. Stepdaughter repeatedly retracted and renewed her allegations, but Morales-Cuevas confessed to some of the allegations during a police interview. A jury convicted him of four counts of sexual intercourse or sodomy with a child 10 years of age or younger and one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 years of age, and he was sentenced to 116 years to life in prison.
On appeal, Morales-Cuevas advances seven primary claims. These are that (1) the trial court should have suppressed his statements to the police, because he did not validly waive his rights under Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 (Miranda) before being interrogated and his confession was coerced; (2) portions of CALJIC No. 10.42.6, the jury instruction given on the count of continuous sexual abuse, are legally incorrect; (3) expert testimony about Child Sexual Abuse
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