California v. Jones

Defendant-appellant Carl Jones was convicted of felony sodomy of an unconscious victim pursuant to Penal Code section 286(f). The trial exhibits included a video recording where Jones’s roommate recounted what she had observed to an investigator. What the roommate said was hard to discern at times, and the parties disputed whether she said she heard the victim tell Jones immediately before the incident that “‘I’m a little horny.’” Whether the victim made such a remark would bear on whether she was conscious and gave consent. On appeal, Jones argued the trial court erred by not providing the jury a version of the video’s transcript that contained the line. The Court of Appeal determined the trial court correctly informed the jury, however, that the video itself was the evidence, not any transcript purporting to indicate the contents of the video. Therefore, in the unpublished portion of its opinion, the Court rejected Jones’s contention and affirmed the conviction. View "California v. Jones" on Justia Law