People v. Hernandez

Early one morning, Carlos Morales Hernandez (defendant) broke into the victim’s home, where she lived with her two-year-old daughter. Hernandez knew the victim from church and the neighborhood, but they never directly interacted. Hernandez was drunk, high, and carried a two-foot-long metal exercise bar. Hernandez threw the victim’s cell and landline phones out of her reach, warned her that he had just killed a policeman, told her that he wanted to be with her, and started to touch her legs. The victim attempted to cross her feet and cover herself with blankets. Hernandez told her she had 10 minutes to give into sex or “something bad was going to happen,” as he held the metal bar near his chest. Hernandez repeatedly told the victim to quiet her crying child. Finally, the victim said, “Let me give her a bottle and then do whatever you want with me.” As she tried to quiet her child, Hernandez sodomized her. The victim dropped to the floor so that her daughter could not see, and Hernandez vaginally penetrated her. Afterward, the victim called her child’s father for help, and he called the police. Hernandez told police that he was high, had desired the victim for six months, the victim consented to have sex with him after he threatened to hurt her only once, and he lied about killing someone to scare her into submission. The jury convicted Hernandez of sodomy and rape. Hernandez appealed, claiming the trial court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on his defense that he had a reasonable, mistaken belief that the victim consented.