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Supreme Court upholds sex assault conviction
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Posted on Aug 27 2008
The CNMI Supreme Court has denied the appeal of a man convicted of sexual assault of a minor stemming from a 2003 incident.
Chief Justice Miguel S. Demapan, and Associate Judges Alexandro C. Castro and John A. Manglona found the trial court did not err in convicting Joselito Castro.
In 2004, Castro was convicted of sexual assault, sexual abuse of a minor, assault and battery, and disturbing the peace, after he kissed a 9-year-old girl on the mouth five times and touched her breast four times.
Castro appealed to the Supreme Court on three grounds: he was denied a bill of particulars; the trial court erred in denying his request to instruct the jury to follow a unanimity decision; and his conviction subjected him to double jeopardy.
The Supreme Court justices wrote in their decision that Castro was given sufficient information about the charges, including the dates, initials of the victim, details of the crime, and 30 pages of discovery materials.
At the close of the 2004 trial, Castro asked the court to instruct the jury they must unanimously agree that at least one of the sexual acts occurred, but must not mix non-unanimous findings about several incidents to come up with a guilty verdict. The trial court denied Castro’s request. The Supreme Court upheld the decision because, they wrote, “Castro’s actions constituted a continuing course of conduct…these actions were so closely connected that they formed one continuous, unlawful event.”
The Supreme Court also denied Castro’s double jeopardy appeal because he failed to argue double jeopardy at trial or brief the issue on appeal.
Castro was 40 years old when he kissed the 9-year-old girl after he volunteered to drive the girl to her aunt’s friend’s house. Along the way, he stopped several times and kissed and touched her breasts.
In 2004, Judge David Wiseman sentenced Castro to seven years in prison with three years suspended for each of the sexual abuse convictions; one year imprisonment for the assault and battery conviction; and six months imprisonment for disturbing the peace.
