A. The victim was in Defendants care or custody.
On its appeal Defendant argues that there is insufficient evidence that she had “care or custody” of the victim. The following cases and established evidence proves to the contrary.
1. There is sufficient evidence that Defendant had the care or custody of the victim when she voluntarily and occasionally babysitted the victim.
Statute prohibiting child endangerment by one having the care or custody of the child applies not only to parents, guardians, and babysitters, but also to individuals who do not necessarily have as substantial a relationship to a child as a parent, guardian, and/or babysitter, but who nevertheless have been entrusted with the care of a child, even for a relatively short period of time. People …show more content…
During the time of his arrest, he was “babysitting” the four-year-old daughter of his sister. He was arrested for possession of narcotics and charged with child endangerment under California Code 273. On appeal, the defendant argued that there was insufficient evidence that he had “care or custody of the child within the meaning of the statute § 273a, The reviewing court disagreed. According to the court, there was sufficient evidence that defendant, at times, assumed the role of caregiver even if he voluntarily and only occasionally babysat the child. Because of the fact that he was always at home, and in view of the work and sleep schedules of the other adults in the house, it was reasonable for jurors to infer both that there were times when defendant was the only adult in the home who was not asleep while the four-year-old child was there, and that the child's mother and grandmother would not have left her without any adult supervision. Based on those finding, the court concluded that he had the “care and custody” of a child and affirmed the judgment of conviction of child endangerment.