People v. Nieto
Annotate this CaseA jury convicted defendant of committing lewd acts and found true a special allegation that he kidnapped the victim. The Court of Appeal concluded that the pattern jury instruction for kidnapping, CALCRIM No. 1201, wrongly permits a jury to find deception itself sufficient to prove general kidnapping. However, the court concluded that the instructional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt where the evidence was otherwise sufficient to prove kidnapping. The court explained that the error in this case—equating deception with physical force—did not contribute to the verdict.
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