07/07/2020 IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE Assigned on Briefs April 15, 2020 STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JOSE GONZALEZ BONILLA Appeal from the Criminal Court for Sumner County No. CR323-2016 Dee David Gay, Judge ___________________________________ No. M2019-01193-CCA-R3-CD ___________________________________ The Defendant, Jose Gonzalez Bonilla, was convicted by a jury of rape of a child and aggravated sexual battery, and he received an effective sentence of thirty-five years in confinement. The Defendant appeals, asserting that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict, that the trial court erred in denying his motion to sever, that the trial court erred in permitting the testimony of a forensic social worker, that he is entitled to relief from the convictions under the theory of cumulative error, and that the trial court erred in sentencing him. After a thorough review of the record, we conclude that the Defendant is not entitled to appellate relief, and we affirm the trial court’s judgments. Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgments of the Criminal Court Affirmed JOHN EVERETT WILLIAMS, P.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which ALAN E. GLENN and ROBERT W. WEDEMEYER, JJ., joined. David Allen Doyle, District Public Defender, and Mike Anderson, Assistant Public Defender, for the appellant, Jose Gonzalez Bonilla. Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter; T. Austin Watkins, Assistant Attorney General; Ray Whitley, District Attorney General; and Tara Wyllie and Daniel R. Daugherty, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. OPINION FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY The Defendant’s ten-year-old stepdaughter disclosed to her mother that the Defendant had sexually abused her by digitally penetrating her on one occasion and by touching her vaginal area on another occasion. The Defendant fled the state but was subsequently apprehended and charged with rape of a child occurring in October 2015 and with aggravated sexual battery occurring in November 2015. The Defendant moved to sever the offenses. At trial, the victim testified that the Defendant was her stepfather and the father of her younger brother. The victim recalled that when she was ten years old, she lived with her mother, her brother, and the Defendant at the home of her mother’s friend for approximately two months. Her family slept in the living room, but she slept in the homeowner’s office. A video of the victim’s forensic interview was played for the jury. The victim stated in the video that her mother’s friend had a sectional couch in the living room and that her mother was asleep on one end of the couch while the victim was watching television at the other end. She told the interviewer that the Defendant was seated at her mother’s feet and began to tug on the victim’s leg. The Defendant then put his right hand up the right leg of the victim’s loose-fitting pajama pants. She stated that he put his hand into her private area and asked her “if it felt good.” She told him to stop and eventually kicked ...
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