## Facts

- Jose Luis Abrego and Ester Abrego were still legally married but had lived separately for months.
- Early morning after a party, Ester was asleep at her home; Leonardo Gonzalez and two other men were also sleeping there.
- Abrego arrived, Ester let him in, and he became angry, swore at her, and slapped or punched her multiple times in the face and head.
- Ester went to wake Gonzalez; Abrego followed, continued shouting, and asserted he could control Ester because he was her husband.
- Ester testified Abrego kicked Gonzalez, pulled a telephone cord from the wall, left, and threw a rock through a living room window.
- An officer responding after the incident reported Ester said she was in pain and had tenderness where she was struck; the officer saw no visible injury.
- At trial, Ester minimized the incident and testified she was not injured and felt no pain.
- A jury convicted Abrego of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse (Cal. Penal Code § 273.5(a)) and misdemeanor battery as a lesser included offense of assault with a deadly weapon; it also found true an on-bail allegation (Cal. Penal Code § 12022.1) as to the § 273.5 count.

## Issues

1. Whether substantial evidence supported the § 273.5 conviction where the victim reported pain and tenderness but had no visible injuries and later denied injury at trial.
2. Whether the trial court improperly denied Abrego the right to testify.
3. Whether the § 12022.1 on-bail enhancement should have been stricken rather than stayed.
4. Whether denial of a defense mistrial motion without an explicit prejudice determination required reversal.
5. Whether a $2,000 restitution fine was erroneous or excessive.

## Decision

- The court affirmed the § 273.5 conviction, holding the evidence was sufficient to establish “corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition.”
- The court held § 273.5 does not require visible injury; pain and tenderness attributable to the attack can satisfy the statute.
- The court applied the substantial evidence standard and held the jury could credit the victim’s contemporaneous report to police over her trial recantation or minimization.
- The court rejected Abrego’s remaining claims of trial error and the restitution-fine challenge.
- The court directed modification of the judgment to strike (not merely stay) the § 12022.1 enhancement.

## Legal Principles

- Under Cal. Penal Code § 273.5, “corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition” may be proved by minor injury and need not involve visible bruises or other external marks.
- A victim’s contemporaneous report of pain, soreness, or tenderness caused by the defendant’s blows can constitute sufficient evidence of a qualifying “traumatic condition.”
- On appellate review for sufficiency of the evidence, the court views the record in the light most favorable to the judgment and does not reweigh credibility where the victim’s accounts conflict.
- An inoperative Cal. Penal Code § 12022.1 enhancement should be stricken from the judgment rather than stayed to prevent improper future use.

## Conclusion

The Court of Appeal upheld Abrego’s spousal-injury conviction, explaining that § 273.5 covers minor bodily injury shown by pain or tenderness even without visible marks, and it ordered the judgment modified to strike the § 12022.1 enhancement while otherwise affirming the judgment.


People v. Abrego, 21 Cal. App. 4th 133 (Cal. Ct. App. 1993)