Is there sufficient evidence to support a jury's implicit conclusion the victim was alive when defendant committed sodomy?

Likewise, the record contains sufficient evidence to support the jury's implicit conclusion the victim was alive when defendant committed sodomy, as required for conviction. (People v. Ramirez (1990) 50 Cal.3d 1158, 1176, 270 Cal.Rptr. 286, 791 P.2d 965.) Defendant reasons that the pathologist's finding of no injury to the rectum, despite slight dilation of the anus, indicates any penetration must have occurred after death, with its concomitant relaxation of the sphincter muscles. The jury, however, may have inferred, as the Attorney General suggests, that the sodomy was committed before the emasculation and resultant bleeding. In any case,

[5 P.3d 56]

as in People v. Ramirez, "[although the prosecution's pathologist may not have been able to determine clinically whether penetration occurred shortly prior to death, at death, or just after death, in the absence of any evidence suggesting that the victim's assailant intended to have sexual conduct with a corpse [citation], we believe that the jury could reasonably have inferred from the evidence that the assailant engaged in sexual conduct with the victim while [he] was still alive rather than after [he] was already dead. Under the applicable standard of review [citations], we conclude that a reasonable trier of fact could have found the essential elements of sodomy beyond a reasonable doubt." (Id. at pp. 1176-1177, 270 Cal.Rptr. 286, 791 P.2d 965.)

[5 P.3d 56]