What is the test for establishing a corpus delicti of oral sex assault?

Defendant, however, contends that the prosecution failed to establish the corpus delicti of oral copulation because no semen was found in the victim's mouth. In other words, he argues that the lack of evidence of the specific loss or harm to this victim is fatal to the establishment of the corpus delicti. The law's requirements, however, are not so strict. Two previous cases involving application of the rule to a charged sexual assault are illustrative. In People v. Jennings, supra, 53 Cal.3d 334, 279 Cal.Rptr. 780, 807 P.2d 1009, the body of the victim, a known prostitute, was found in an irrigation canal in a rural area. She was unclothed, and [17 Cal.4th 303] although forensic examination detected she had suffered a broken jaw, the advanced decomposition of her body made determining whether she had been sexually assaulted impossible. More specifically, there was no independent evidence that the defendant ever sexually penetrated the victim. (See 263 ["Any sexual penetration, however, slight, is sufficient to complete the crime [of rape]."].)

Despite the absence of any independent evidence of sexual penetration, we found that the trial court properly admitted evidence of the defendant's extrajudicial statement that he had raped the victim before killing her. Although we characterized the independent evidence of rape as " 'thin' " (People v. Jennings, supra, 53 Cal.3d at p. 369, 279 Cal.Rptr. 780, 807 P.2d 1009), we nevertheless concluded that the unclothed condition of the victim's body, its location when found, and the evidence of a broken jaw, considered

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People v. Robbins, supra, 45 Cal.3d 867, 248 Cal.Rptr. 172, 755 P.2d 355, is in accord. The evidence in Robbins showed that the victim, a six-year-old boy, was last seen riding on a motorcycle with an unknown blond man. The boy's skeletal remains were found three months later. The victim's neck had been broken and his body was found unclothed. The defendant had been diagnosed as a pedophile. Although the decomposed remains of the victim could not establish whether he had been sexually assaulted before his death, the defendant made an extrajudicial admission that he abducted the victim and sexually assaulted him before strangling him. We found the trial court properly admitted this confession over a corpus delicti objection. (Id. at pp. 885-886, 248 Cal.Rptr. 172, 755 P.2d 355.) "In view of the nature of the offense and the circumstances of the case (i.e, the body was not discovered for some time, hence it was impossible to verify the sexual conduct by scientific evidence, and there were apparently no eyewitnesses to the crime) we do not believe the corpus delicti rule can be interpreted to call for more; the law does not require impossible showings." (Id. at p. 886, 248 Cal.Rptr. 172, 755 P.2d 355.)