By Lisbeth Martinez, Hongyi Wen, and Jose Medina
SACRAMENTO – A childcare service became a living nightmare for two children—if their accusations turn out to be true as related here Friday in Sacramento County Superior Court.
The daylong preliminary hearing was long on details for brothers Jared and David Belmares, charged with various counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 as it related to children that were babysat by the defendants’ mother.
Det. James Waters, who investigated the incident, observed a SAFE (Special Assault Forensic Evaluation) interview of the victim, recalling the victim telling the interviewer the obscene acts the defendants would allegedly perform on them.
The detective chillingly retold the victim’s story, including how one defendant would call them into his room while their siblings would be playing in the living room downstairs and the babysitter cooked food for them in the kitchen, unaware of the defendant’s lewd acts upstairs. 
Det. Waters mentioned that at the time of the interview he could tell the victim was coerced into silence. During the interview, the victim “indicated they thought they were going to get in trouble if he (the defendant) told someone what was happening.”
The hearing stretched on into the second session of the court day.
Deputy District Attorney Dinah Milke continued to take Det. Lamb’s testimony. The Det. shared that the victim disclosed during the interview a recollection of the last time the defendant committed lewd acts toward them.
According to the victim, the defendant, David, would also call them into his room to perform lewd acts when his mother would leave the house to run errands. The victim would comply because they were scared of getting in trouble, but also because they were fearful that the defendant would resort to committing lewd acts on their sibling instead.
The prosecutor proceeded to ask if anything had occurred between the victim and the babysitter’s other son. “Yes,” the detective responded, noting the victim was shown a photo of the other defendant, Jared, and was able to identify him. The officer confirmed that she could see the person whom the victim identified as Jared Belamares in the courtroom.
The victim recollected that there was an incident where this defendant demanded to perform the same lewd acts his brother did. This encounter ended because the defendant’s mother called for the victim. The defendant quickly recomposed himself and told the victim to lie about what they were doing.
Det. Lamb’s report states that lewd acts were also performed on the victim’s sibling. The victim shares that the defendant, Jared, would also call their sibling into his room. Additionally, the sibling confided in the victim about the obscene acts made by the defendant. The sibling only recalls a few encounters, since their memory “was not very good.”
The defendant, Jared, was given admonition, where he was interviewed about the allegation and notified that he would not be detained or under arrest. Lamb stated that he was asked if he remembered any of the children his mother babysat, and the first children he mentioned were the victim and their sibling.
The prosecutor asked if the defendant ever shared if he was alone with the children, and the detective responded, “He said he very rarely was alone with them, but he was alone with them during a certain point.”
The detective then confirmed to defense attorney Keith Staten that the victims’ mother and the victims made allegations of lewd acts occurring two years before the report was made in 2016.
Lamb also shared that the victims were interviewed by law enforcement between 2017-2020, but that she is not aware how many times. The defense questioned why these reports were not given to her since it is the detective’s “responsibility because [they’re] the chief investigator.”
Det. Lamb was also cross-examined by Defense Attorney Jennifer Mouzis. The DA questions the detective about whether she was assigned the victim’s case in 2018. “Correct,” Det. Lamb responded. Mouzis proceeded to make it clear that the sibling’s allegations had not been made yet.
Ms. Mouzis questioned a phone interview between the detective and the victim where the victim shared that they were victimized by David, but accidentally called him Jared. The defense attorney suggested the victim did not know what happened to their sibling because it all occurred behind closed doors, which is consistent with what the sibling has shared.
The sibling told Det. Lamb that lewd acts were performed by the defendant David. The victim shared that both their sibling and themselves were victims of Jared as well. But the defense tried to impeach the victim’s statement because she believes there are inconsistencies with the siblings’ story.
This belief arose because the victim’s sibling stated they do not recall the victim being there during these obscene acts, even though the victim shared that they were together in one instance. Also, Mouzis found inconsistencies in the victim’s story because, in their SAFE interview, they failed to remember both the defendants’ names.
Det. Lamb also noted a new statement from another alleged victim, which indicates that she was sexually assaulted by the two defendants.
Due to limited time, the court was only able to hear from one witness. The defense attorney’s first witness was the defendant Jared Belmares’ fiancé. In her testimony, she indicated that the defendant rarely visited his parents’ house during their cohabitation, less than once every two months, and sometimes by himself or accompanied by her.
The witness mentioned that the visits were all short periods of time that lasted about 20 minutes, but the defendant seems to be in good relation with his family. Due to their conflicting work schedules, she admitted there would be times that the defendant and the witness were not together and the witness would have no information about where the defendant was. The witness was also unaware of the defendant’s mother’s job as a babysitter and unsure if he was ever present during babysittings.
Defendants Jared Belmares and David Belmares’ hearing is set to resume on Feb. 5 at 8:30 a.m. in Dept. 3.
Lisbeth Martinez is a third year at UC Davis, double majoring in Communication and Political Science. She currently lives in Shafter, California.
Hongyi Wen is a junior at UC Santa Cruz majoring in Sociology. He is from Guangzhou, China.
Jose graduated from UC Davis with a BA in Political Science and has interned for the California State Legislature. He is from Rocklin, CA.
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