A well-known fitness trainer convicted of attempting to sexually assault a relative in Rancho Santa Margarita in 2012 won the right to a new trial on appeal, according to court records obtained Wednesday.
John Spencer Ellis, 55, who was convicted Oct. 9, 2023, of attempted sexual penetration by foreign object of a minor, was sentenced in November 2023 to a year in prison. Jurors acquitted Ellis of a felony count of sexual penetration by a foreign object of a victim younger than 18.
Two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery were dismissed Oct. 2, 2023.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal on Thursday reversed the conviction, citing confusion in the jury instructions.
The alleged victim moved in with Ellis with her sister and mother, who married the defendant when the alleged victim was in high school, according to the appellate court ruling. The girl and her sister did not trust Ellis and they had a “cold” relationship, the justices noted.
When the girl joined a fitness competition at age 17 in 2012, Ellis offered to help her and it improved their relationship, the justices said.
Ellis was accused of massaging her breasts under her sports bra, which left her “frozen” and in shock, but she did not tell anyone because she thought no one would believe her, the justices said in the ruling.
Another time, he was accused of slipping a hand down her pants and trying to stimulate her, the justices said. He was also accused of digitally penetrating her, the justices said.
In a third incident, he was again accused of touching her breasts and putting his hands down her pants and penetrating her, the justices said.
The victim got up to get away, but the defendant allegedly “stopped her in the hallway, hugging her and kissing her on the cheek,” the justices said.
The accuser “feared retaliation” and felt she would not be believed so she never told anyone and later “developed a binge-eating disorder and gained 30 pounds,” according to the ruling.
The accuser moved away to Texas for college and then went to live in Spain when she graduated, the justices said. When her mother visited her in 2018 and raised the idea of having Ellis join them, she reported the alleged abuse, the justices said. The accuser’s mother had her daughter record a call with Ellis confronting him about the incidents, the justices said.
Ellis told her “his conduct had caused him to experience `guilt, shame, every horrible (expletive) thing you could think of,”’ the justices wrote. Ellis said that he considered taking his own life and asked for forgiveness, the justices wrote.
Ellis also allegedly told her to “delete” the recording.
The accuser went to authorities and Ellis was charged in 2021. Before trial in October 2023, prosecutors dismissed two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery.
After the sexual battery counts were dismissed, Ellis’ attorney asked Orange County Superior Court Judge Terri Flynn-Peister to not include evidence in the trial about those crimes, but the judge allowed jurors to hear about those incidents.
Because jurors were allowed a lower level of proof of the uncharged crimes it raised the risk of confusion regarding the charged crime, which had to be proven beyond reasonable doubt, the justices said.
The jury instructions amounted to “simply asking the jury to do too much in the way of mental gymnastics regarding the two burdens of proof,” the justices wrote. “The potential for confusion and conflation was made more likely by asking the jury to consider both charged and uncharged acts that took place during the same incident. Given the potential for confusion, it is reasonably likely that the jury applied the instructions in a manner that violated Ellis” constitutional rights by reducing the burden of proof on the `charged’ offense.”