State of Maine v. Alexander W. Russell

2023 ME 64, 303 A.3d 640
Supreme Judicial Court of Maine·Decided September 21, 2023·No. Cum-22-334·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

MAINE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT Reporter of Decisions Decision: 2023 ME 64 Docket: Cum-22-334 Argued: June 8, 2023 Decided: September 21, 2023

Panel: STANFILL, C.J., and MEAD, JABAR, HORTON, CONNORS, LAWRENCE, and DOUGLAS, JJ.

STATE OF MAINE

v.

ALEXANDER W. RUSSELL

MEAD, J.

[¶1] Alexander W. Russell appeals from a judgment of conviction of gross sexual assault (Class A), 17-A M.R.S. § 253(1)(A) (2023), and four related crimes, entered by the trial court (Cumberland County, MG Kennedy, J.) following a jury trial.1

[¶2] Russell first contends that the court erred in declining to give a jury instruction he requested regarding the quality of the police investigation, and in giving an instruction informing the jury that it could consider whether there

1 Russell was convicted of gross sexual assault (Class A), 17-A M.R.S. § 253(1)(A) (2023) (Count 1); gross sexual assault (Class B), 17-A M.R.S. § 253(2)(H) (2023) (Count 2); unlawful sexual contact (Class B), 17-A M.R.S. § 255-A(1)(N) (2023) (Count 3); unlawful sexual contact (Class C), 17-A M.R.S. § 255-A(1)(M) (2023) (Count 4); and unlawful sexual touching (Class D), 17-A M.R.S. § 260(1)(G) (2023) (Count 5).

was evidence or a lack of evidence of a motive for any witness to lie. We disagree.

[¶3] Russell also contends that the court erred in not giving a specific unanimity instruction “explain[ing] to jurors that they are required to unanimously agree that a single incident of the alleged crime occurred that supports a finding of guilt on a given count.” State v. Chase, 2023 ME 32, ¶ 16, 294 A.3d 154 (quotation marks omitted). The State concedes, and we agree, that a specific unanimity instruction was necessary as to Counts 3 and 4. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment of conviction on those counts. We conclude, however, that a specific unanimity instruction was not required on Counts 1, 2, and 5, and we affirm the judgment on those counts.

[¶4] Finally, we vacate the sentences imposed on Counts 1, 2, and 5 because they may have been affected by the now-vacated convictions on Counts 3 and 4. Because the court will be required to resentence Russell anew on remand, we do not reach his remaining contention that the court’s original sentence penalized him for his decision to exercise his constitutional right to a trial.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Facts

[¶5] Viewing the evidence admitted at trial in the light most favorable to the State, the jury rationally could have found the following facts. See State v. Beeler, 2022 ME 47, ¶ 2, 281 A.3d 637.

[¶6] The victim was born in 2002. Russell was her stepfather for more than twelve years, and she thought of him as a “father figure.” Between April 2017 and November 2019, the victim, then a high school student, lived in a house in Raymond, Maine, with her mother, Russell, and several other family members.

[¶7] Late one night in October 2018, when everyone else in the house was asleep, Russell came into the victim’s bedroom and had her come to the basement with him on the pretext of teaching her how to load the woodstove. The victim sat on a hammock that was strung between two poles, waiting for Russell to show her how to stock the stove. Instead, he “cuddled next to [her].” His hands “started getting a little roamy,” rubbing her thighs and stomach, and “he kept on saying how much he loved [her] and cared about [her].” When the victim got up from the hammock and reminded Russell that they were there to

show her how to load the stove, he “grabbed [her] and said, ‘Not yet,’ and pulled [her] closer”; they both ended up on the floor.

[¶8] Russell physically restrained the victim and ultimately “forcefully”

engaged in a sexual act involving penetration. The victim was eventually able to escape after kicking Russell.

[¶9] After the October 2018 assault, Russell began touching the victim’s chest, buttocks, or vagina “almost every night”; those incidents occurred “too many [times] to count” and continued until the victim moved out of the house in November 2019. When the touching occurred, the victim “made sure to be quiet as not to wake anybody because [she] was told to be quiet.” In total, Russell touched the victim inappropriately “hundreds of times.”

[¶10] On September 11, 2019, which was the victim’s younger brother’s birthday, only the victim, then age sixteen; her brother; and Russell were at home before the family was to go out to celebrate. After sending the brother outside to play, Russell entered the room where the victim was lying on her bed texting a friend. Russell lay down next to her and began cuddling and making small talk. He rubbed her chest and thighs, at first over her clothes and eventually underneath. Although the victim attempted to “block off” her body by “putting [her] arm over her chest and just kind of covering [her]self,” Russell

removed her clothes and took a nude picture of her on her phone. Russell straddled her back and masturbated until he ejaculated on her.

[¶11] In addition to these two events, Russell sexually assaulted the victim by having vaginal intercourse with her six or seven times between October 2018 and November 2019. She had not yet turned eighteen. She did not report any of the abuse because she was scared and Russell told her “it was our little secret, everything was okay.” B. Procedure

[¶12] Russell was indicted on six counts, five of which proceeded to trial:

gross sexual assault (Class A); gross sexual assault (Class B); unlawful sexual contact (Class B); unlawful sexual contact (Class C); and unlawful sexual touching (Class D). See supra n.1. The State dismissed Count 6 of the indictment before trial.

[¶13] The court held a jury trial on May 2-3, 2022. In its case-in-chief the State called the victim, her mother, and the Cumberland County Sherriff’s Office detective who investigated the case. After the State rested, the court denied Russell’s motion for a judgment of acquittal. M.R.U. Crim. P. 29. Russell elected not to testify, and the defense rested. The jury returned verdicts of guilty on all counts.

[¶14] At the sentencing hearing held on October 4, 2022, the court entered judgment and sentenced Russell on the Class A count to twenty years’ imprisonment, with all but fourteen years suspended, and six years of probation. The court imposed lesser concurrent terms of imprisonment on the remaining four counts. Russell timely appealed and applied for leave to appeal from the sentence. M.R. App. P. 2B(b)(1). The Sentence Review Panel denied Russell’s request for leave to appeal from the sentence.

II. DISCUSSION

[¶15] Russell contends that two jury instructions the trial court should have given were not, and that one instruction that was given should not have been. In general, “[w]e review jury instructions as a whole for prejudicial error, and to ensure that they informed the jury correctly and fairly in all necessary respects of the governing law.” State v. Hanscom, 2016 ME 184, ¶ 10, 152 A.3d 632 (quotation marks omitted). In the case of review for obvious error, a standard applicable to two of the three challenged instructions here, “a defendant is entitled to relief only ‘when jury instructions, viewed as a whole, are affected by highly prejudicial error tending to produce manifest injustice.’” State v. Bonfanti, 2023 ME 31, ¶ 19, 294 A.3d 137 (quoting State v. Baker, 2015 ME 39, ¶ 11, 114 A.3d 214).

A. Quality of the Police Investigation

[¶16] The detective who investigated the case testified and was cross-examined at length regarding what the defense viewed as deficiencies in the investigation. Following the close of the evidence, in a chambers conference held to discuss the jury instructions, Russell asked the court to give “an instruction . . . on police investigations” that he said was drawn from a Connecticut case. The proposed instruction, to which the State objected, would have informed the jury in part that “the defendant may rely on relevant omissions in the police investigation to raise reasonable doubt.”2

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State of Maine v. Alexander W. Russell, 2023 ME 64, 303 A.3d 640 (Me. 2023).

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