State of Minnesota v. Enamidem Celestine Okon

CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedAugust 4, 2014
DocketA13-2018
StatusUnpublished

This text of State of Minnesota v. Enamidem Celestine Okon (State of Minnesota v. Enamidem Celestine Okon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Minnesota v. Enamidem Celestine Okon, (Mich. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

This opinion will be unpublished and may not be cited except as provided by Minn. Stat. § 480A.08, subd. 3 (2012).

STATE OF MINNESOTA IN COURT OF APPEALS A13-2018

State of Minnesota, Respondent,

vs.

Enamidem Celestine Okon, Appellant.

Filed August 4, 2014 Affirmed Harten, Judge

Stearns County District Court File No. 73-CR-12-6911

Lori Swanson, Attorney General, Karen B. Andrews, Assistant Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota; and

Janelle P. Kendall, Stearns County Attorney, St. Cloud, Minnesota (for respondent)

Margaret M. Mitchell, Eaton & Mitchell, LLP, Owatonna, Minnesota (for appellant)

Considered and decided by Johnson, Presiding Judge; Hooten, Judge; and Harten,

Judge.

 Retired judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals, serving by appointment pursuant to Minn. Const. art. VI, § 10. UNPUBLISHED OPINION

HARTEN, Judge

Appellant challenges his conviction of aiding and abetting first-degree criminal

sexual conduct, arguing that (1) his right to confront his victim was denied when the

district court abused its discretion by excluding evidence of the number of sources of

semen found on the victim’s underwear; (2) the prosecutor opened the door to evidence

of the victim’s prior sexual conduct; (3) the district court erred in excluding evidence of

the victim’s prior employment as an escort; (4) the district court committed reversible

error by failing to correctly define the “intentionally aiding and abetting” element of

appellant’s crime; (5) the prosecutor committed misconduct during closing argument; and

(6) appellant is entitled to a new trial because of his trial counsel’s cumulative errors.

Because we see no abuse of discretion in the district court’s exclusion of evidence, no

error in its statement of the law, no prosecutorial misconduct, and no cumulative errors

that would entitle appellant to a new trial, we affirm.

FACTS

On 15 July 2012, C.M.J. reported to police that she had been orally and vaginally

raped by Chukwudi Gregory Jideofor and appellant Enamidem Celestine Okon earlier

that day. Appellant was charged with two counts: aiding and abetting first-degree

criminal sexual conduct (sexual penetration—force or coercion with personal injury) and

aiding and abetting first-degree criminal sexual conduct (sexual penetration—accomplice

with force or coercion). In a separate proceeding, Jideofor had entered an Alford plea to

2 aiding and abetting first-degree criminal sexual conduct (sexual penetration—accomplice

with force or coercion), and he agreed to testify against appellant.

At appellant’s trial, Jideofor testified that (1) appellant arrived with C.M.J. at

Jideofor’s apartment about 3:00 a.m.; (2) C.M.J. sat on a bed; (3) appellant pulled up her

dress, pulled down his pants, and tried to remove her underwear while she resisted;

(4) appellant then pulled her head towards him and forced her to give him oral sex, which

she also resisted; (5) appellant put on a condom and penetrated C.M.J. vaginally;

(6) C.M.J. screamed and moaned, but could not get away because Jideofor was holding

her down; (7) when appellant tried to penetrate C.M.J. anally, she screamed; (8) Jideofor

removed his condom during the rapes, but appellant did not; (9) Jideofor could tell C.M.J.

was in pain when he raped her vaginally; and (10) the men put pillows over C.M.J.’s face

to stifle her screams so the neighbors would not hear her.

C.M.J. testified that: (1) because she needed a ride, she called appellant, with

whom she was socially acquainted; (2) when appellant picked her up, she noticed that he

was intoxicated and his driving was erratic; (3) appellant drove her to the apartment of

Jideofor, whom C.M.J. had met previously and with whom she did not get along;

(4) while C.M.J. was sitting on a bed, appellant grabbed her from behind and put a pillow

over her face; (5) Jideofor pulled her underwear down and began raping her vaginally;

(6) appellant, who had one hand around her throat, forced his penis into her mouth;

(7) C.M.J. screamed and tried to push both men away, but was unable to do so because

they held her down; (8) because C.M.J. was wearing a tampon, she experienced intense

3 pain during vaginal penetrations; (9) the two men continued to rape her for about an hour,

switching positions so each could rape her both orally and vaginally; (10) the men at first

wore condoms, but she thought that they removed them so they could ejaculate into her

mouth; (11) one of the men unsuccessfully attempted to penetrate her anally; and

(12) about 11 or 12 hours elapsed between the rapes and C.M.J.’s admission to the

hospital.

The DNA forensic scientist testified that: (1) she received C.M.J.’s rectal and

perioral swabs, the mattress cover from Jideofor’s bed, and C.M.J.’s underwear, all of

which were examined and found to contain semen1; (2) the rectal swab had insufficient

material for DNA analysis; (3) part of the perioral swab containing only sperm cells

indicated that Jideofor could not be excluded as the donor and that 99.9997% of the

population, including appellant, could be excluded; (4) the part of the perioral swab

containing all other material indicated that appellant could not be excluded as the donor,

although 83.7% of the population could be excluded; (5) two areas on the mattress cover

indicated that appellant could not be excluded as a sperm donor; (6) in one area, 72.4% of

the population could be excluded, while in the other 44.5% could be excluded; (7) the

underwear indicated that appellant was excluded as a donor of the sperm cells; (8) semen

could be detectable in a vaginal swab for about five days and in a perioral swab for two to

twelve hours; and (9) a condom would reduce the likelihood of semen being found.

1 A forensic scientist and serologist testified that no semen was found on C.M.J.’s vaginal, oral, or perineal swabs.

4 The jury found appellant guilty on both counts and found two aggravating factors,

namely personal injury and multiple forms of penetration, for each count. Appellant

received the presumptive guideline sentence for aiding and abetting first-degree criminal

sexual conduct (sexual penetration—accomplice with force or coercion).

Appellant, represented by different counsel on appeal, challenges his conviction,

claiming that: (1) the exclusion of evidence as to the number of sources of semen found

on C.M.J.’s underwear was an abuse of the district court’s discretion and violated

appellant’s constitutional right to confront his victim; (2) the prosecutor opened the door

to evidence of the victim’s prior sexual conduct by introducing rectal swab and

dissipation-of-semen evidence; (3) the district court erred in excluding evidence of

C.M.J.’s prior employment as an escort; (4) appellant is entitled to a new trial because the

jury instructions on the “intentionally aiding and abetting” and the “coercion” elements of

the charges against him misstated the law; (5) appellant is entitled to a new trial because

of prosecutorial misconduct in (a) implying that appellant belittled the victim,

(b) misstating the evidence relating to Jideofor’s Alford plea, and (c) using “we”

statements to evoke the jury’s sympathy; and (6) appellant is also entitled to a new trial

because of his trial counsel’s cumulative errors.

DECISION

1. Exclusion of Semen Evidence on Victim’s Clothing

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