State v. Aguilar-Moreno

769 N.W.2d 784, 17 Neb. Ct. App. 623
CourtNebraska Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 26, 2009
DocketA-08-1008
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 769 N.W.2d 784 (State v. Aguilar-Moreno) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Aguilar-Moreno, 769 N.W.2d 784, 17 Neb. Ct. App. 623 (Neb. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

769 N.W.2d 784 (2009)
17 Neb. App. 623

STATE of Nebraska, Appellee,
v.
Jose Juan AGUILAR-MORENO, Appellant.

No. A-08-1008.

Court of Appeals of Nebraska.

May 26, 2009.

*786 Arthur C. Toogood, Adams County Public Defender, for appellant.

Jon Bruning, Attorney General, and Stacy M. Foust, for appellee.

*787 INBODY, Chief Judge, and SIEVERS and CASSEL, Judges.

CASSEL, Judge.

INTRODUCTION

After a jury convicted Jose Juan Aguilar-Moreno of incest of his adult daughter, the district court sentenced Aguilar-Moreno to 19 to 20 years' imprisonment and required him to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life. We conclude that the court did not abuse its discretion in allowing evidence of sexual activity between Aguilar-Moreno and his daughter that occurred outside of Nebraska and of DNA evidence concerning the paternity of his daughter's child. We vacate the court's findings regarding the registration requirement because incest of an adult is not a registrable offense. Finally, we conclude that the court did not impose an excessive sentence.

BACKGROUND

The victim in this case, T.A.C., was born in 1977 and was 30 years old at the time of trial. The State originally charged Aguilar-Moreno with first degree sexual assault, but it later filed an amended information charging Aguilar-Moreno with incest of T.A.C. based on events occurring in Adams County, Nebraska, between January 1, 1999, and August 1, 2007. After trial commenced, the court sustained Aguilar-Moreno's oral "demur[rer]" based on the statute of limitations and limited the charged conduct to that occurring between March 15, 2005, and August 1, 2007.

Following a hearing concerning the State's intention to adduce evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts under Neb. Evid. R. 404, Neb.Rev.Stat. § 27-404 (Reissue 2008), the court found that the evidence sought to be introduced by the State—evidence of Aguilar-Moreno's sexual penetration of T.A.C. in Mexico and Texas and evidence that T.A.C.'s child is Aguilar-Moreno's biological child—was admissible under § 27-404(2) as evidence of opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.

The court conducted a 3-day jury trial beginning on March 31, 2008. After the jury was selected but prior to opening statements, Aguilar-Moreno's attorney made a continuing objection to the challenged evidence. He contended that such evidence was highly prejudicial and that the prejudice substantially out-weighed any evidentiary value.

Aguilar-Moreno denied having had sex with T.A.C. On the other hand, T.A.C. testified that Aguilar-Moreno first sexually abused her when she 16 years old and living in Mexico. She testified that Aguilar-Moreno would beat her and her mother if T.A.C. did not do as Aguilar-Moreno wanted. T.A.C. denied ever having sexual intercourse with anyone other than her father. She testified that her father impregnated her when she was 18 and that he took her to Texas, where her son—who was 11 years old at the time of trial—was born. Aguilar-Moreno denied paternity of T.A.C.'s child and testified that he did not know she was pregnant until 3 months after they arrived in Texas.

In October 1998, T.A.C. and her son moved with Aguilar-Moreno to Hastings, Nebraska. They moved into a house with other immediate family members. T.A.C. testified that since arriving in Hastings, her father forced her to have sex with him every day. T.A.C. testified that Aguilar-Moreno would threaten to kill her if she did not have sex with him and that he said her "family was going to pay for it if [she] didn't do it."

On August 2, 2007, T.A.C. had an argument with Aguilar-Moreno over money, *788 and T.A.C. testified that Aguilar-Moreno threatened to kill her and her brothers if she left the house. Later that day, T.A.C. left the family home along with other family members and told her entire family what had been happening to her all these years. On August 21, she reported Aguilar-Moreno's sexual contact with her to the police. She testified that she did not report it earlier because she believed her father's threats and was afraid of him. Members of the Hastings police department obtained buccal swabs from T.A.C., her son, and Aguilar-Moreno. A DNA analyst performed paternity testing on T.A.C.'s child and concluded that Aguilar-Moreno could not be excluded as the father. The analyst testified that it was "84,900 times more likely that the observed DNA profiles from these individuals [was] a true paternity mother, child, and father [versus] a mother, child, and random male['s] being the father."

The jury found Aguilar-Moreno guilty of incest. During the sentencing hearing on August 18, 2008, the court stated that pursuant to Nebraska's Sex Offender Registration Act (Act), Aguilar-Moreno must register within 5 days of release from incarceration and within 5 days of any change of address for the rest of his life. In a "Journal Entry and Order" filed August 20, the court stated that it notified Aguilar-Moreno of his duties to comply with the Act and with the requirements of lifetime community supervision. The court then ordered that Aguilar-Moreno be incarcerated for 19 to 20 years but made no further mention of any registration requirements. On August 21, the judge and Aguilar-Moreno signed a "Notice of General Conditions of Civil Commitment Evaluation and Lifetime Community Supervision." The notice stated in part, "IT IS ORDERED, pursuant to the . . . Act, . . . you must register . . . for the remainder of your life." The final sentence of the order stated, "AS TO ALL OF THE FOREGOING, IT IS SO ORDERED." Also on August 21, the court entered a "Journal Entry and Order," which stated that the court notified Aguilar-Moreno of his duty to comply with the Act and that "IT IS SO ORDERED." The commitment did not refer to any registration requirement.

Aguilar-Moreno timely appeals.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

Aguilar-Moreno assigns, reordered and consolidated, that the district court erred in (1) allowing the State to present evidence of sexual activity with T.A.C. which occurred in Mexico and Texas and evidence that he is the father of T.A.C.'s child, (2) requiring him to register as a sex offender for incest of an adult, and (3) imposing an excessive sentence.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The exercise of judicial discretion is implicit in determinations of relevancy under Neb. Evid. R. 401, Neb.Rev.Stat. § 27-401 (Reissue 2008), and prejudice under Neb. Evid. R. 403, Neb.Rev.Stat. § 27-403 (Reissue 2008), and a trial court's decision regarding them will not be reversed absent an abuse of discretion. State v. Schmidt, 276 Neb. 723, 757 N.W.2d 291 (2008).

Statutory interpretation presents a question of law, for which an appellate court has an obligation to reach an independent conclusion irrespective of the determination made by the court below. State v. Moore, 277 Neb. 111, 759 N.W.2d 698 (2009).

A sentence imposed within statutory limits will not be disturbed on appeal absent an abuse of discretion by the trial court. Id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
769 N.W.2d 784, 17 Neb. Ct. App. 623, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-aguilar-moreno-nebctapp-2009.