State v. James P. Killian

2023 WI 52
Wisconsin Supreme Court·Decided June 21, 2023·No. 2020AP002012-CR·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

2023 WI 52

SUPREME COURT OF WISCONSIN CASE NO.: 2020AP2012-CR

COMPLETE TITLE: State of Wisconsin, Plaintiff-Appellant-Petitioner, v.

James P. Killian,

Defendant-Respondent.

REVIEW OF DECISION OF THE COURT OF APPEALS Reported at 404 Wis. 2d 451, 979 N.W.2d 569 PDC No: 2022 WI App 43 - Published

OPINION FILED: June 21, 2023 SUBMITTED ON BRIEFS: ORAL ARGUMENT: April 17, 2023

SOURCE OF APPEAL:

COURT: Circuit COUNTY: Trempealeau JUDGE: Rian Radtke

JUSTICES: ZIEGLER, C.J., delivered the majority opinion of the Court, in which ROGGENSACK, DALLET, HAGEDORN, and KAROFSKY, JJ., joined. ANN WALSH BRADLEY, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which REBECCA GRASSL BRADLEY, J., joined.

NOT PARTICIPATING:

ATTORNEYS:

For the plaintiff-appellant-petitioner, there were briefs filed by Kara L. Janson, assistant attorney general, with whom on the briefs was Joshua L. Kaul, attorney general. There was an oral argument by Kara L. Janson, assistant attorney general.

For the defendant-respondent, there was a brief filed by Todd E. Schroeder and Schroeder & Lough, S.C., La Crosse. There was an oral argument by Todd E. Schroeder.

2023 WI 52

NOTICE

This opinion is subject to further editing and modification. The final version will appear in the bound volume of the official reports.

No. 2020AP2012-CR (L.C. No. 2019CF163)

STATE OF WISCONSIN : IN SUPREME COURT State of Wisconsin,

Plaintiff-Appellant-Petitioner, FILED

v. JUN 21, 2023

James P. Killian, Sheila T. Reiff Clerk of Supreme Court

Defendant-Respondent.

ZIEGLER, C.J., delivered the majority opinion of the Court, in which ROGGENSACK, DALLET, HAGEDORN, and KAROFSKY, JJ., joined. ANN WALSH BRADLEY, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which REBECCA GRASSL BRADLEY, J., joined.

REVIEW of a decision of the Court of Appeals. Reversed and cause remanded.

¶1 ANNETTE KINGSLAND ZIEGLER, C.J. This is a review of a published decision of the court of appeals, State v. Killian, 2022 WI App 43, 404 Wis. 2d 451, 979 N.W.2d 569, affirming the Trempealeau County circuit court's1 order dismissing a criminal complaint against James Killian as barred by double jeopardy. We reverse.

1 The Honorable Rian Radtke presided.

No. 2020AP2012-CR

¶2 Killian argues the Fifth Amendment's Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits the State from prosecuting the present case. According to Killian, the State previously prosecuted him for the offenses charged in this case because "[t]he evidence the State intended to submit in the preceding trial was sufficient to convict [Killian] of all the charges in the current case," and "the State intended to amend the charges against [Killian] during the trial to include charges for which he is again placed in jeopardy here." Because that case ended in a mistrial intentionally provoked by the prosecutor——a judicial determination the parties do not contest here——Killian argues double jeopardy bars the State's prosecuting the present case. Killian argues in the alternative that issue preclusion, under both the Double Jeopardy Clause and the common law, bars the present case.

¶3 We conclude that Killian's previous trial does not bar the State from prosecuting the present case because the scope of

Killian's jeopardy in his trial did not include the offenses with which he is now charged. The scope of jeopardy is

established by "the defendant's actual exposure to jeopardy in a prior prosecution." State v. Schultz, 2020 WI 24, ¶31, 390 Wis. 2d 570, 939 N.W.2d 519. This requires that the defendant faced a "risk of a determination of guilt" regarding a particular offense. Serfass v. United States, 420 U.S. 377, 391-92 (1975). Killian was never exposed to the risk of

conviction for the offenses charged in the present case. As a result, the offenses prosecuted in Killian's trial are not

No. 2020AP2012-CR

identical in law and in fact to the offenses charged in this case, so double jeopardy does not bar the present prosecution.

¶4 We also conclude that issue preclusion under the Double Jeopardy Clause and common law issue preclusion do not bar the present prosecution. Issue preclusion under the Double Jeopardy Clause requires a valid judicial determination of ultimate fact, and none exists in this case because Killian's trial ended in a mistrial. See Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436 (1970). Common law issue preclusion also does not bar this prosecution. The circuit court's order dismissing with prejudice the criminal complaint in the first case did not decide the scope of Killian's jeopardy. Therefore, that issue was never "actually litigated," and issue preclusion does not bar the present prosecution. See Aldrich v. LIRC, 2012 WI 53, ¶88, 341 Wis. 2d 36, 814 N.W.2d 433.

¶5 We therefore reverse the court of appeals and remand to the circuit court to consider Killian's unresolved argument

regarding prosecutorial vindictiveness.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL POSTURE

¶6 This case involves Killian's alleged sexual assaults of two minors: Britney and Ashley.2 On March 17, 2015, the State charged Killian in Case No. 2015CF47 with one count of first-degree sexual assault of a child under the age of 12

2 "Britney" and "Ashley" are pseudonyms used in place of the victims' names. The parties used these same pseudonyms in their briefs. See Wis. Stat. (Rule) § 809.86(4) (2021-22). All references to the Wisconsin Statutes are to the 2021-22 version unless otherwise noted.

No. 2020AP2012-CR

contrary to Wis. Stat. § 948.02. The complaint alleged that, "on or about Monday, August 18, 2014," Britney, then ten years old, "was laying on a bed at [a] residence and [Killian] came in, laid beside her and grabbed her buttocks." The probable cause section further stated that during a forensic interview, Britney reported "that Killian had squeezed her butt on five different occasions starting when she was about eight years old" and that Killian also "touched her 'boobies' underneath her clothes" in 2014.

¶7 The State filed a second criminal complaint on March 15, 2016, in Case No. 2016CF38, charging Killian with repeated sexual assault of a child contrary to Wis. Stat. § 948.025. The complaint alleged, "from April 1994 through December 1999," Killian sexually assaulted Ashley. Additionally, the complaint's probable cause section stated Ashley "had been sexually assaulted by [Killian], starting at the age of six and ending at 17 years of age . . . start[ing] in

about January 1988 and end[ing] about December 1999."

¶8 The two cases were later joined for trial. On

October 5, 2016, prior to the cases being joined, the circuit court3 held a hearing in Britney's case on the parties' respective motions to admit or exclude other-acts evidence. The circuit court granted the State's motion to admit evidence of sexual assaults against Ashley that "occurred over a period of time between January 1988 and December of 1999" to demonstrate 3 The Honorable Anna L. Becker presided.

No. 2020AP2012-CR

Killian's "motive, intent, preparation, absence of mistake or accident, and plan." The court also addressed Killian's motion to prohibit the State "from using evidence pertaining to other crimes, wrongs, or acts." The State argued it planned to introduce evidence of Killian's past interactions with Britney to show Killian "groomed [Britney] by engaging in behavior that include[d] asking her if he could be her boyfriend," "[b]uying her gifts," and "[n]ormalizing the behavior of sleeping with her in the bed together." Killian did not object to such evidence of "grooming" but only to "other acts of sexual assault." The State agreed it was "not alleging that [Killian] touched [Britney] outside of anything that was alleged here." The State then said it would not object, and the court granted Killian's motion to exclude evidence of other acts of sexual assault against Britney.

¶9 On June 15, 2017, four days before Killian's trial, the State filed a motion for leave to amend the Information.

The proposed Amended Information included in Ashley's case one count of incest with a child contrary to Wis. Stat. § 948.06.

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State v. James P. Killian
2023 WI 52 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2023)