State v. Reller

2024 ND 105

• Court: North Dakota Supreme Court
• Decided: May 30, 2024
• Docket: No. 20230393
• Status: Published

Opinion

IN THE SUPREME COURT STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA

2024 ND 105

State of North Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee v. Mitchell Keith Reller, Defendant and Appellant

No. 20230393

Appeal from the District Court of Stark County, Southwest Judicial District, the Honorable Dann E. Greenwood, Judge.

AFFIRMED.

Per Curiam.

Amy Pikovsky, Assistant State’s Attorney, Dickinson, ND, for plaintiff and appellee; submitted on brief.

Samuel A. Gereszek, Grand Forks, ND, for defendant and appellant; submitted on brief. State v. Reller No. 20230393

[¶1] Mitchell Reller appeals from a district court’s judgment entered following a jury verdict finding him guilty of gross sexual imposition. On appeal, Reller asserts there was insufficient evidence for the jury to find him guilty of the charge of gross sexual imposition, and the court erred in permitting evidence of his prior criminal history.

[¶2] We conclude the evidence was sufficient to support the criminal judgment and decline to address Reller’s argument relating to the admission of his prior criminal history as he failed to properly preserve the issue for appeal and did not brief the issue as an obvious error to this Court. State v. Rourke, 2017 ND 102, ¶ 8, 893 N.W.2d 176 (This Court “need not exercise our discretion to notice obvious error in an appeal when the defendant does not raise the issue of obvious error, because it is the defendant’s burden to show an obvious error that effects a substantial right.”). We summarily affirm under N.D.R.App.P. 35.1(a)(2) and (7).

[¶3] Jon J. Jensen, C.J. Daniel J. Crothers Lisa Fair McEvers Jerod E. Tufte Douglas A. Bahr