State v. Stewart

923 N.W.2d 668
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedJanuary 22, 2019
DocketA17-2039
StatusPublished
Cited by677 cases

This text of 923 N.W.2d 668 (State v. Stewart) 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 v. Stewart, 923 N.W.2d 668 (Mich. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

The jury found Stewart guilty, and the district court sentenced him to 132 months in prison based on a criminal-history score of two. Stewart appeals.

ISSUES

I. Is the record evidence sufficient to support Stewart's conviction?

II. Did the district court abuse its discretion by admitting Dr. Swenson's expert testimony about the cause of B.G.D.'s injuries?

III. Did the district court err in calculating Stewart's criminal-history score?

ANALYSIS

I. Sufficient evidence supports Stewart's conviction.

In reviewing a claim of insufficient evidence, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict "to determine whether the facts in the record and the legitimate inferences drawn from them would permit the jury to reasonably conclude that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the offense of which he was convicted." State v. Hanson , 800 N.W.2d 618, 621 (Minn. 2011) (quotations omitted). Where, as here, the challenged conviction is based on circumstantial evidence, we apply a two-step analysis. State v. Harris , 895 N.W.2d 592, 598-601 (Minn. 2017). First, we identify the circumstances proved "by resolving all questions of fact in favor of the jury's verdict," in deference to the jury's credibility determinations. Id. at 600. Second, we independently consider the "reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the circumstances proved." Id. at 601. The circumstances proved must, when viewed as a whole, "be consistent with a reasonable inference that the accused is guilty and inconsistent with any rational hypothesis except that of guilt." Id. But we "will not overturn a guilty verdict on conjecture alone." State v. Hayes , 831 N.W.2d 546, 553 (Minn. 2013).

To convict Stewart of first-degree assault, the state was required to prove that he intentionally inflicted great bodily harm upon B.G.D. Minn. Stat. §§ 609.02, subd. 10(2), .221, subd. 1 (2014). Stewart does not *674dispute that B.G.D.'s severe brain and eye injuries constitute great bodily harm.3 He contends that insufficient evidence supports the jury's finding that he caused those injuries.

Stewart rests his challenge principally on a narrow view of the circumstances proved. He argues that Dr. Swenson's expert medical testimony cannot establish the circumstances proved because Dr. Swenson drew inferences from certain facts. This argument is unavailing. The two-step circumstantial-evidence analysis does not distinguish between observed facts (e.g., a dark spot on an MRI film) and inferred facts (e.g., the child has a subdural hemorrhage ), but between the observed or inferred facts that establish the circumstances of an alleged offense and the inference from those circumstances that the required elements of the offense exist. See Harris , 895 N.W.2d at 599 & n.4 (noting distinction between "a finding that an alleged fact (which does not by itself establish the required element) exists and ... a conclusion that if the alleged fact exists, one can reasonably infer that the required element also exists"). The supreme court has consistently treated the nature of injuries and their possible causes as medical "facts" that a reviewing court must take as proved. See Hayes , 831 N.W.2d at 553 (including in circumstances proved medical testimony that child victim's "cranial trauma was more severe than could be explained by a mere accidental household fall"); State v. Hokanson , 821 N.W.2d 340, 355 (Minn. 2012) (including in circumstances proved that child victim "did not have any blood disorder or other medical problem that would have caused him to bruise easily"); State v. Rhodes , 657 N.W.2d 823, 841 (Minn. 2003) (noting that medical testimony about the cause of a victim's injuries "supports the jury's verdict" and that the jury "apparently disregarded" contrary medical testimony). Thus, when a jury is presented with conflicting medical testimony about the nature of injuries and their possible causes, we assume the jury believed the expert testimony that is most consistent with its verdict.

Applying that standard here, viewing all of the evidence, including the experts' testimony, in the light most favorable to the verdict, we identify the following circumstances proved regarding the cause of B.G.D.'s injuries. B.G.D. exhibited all three of the significant markers of abusive head trauma-bleeding around the brain, injury to the brain itself, and retinal hemorrhages. Like approximately half of children with abusive head trauma, he did not exhibit additional physical injuries such as bruises or fractures. B.G.D. did not experience any severe accidental trauma, such as a high-speed motor-vehicle accident, that could explain his injuries, and could not have caused them by banging his head against the floor. Medical conditions that can cause bleeding around the brain are rare, and B.G.D.'s lab results and medical history indicated no underlying conditions that could explain his condition. Children with severe brain injuries generally present symptoms immediately and are unable to behave normally once the injuries occur; B.G.D. became symptomatic and was determined to have "massive" brain injuries immediately after being alone with Stewart.

*675Overall, these circumstances support a reasonable inference that Stewart intentionally inflicted great bodily harm upon B.G.D. Stewart acknowledges as much. We therefore consider whether other rational hypotheses of causation exist.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
923 N.W.2d 668, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-stewart-minnctapp-2019.