State v. Wiley

2007 VT 13, 917 A.2d 501, 181 Vt. 300, 2007 Vt. 13
Supreme Court of Vermont·Decided February 2, 2007·No. 2005-435·Published·Cited by 25 cases

Opinion

917 A.2d 501 (2007)
2007 VT 13

STATE of Vermont
v.
Timothy WILEY.

No. 05-435.

Supreme Court of Vermont.

February 2, 2007.

*502 Dan M. Davis, Windham County State's Attorney, and Tracy Kelly Shriver, Deputy State's Attorney, Brattleboro, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Allison N. Fulcher of Martin & Associates, Barre, for Defendant-Appellant.

Present: REIBER, C.J., DOOLEY, JOHNSON, SKOGLUND and BURGESS, JJ.

¶ 1. BURGESS, J.

Defendant Timothy Wiley appeals from his convictions for aggravated sexual assault, lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, and obstruction of justice. Defendant asserts that (1) his convictions for both aggravated sexual assault and lewd and lascivious conduct violated the Double Jeopardy Clause, and (2) the evidence was insufficient to sustain any of the convictions. We affirm.

¶ 2. On May 22, 2004, A.H. reported to her father, and then to police, that her mother's boyfriend had forcible sex with her on numerous occasions in the past several months. A.H was thirteen at the time. The next day, police collected blankets and sheets from A.H.'s bed. Sperm and female epithelial cells were later collected from a seminal fluid stain found on the bedding. DNA from those cells was compared to DNA samples from A.H. and defendant, and the two were found to be *503 likely sources of the cells. The State filed charges against defendant for aggravated sexual assault and lewd and lascivious conduct in June 2004.

¶ 3. Defendant was held for lack of bail pending trial. While incarcerated, defendant had a series of telephone conversations with A.H.'s mother, a developmentally impaired woman. Recordings of three of the conversations were introduced by the State at trial. In the first conversation, from July 18, 2004, the mother indicated that she was afraid to lose custody of A.H. Defendant suggested that the mother talk to A.H. and tell A.H. that she's lying. In the second conversation, recorded two days later on July 20, 2004, defendant asked the mother to talk to A.H. and persuade her to drop the charges. Otherwise, defendant warned, he would testify at trial and reveal information that would cause the state to take A.H. away from her. The mother responded by saying: "Yeah. Oh, my God. It's not good." In the third conversation, recorded February 25, 2005, defendant told the mother: "I need your help . . . [Y]ou have to try to remember . . . me having sex in [A.H.]'s room and then climbing out the window." After furthering prompting by defendant, the mother twice denied remembering having sex with defendant in A.H.'s room. Defendant replied, "that right there isn't going to help," and told the mother that if she was asked in court about the sexual encounter she should say that she remembered it. Based on these recordings, the State charged defendant with two counts of obstructing justice for threatening the mother with losing custody of A.H. and for suggesting that she lie under oath about remembering a sexual encounter with defendant on A.H.'s bed. After the information was amended to add these charges, defendant waived his right to a jury and was tried by the court.

¶ 4. A.H. testified to forced vaginal intercourse with one "Tim Wiley" on more than five occasions in the months preceding her report to police. A.H. also described one instance when Tim Wiley forced A.H. to perform oral sex. According to A.H., these acts occurred while Tim Wiley was living with her and her mother. A.H. said that she thought of Tim Wiley as her "stepdad" and as her mother's "true boyfriend." However, A.H. was not asked to identify the defendant sitting in the courtroom as the perpetrator of the assaults or as the Tim Wiley she was referring to.

¶ 5. The mother, in her testimony, described living in a series of apartments with A.H. and defendant. The mother made a courtroom identification of defendant as the Tim Wiley with whom she and A.H. had lived. The mother also identified the voices from the recorded telephone conversations as those of herself and defendant. The mother stated that she never felt threatened by anything defendant said during those conversations and testified to remembering a sexual encounter with defendant on A.H.'s bed. The mother maintained that she remembered the encounter without assistance from anyone.

¶ 6. At the close of evidence, and again post trial, defendant moved for a judgment of acquittal pursuant to Vermont Rule of Criminal Procedure 29. Defendant's motions for acquittal on the sexual assault and lewd and lascivious conduct charges were premised on the State's failure to have A.H. identify the defendant seated in the courtroom as the Tim Wiley who engaged in those sexual acts. In his motions for acquittal on the obstruction of justice charges, defendant contended that the State failed to prove that the mother was actually made afraid by defendant's threats and that the State failed to prove that her testimony about a sexual encounter *504 with defendant on A.H.'s bed was not truthful. The trial court denied defendant's motions. Defendant's appeal challenges these rulings, and raises the issue of whether, under the facts presented, conviction for both aggravated sexual assault and lewd and lascivious conduct violated the Double Jeopardy Clause.

I. Double Jeopardy

¶ 7. Defendant raises for the first time on appeal that convictions for both aggravated sexual assault and lewd and lascivious conduct are a violation of the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy. A constitutional issue not raised at trial is reviewed only for plain error. State v. Judkins, 161 Vt. 593, 594, 641 A.2d 350, 351 (1993) (mem.). Plain error must be both obvious and prejudicial, id., and neither is present here.

¶ 8. The Double Jeopardy Clause provides that no person may "be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." U.S. Const. amend. V. The Clause prohibits second or subsequent prosecutions for the same offense as well as multiple impositions of punishment for an offense. State v. Grega, 168 Vt. 363, 382, 721 A.2d 445, 458 (1998) (citing North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969)). The Double Jeopardy Clause does not, however, prevent cumulative punishments when the Legislature has proscribed conduct by more than one criminal statute or offense. Missouri v. Hunter, 459 U.S. 359, 367-68, 103 S.Ct. 673, 74 L.Ed.2d 535 (1983). "[W]hether or not a conviction and sentence may be had under each statute is a question of legislative intent, not constitutional prohibition." Grega, 168 Vt. at 382, 721 A.2d at 458; see also Hunter, 459 U.S. at 368, 103 S.Ct. 673. In the absence of express legislative intent, we apply the test of statutory construction first enunciated in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932). State v. Hazelton, 2006 VT 121, ¶ 24, ___ Vt. ___, 915 A.2d 224. Under Blockburger, "two offenses are considered the same offense for double jeopardy purposes unless each provisio

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State v. Wiley, 2007 VT 13, 917 A.2d 501, 181 Vt. 300, 2007 Vt. 13 (Vt. 2007).

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