United States v. Culver

598 F.3d 740, 81 Fed. R. Serv. 688, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 4267
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 2, 2010
Docket17-13452
StatusPublished
Cited by77 cases

This text of 598 F.3d 740 (United States v. Culver) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Culver, 598 F.3d 740, 81 Fed. R. Serv. 688, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 4267 (11th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

DUBINA, Chief Judge:

Brian Scott Culver appeals his convictions and sentences on five counts of production of child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a). For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I. FACTS

On the night of November 11, 2003, K.W., a thirteen year old girl, awoke to a shock on her upper back that made her feel like she was being electrocuted. K.W. turned around, and, to her surprise, saw her stepfather, Brian Scott Culver, in bed with her with a stethoscope around his neck. As K.W. left her room, she noticed that Culver was shoving the stethoscope and some other items under her bed. After venturing to the kitchen in a state of shock to get a glass of water, K.W. woke her mother, Sharon Brasuell, 1 and told her what had happened. K.W. and Brasuell confronted Culver, and when Culver denied that he had done anything wrong, K.W. and Brasuell looked under KW.’s bed and found a stethoscope, a vaginal syringe containing K-Y Jelly and a white pill, 2 condoms, and various other items. Culver became angry and told Brasuell that he wanted a divorce. After packing a bag with clothing and some of the items that had been under KW.’s bed, Culver departed from the family’s Hoover, Alabama residence and headed for his lake house in Cullman County, Alabama.

Concerned by the evening’s events, Brasuell called the Hoover police to report an incident of domestic violence. When the police arrived at the Hoover residence *745 early on the morning of November 12, Brasuell gave them permission to search the entire premises. The police found an Aleve bottle that contained alprazolam, commonly known as Xanax, and diazepam, commonly known as Valium; a Pamprin bottle that contained zolpidem, commonly known as Ambien; a stun gun box; and seven Polaroid photographs. Five of the photographs depict a nude female from the hips to the mid-thighs. The female’s hands and vagina are clearly visible in these five photographs. The other two photographs depict a nude male from the waist down.

The police instructed Brasuell, K.W., and HW.’s brother to continue to be on the lookout for suspicious items at the Hoover residence, and on November 13, Brasuell and KW.’s brother found a Polaroid camera and a video camera. On November 14, the police returned to the residence and discovered an 8mm videotape. The tape contains two segments: the first segment lasts nearly 19 minutes, and the second lasts approximately one minute. 3 On the first segment of the tape, the female’s hands and vagina are clearly visible, and the female’s hands do not move at all. The tape depicts a male digitally manipulating the female’s vagina and inserting a vaginal syringe into her vagina. At trial, Culver stipulated that his thumb appears on the tape.

II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The state of Alabama brought four charges against Culver: two counts of possession of child pornography, one count of distributing drugs to a minor, and one count of domestic violence for allegedly shocking K.W. with a stun gun. The jury in Culver’s state trial convicted him of both counts of possession of child pornography, but acquitted him of the charges of drugging and shocking K.W.

In January 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Culver on two counts of producing child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a). In March, the grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging Culver with one count of producing child pornography on an 8mm videotape (Count One), and five counts of producing child pornography on Polaroid film (Counts Two through Six).

At trial, the government produced the 8mm videotape and the Polaroid photographs as well as pictures of K.W. and Sharon Brasuell that display the same areas of the body that are depicted on the tape and in the photographs. The jury also directly observed identifying marks on KW.’s hands, K.W. and Brasuell testified that K.W. was the subject of the sexually explicit visual depictions on the tape and in the photographs. Based on their evaluation of all of the evidence presented at trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on Counts One, Two, Three, Four, and Six and a verdict of not guilty on Count Five.

Culver’s presentence report (“PSI”) assigned his crimes a base offense level of 27. The base level was enhanced two levels because the victim was between the ages of 12 and 16, two levels because the victim was Culver’s stepdaughter, and two levels because the victim was under the influence of drugs and thus vulnerable to sexual exploitation, for a total offense level of 33. Based on this offense level and a criminal history category of II, Culver’s advisory Guidelines sentence range was 151 to 188 months. However, because the statutory minimum on each count was 180 *746 months, see 18 U.S.C. § 2251(e), the lower end of the advisory Guidelines sentence range was automatically adjusted to 180 months. The PSI recommended an upward departure from the Guidelines range for extreme conduct on the basis of Culver’s alleged use of a stun gun.

Upon consideration of the presentence report, the testimony of various character witnesses, and the purposes of sentencing stated in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), the district court sentenced Culver to the statutory maximum of 360 months on each count with the sentences on Counts One and Two running concurrently; the sentences on Counts Three, Four, and Six running concurrently; and the two sets of sentences running consecutively, for a total sentence of 720 months imprisonment.

III. DISCUSSION

Culver raises a number of issues in his appeal. He contests the constitutionality of the statute under which he was convicted, a number of evidentiary rulings made by the district court, one of the district court’s instructions to the jury, and the sentence imposed by the district court.

A. Jurisdiction

The statutory provision at issue in this case was enacted as part of the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 (“CPPA”), Pub.L. No. 104-208, § 121, 110 Stat. 3009-26 (codified as amended in scattered sections of 18 U.S.C. ch. 110). As relevant to Culver’s appeal, the CPPA provides that:

Any person who employs, uses, persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any minor to engage in ... any sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing any visual depiction of such conduct ... shall be punished as provided under subsection (e) ... if that visual depiction was produced or transmitted using materials that have been mailed, shipped, or transported in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce by any means ....

18 U.S.C. § 2251(a).

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Bluebook (online)
598 F.3d 740, 81 Fed. R. Serv. 688, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 4267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-culver-ca11-2010.