United States v. Gillian

CourtUnited States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals
DecidedOctober 30, 2020
DocketACM 39692
StatusUnpublished

This text of United States v. Gillian (United States v. Gillian) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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United States v. Gillian, (afcca 2020).

Opinion

U NITED S TATES AIR F ORCE C OURT OF C RIMINAL APPEALS ________________________

No. ACM 39692 ________________________

UNITED STATES Appellee v. Matthew L. GILLIAN Master Sergeant (E-7), U.S. Air Force, Appellant ________________________

Appeal from the United States Air Force Trial Judiciary Decided 30 October 2020 ________________________

Military Judge: Wesley A. Braun. Approved sentence: Bad-conduct discharge, confinement for 19 months, reduction to E-3, and a reprimand. Sentence adjudged 20 February 2019 by GCM convened at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. For Appellant: Major Yolanda D. Miller, USAF. For Appellee: Lieutenant Colonel Brian C. Mason, USAF; Major Jessica L. Delaney, USAF; Mary Ellen Payne, Esquire. Before LEWIS, RICHARDSON, and CADOTTE, Appellate Military Judges. Judge RICHARDSON delivered the opinion of the court, in which Senior Judge LEWIS and Judge CADOTTE joined. ________________________

This is an unpublished opinion and, as such, does not serve as precedent under AFCCA Rule of Practice and Procedure 30.4. ________________________ RICHARDSON, Judge: A military judge sitting as a general court-martial convicted Appellant, in accordance with his pleas pursuant to a pretrial agreement of one specification each of possessing a Schedule IV substance (Phentermine) and importing a United States v. Gillian, No. ACM 39692

Schedule III substance (anabolic steroids), both on divers occasions; one speci- fication of assault consummated by a battery on his then-wife HG; and two specifications of communicating a threat to HG, in violation of Articles 112a, 128, and 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. §§ 912a, 928, 934. 1 The military judge sentenced Appellant to a bad-conduct discharge, confinement for 19 months, reduction to the grade of E-3, and a reprimand. The convening authority approved the sentence as adjudged. 2 Additionally, he granted a deferral of mandatory forfeitures until action, then a waiver of man- datory forfeitures for the benefit of Appellant’s dependents. On appeal, Appellant personally raises four issues 3 pursuant to United States v. Grostefon, 12 M.J. 431 (C.M.A. 1982): (1) whether the military judge considered improper matters in the victim-impact statement of HG; (2) whether trial counsel erroneously argued that Appellant should be punished for crimes for which he was not convicted; (3) whether it was error to omit combat service from the personal data sheet (PDS) provided to the military judge and convening authority; and (4) whether some of the anabolic steroids are considered exempt from the Controlled Substances Act. 4 Appellant re- quests sentencing relief in the form of setting aside the reduction in rank. 5 We have carefully considered issue (3) with respect to the military judge and issue (4), and determine they warrant no discussion or relief. See United States v. Matias, 25 M.J. 356, 361 (C.M.A. 1987). Finding no error materially prejudicial to Appellant’s substantial rights, we affirm the findings and sentence.

1 In this opinion we do not distinguish offenses committed before or after publication of the Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2016 ed.) (2016 MCM), as that dis- tinction does not affect our analysis of the presented issues. Unless otherwise noted, all references in this opinion to the UCMJ and the Rules for Courts-Martial (R.C.M.) are to the 2016 MCM. 2 The terms of the pretrial agreement did not affect the ability of the convening author- ity to approve the sentence as adjudged. However, it did require the convening author- ity to withdraw and dismiss a charge and specification alleging a violation of Article 120, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 120, which the Government did after sentence was announced. 3 Appellant personally raises two issues, which we considered as four distinct issues. 4 We presume Appellant refers to 21 U.S.C. §§ 801−904, 951−71. 5 We note that Appellant, through trial defense counsel, requested the military judge sentence Appellant to a punitive discharge and confinement for 50 days. The military judge ensured Appellant understood and concurred with this argument for a bad-con- duct discharge.

2 United States v. Gillian, No. ACM 39692

I. BACKGROUND Appellant and his wife, HG, did not have an amicable divorce. As they were planning custody and visitation arrangements for their two children (aged 4 years and 8 years), Appellant engaged in heated arguments with his wife. HG secretly recorded their conversations, expecting to hear confirmation of her suspicion that Appellant was having an extramarital affair. What was cap- tured in the recordings were threats Appellant made to HG to harm her. On the first charged occasion, on or about 15 December 2015, Appellant threat- ened to injure her by “choking her and knocking her out,” and he grabbed HG around the neck with his hands. Appellant made the threatening statements in the presence of their children. The second charged threat occurred five days later, when Appellant told HG he was “going to kill her and burn down her house.” Also recorded was Appellant talking about procuring and using anabolic steroids. Specifically, on 3 February 2016 Appellant told HG, “I’m done with that expensive guy though, I am just going to order it online, do it myself; it is cheaper. . . . It’s just illegal to get it. . . . I do it Wednesday and Saturday, and it keeps everything steady, you know and you feel good.” In another recording several days later—this time speaking with an unidentified individual about a particular anabolic steroid—Appellant said he “just has to shoot it every other day.” Starting in the spring of 2017, Appellant procured Phentermine by getting prescriptions from multiple civilian doctors over the same time period. His name was flagged by the Tennessee Prescription Monitoring Program for this “doctor shopping.” Appellant explained in the guilty-plea inquiry that filling prescriptions from “doctor shopping” is “illegal” and therefore his possession of Phentermine was wrongful. Appellant stipulated to obtaining prescriptions of Phentermine through “subterfuge,” and that Phentermine was a “diet pill” that he “enjoyed taking . . . and it gave him an energy ‘high.’” Indeed, Appellant stipulated to numerous facts as summarized in Prosecu- tion Exhibit 1—the Stipulation of Fact—as well as “to the foundation, rele- vance, and admissibility of Attachments 1−9 and agree[d] to their use should the Government seek to use any of them for the sentencing portion of this gen- eral court-martial.” Those attachments contained Appellant’s prescription his- tory; interview with law enforcement; video and audio recordings regarding steroids, threats, and the assault; photos of text messages offering to get ster- oids for another; and photographs of Appellant using and injecting anabolic steroids, and of the packages and containers shipped from overseas.

3 United States v. Gillian, No. ACM 39692

II. DISCUSSION A. Personal Data Sheet 1. Additional Background The PDS (Prosecution Exhibit 2) admitted at trial without objection and attached to the staff judge advocate’s recommendation (SJAR) listed Appel- lant’s “Combat Service” and “Overseas Service” as “None.” It also listed several awards and decorations, including the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, and the Air Force Expedition- ary Service Ribbon. Admitted at trial was a Certificate of Appreciation recognizing Appellant’s completion of a four-month tour of duty at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, from July to November 2004.

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