United States v. James Bruguier

703 F.3d 393, 2012 WL 6197762, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 25461
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedDecember 13, 2012
Docket11-3634
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 703 F.3d 393 (United States v. James Bruguier) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth 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. James Bruguier, 703 F.3d 393, 2012 WL 6197762, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 25461 (8th Cir. 2012).

Opinions

MURPHY, Circuit Judge.

James Bruguier was convicted after a jury trial of sexual abuse of an incapacitated person, sexual abuse of a minor, aggravated sexual abuse, and burglary. The district court1 sentenced him to 360 months imprisonment, the bottom of his guideline range of 360 months to life, and five years of supervised release. He appeals his conviction and sentence, arguing that the district court gave improper jury [397]*397instructions, that there was insufficient evidence to sustain the burglary conviction, and that the district court erred in calculating his guideline range. We affirm.

I.

Bruguier was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of attempted aggravated sexual abuse, 18 U.S.C. § 2241(a), sexual abuse of an incapacitated person, 18 U.S.C. § 2242(2), burglary, S.D.C.L. § 22-32-1, and sexual abuse of a minor, 18 U.S.C. § 2243(a). The charges stemmed from separate events involving four different victims: Crystal Strieker, Vicki Johnson, T.S., and K.S. Bruguier is an American Indian and all of the incidents occurred in Indian country. See 18 U.S.C. § 1153. After a three day trial, the jury found Bruguier guilty of sexual abuse of an incapacitated person, Crystal Strieker, sexual abuse of a minor, K.S., aggravated sexual abuse of T.S., and burglary. It acquitted him of aggravated sexual abuse of Crystal Strieker and attempted aggravated sexual abuse of Vicki Johnson.

The charges against Bruguier involving Crystal Strieker, for sexual abuse of an incapacitated person and for aggravated sexual abuse, arose from events in January 2011. Witnesses testified that Crystal had been consuming large amounts of alcohol one night at the house where she lived with her boyfriend Mike Miller before leaving for her sister Helen’s house. Crystal continued drinking there. Bruguier, Helen’s boyfriend, was also in the house. Some time after 3 a.m. Helen took Crystal home. While Crystal and Mike’s sister were talking in the kitchen, Bruguier came to the door and Crystal let him in. Mike had gone to bed but his sister spent a short time in the living room with Bru-guier and Crystal before returning to the kitchen. Crystal later testified that she was so intoxicated that night that she did not even remember returning home from Helen’s house.

A loud noise caused Mike and his sister to rush to the living room where they saw Crystal lying on the floor with Bruguier on top of her. Bruguier had told the sister to “shut up” when she had yelled for her brother. She and Mike testified that Crystal was not moving when they got to the living room. Her head was slanted against the wall, and her eyes were closed. According to Mike, she was “laying like she was knocked out.” Mike grabbed Bru-guier and told him to leave. Mike saw that Bruguier’s penis was erect and that Crystal did not have any pants on and had semen between her legs. When he began to shake Crystal, she opened her eyes. ■ At trial Crystal testified that she remembered Mike waking her up and that she believed that Bruguier had raped her. She waited until the following day to call the police to make sure she was “in [her] right mind to give a statement.” A sexual assault exam of Crystal revealed vaginal bruising and semen matching Bruguier’s DNA.

Bruguier testified that he had not intended to go to Crystal’s house that night but had gone for a drive and then got stuck in the snow in her driveway. He testified that Crystal came to the door and told him to “shut up and get in here.” According to him, Crystal began making sexual advances when he went inside the house, and they had consensual sexual intercourse on the living room floor. He also testified that the two had had consensual sex once before. The jury acquitted Bruguier of the aggravated sexual abuse charge related to this incident, but it convicted him for the sexual abuse of an incapacitated person.

The sexual abuse of a minor charge involved 13 year old K.S. She testified that she “lost [her] virginity” to Bruguier in her [398]*398grandmother’s basement and that they again had sex several weeks later. Bru-guier admitted having had sex with K.S. two times when she was in the sixth grade. The jury found him guilty of sexual abuse of a minor.

The charges of burglary and aggravated sexual abuse of T.S. involved an incident in the summer of 2010 at her home. T.S. was then a teenager, and she testified that she had woken up in the middle of the night after hearing a noise and thought that someone was crawling through her bedroom window. She then saw Bruguier standing in her bedroom and told him to get out. Bruguier asked her why she was with her boyfriend and not him. T.S. told him again to leave, but instead Bruguier hit her on the head with a can of hair spray and raped her. T.S. told several friends and a youth counselor about the attack. One testified that T.S. had told her that Bruguier had come in through the bedroom window and asked T.S. why she wanted to be with her boyfriend since he “could take [her] other places better.” The jury found Bruguier guilty of both burglary and aggravated sexual abuse of T.S.

After the verdict was returned, Bruguier moved for a new trial and for a judgment of acquittal on the charges of sexual abuse of an incapacitated person, burglary, and aggravated sexual abuse of T.S. The motions were denied. A presentence investigation report (PSR) calculated his guideline range to be 360 months to life, based on his criminal history category II and the total offense level of 41. Bruguier objected to proposed sentencing enhancements for a vulnerable victim and for a pattern of sexual misconduct against minors. He also objected to the PSR’s failure to credit his acceptance of responsibility for sexual abuse of a minor.

The district court overruled his objections and adopted the PSR calculations. It imposed concurrent 360 month sentences on Bruguier’s convictions for sexual abuse of an incapacitated person and for aggravated sexual abuse of T.S., as well as statutory maximum sentences of 300 months for the burglary and 180 months for the sexual abuse of a minor, to run concurrently. He also received five years of supervised release. The district court considered and rejected Bruguier’s arguments for a downward variance when it imposed this sentence at the bottom of the guideline range. The court concluded that the sentence was necessary to “protect society as a whole” and to reflect the seriousness of Bruguier’s offense, given the evidence regarding its negative impact on the victims, the fact that there were multiple victims including a 13 year old, and the fact that two of the sexual assaults had occurred in the victims’ own homes.

Bruguier appeals his convictions and sentences, contending that the district court improperly instructed the jury, constructively amended the indictment on the sexual abuse of an incapacitated person charge, and erred in calculating his guideline range. He argues in addition that there was insufficient evidence to sustain the burglary conviction.

II.

A.

We first examine Bruguier’s challenges to the jury instruction on the charge of sexual abuse of an incapacitated person.

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Related

United States v. James Bruguier
735 F.3d 754 (Eighth Circuit, 2013)

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Bluebook (online)
703 F.3d 393, 2012 WL 6197762, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 25461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-james-bruguier-ca8-2012.