United States v. Jayme Walker

917 F.3d 1004
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMarch 6, 2019
Docket18-1355
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 917 F.3d 1004 (United States v. Jayme Walker) 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. Jayme Walker, 917 F.3d 1004 (8th Cir. 2019).

Opinions

GRUENDER, Circuit Judge.

Jayme Walker met W.F., who was fourteen at the time, "on a social media site for guys seeking other people." W.F. falsely claimed that he was eighteen years old to join the site, but he told Walker that he was fourteen. The two exchanged sexual messages and images on the website and by text message. The communications began in June 2013 and ended in February 2014 when W.F.'s mother discovered the exchanges and a police investigation began.

Walker waived indictment and was charged by information with four counts. The Government later dismissed one count. Following trial, a jury found him guilty on the remaining three counts: (1) 18 U.S.C. § 1470, Transfer of Obscene Materials to a Minor; (2) 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2) and (b)(1), Receipt of Child Pornography; and (3) 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a), Sexual Exploitation of a Minor. The district court1 sentenced Walker to 264 months' imprisonment.

*1008Walker now appeals. He claims that the district court erred by refusing to admit evidence of W.F.'s sexual conversations with other men. He argues further that the district court erred in excluding evidence about the source of Walker's fantasies and in limiting his cross-examination of the victim. He also contends the district court abused its discretion by failing to require knowledge of the victim's age in a jury instruction and by denying his motion for judgment of acquittal. Finally, he argues that his sentence constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. We consider each of these arguments in turn and affirm.

I.

A.

"We review a district court's interpretation and application of the rules of evidence de novo and its evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion." United States v. Street , 531 F.3d 703, 708 (8th Cir. 2008). "However, we review evidentiary rulings de novo when they implicate constitutional rights." United States v. Pumpkin Seed , 572 F.3d 552, 558 (8th Cir. 2009).

First, Walker argues that the district court erred when it excluded evidence of W.F.'s sexual communications with other men. In a case involving "alleged sexual misconduct," the Federal Rules of Evidence prohibit the admission of evidence "offered to prove that a victim engaged in other sexual behavior" or "evidence offered to prove a victim's sexual predisposition." Fed. R. Evid. 412(a)(1), (2). But the rule contains three exceptions for criminal cases. Fed. R. Evid. 412(b). Only the first and third exceptions are at issue here. The first exception allows "evidence of specific instances of a victim's sexual behavior, if offered to prove that someone other than the defendant was the source of semen, injury, or other physical evidence." Fed. R. Evid. 412(b)(1)(A). The third exception allows "evidence whose exclusion would violate defendant's constitutional rights." Fed. R. Evid. 412(b)(1)(C).

Walker argues that the first exception applies in this case "because the images sent by [W.F. to Walker] could have been of himself or other people, or both." And he says the images "could have been prepared by [W.F.] for another person or during another conversation with someone else," rather than at Walker's inducement. Walker sought to "adduce evidence that [W.F.] initiated communication with other adults through age-restricted websites; and sent nude photographs using age-restricted websites, during the same time that he is alleged to have communicated with Defendant." The district court questioned the relevance of the communications and observed that Walker appeared to be arguing that "exploitation by this defendant isn't as bad because lots of folks were exploiting [W.F.]." It then excluded the communications.

We find no basis for concluding that the district court abused its discretion in excluding the evidence. The first exception to Rule 412 allows "evidence of specific instances of a victim's sexual behavior, if offered to prove that someone other than the defendant was the source of ... other physical evidence." But here, Walker sought to question W.F. about the general fact that he had initiated sexual conversations with and sent images of himself to other people. He did not seek to introduce "specific instances" that indicated that others had induced W.F. to produce the images that W.F. later sent to Walker. Instead, Walker argued that the evidence he sought to introduce showed that W.F. "was initiating with everybody. This is what he did. This was his hobby with everybody."

*1009Thus, it was not an abuse of discretion for the district court to exclude the evidence. See United States v. Ogden , 685 F.3d 600, 604-05 (6th Cir. 2012) (excluding evidence of the victim's chat logs with other men offered by the defendant to show that "one of those men might have originally persuaded the victim to take the explicit pictures" in a § 2251 case because Rule 412(a)(1)"forbids the introduction of 'evidence offered to prove that a victim engaged in other sexual behavior' ").

Walker also argues that the third Rule 412 exception applies in this case because evidence that W.F. "sent and received numerous sexual communications with a number of people during the same period of time he sexted Appellant directly contradicts" an element of Count Three: that Walker used, persuaded, induced, or enticed W.F. to produce the image. 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a). Walker claims that the exclusion of the evidence thus violated his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights to "introduce evidence in his own defense."

When considering whether evidence is admissible under Rule 412(b)(1)(C), "we start with the premise that defendants have a constitutional right under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to introduce evidence in their defense." Pumpkin Seed

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917 F.3d 1004, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jayme-walker-ca8-2019.