United States v. Randy Phelps

168 F.3d 1048, 50 Fed. R. Serv. 1629, 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 1477, 1999 WL 55704
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit·Decided February 4, 1999·No. 98-1226·Published·Cited by 83 cases

Opinions

ORDER

The clerk is directed to vacate the panel’s January 4, 1999, opinion in this matter. The clerk shall issue the attached corrected and clarified opinion in its stead. The judgment issued on January 4, 1999, remains in effect.

The corrected and clarified opinion issued this date makes non-dispositive changes in the court’s earlier opinion and does not affect the outcome of the case. As a result, the issuance of this corrected and clarified opinion does not trigger a new period for the filing of rehearing petitions. The pending rehearing and rehearing en banc petitions are not affected by this order.

OPINION

BOWMAN, Chief Judge.

The appellant, Randy Phelps, was convicted by a jury of assault with a dangerous weapon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 113(a)(3) [1052]*1052and 1153, and use of a firearm in a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 113(a)(3) and 1152. Phelps was sentenced to 81 months in prison. Phelps appeals, raising seven issues: (1) that his prosecution in federal court violated the Double Jeopardy-Clause because he had already been prosecuted in a tribal court; (2) that the District Court1 did not have jurisdiction over him because the land on which he resided was not part of the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation; (3) that the District Court abused its discretion by admitting several statements under the excited utterance exception to the rule against hearsay; (4) that the evidence was not sufficient to support his convictions; (5) that the District Court gave several erroneous jury instructions; (6) that the District Court erred when it found that the officer’s entrance into Phelps’s home was consensual; and, (7) that the District Court erred by admitting evidence relating to Phelps’s actions immediately before and after the shooting. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm Phelps’s convictions.

I.

Phelps is a Caucasian male, who resides in Greenwood, South Dakota. Phelps leased a house which is located on a tract of trust land that is owned by the Yankton Sioux Indian Tribe. Phelps shared this house with his girlfriend, Shannon Keeler, and her two sons. The convictions in this case arose out of Phelps’s acts on November 30, 1996, when Phelps fired several shots at Keeler and her sons after an argument with Keeler.

On December 5, 1996, Phelps was arraigned in the Yankton Sioux Tribal Court for aggravated assault and possession of a weapon by an intoxicated person, in violation of the Yankton Sioux Law and Order Code 3-14-2 and 3-11-9. Phelps pled guilty to both counts and a judgment of conviction was entered by the tribal court on December 6, 1996.

On February 14,1997, a federal indictment was filed in the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota charging Phelps with assault with a dangerous weapon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 113(a)(3) and 1153, and use of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 113(a)(3) and 1152. These charges arose from the November 30 shooting. Phelps filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that his prosecution in both tribal and federal court for the same conduct violated the Double Jeopardy Clause. The District Court denied his motion. On October 23, 1997, a jury found Phelps guilty of both federal charges. These federal convictions are the subject of Phelps’s appeal. The following is a summary of the evidence that was admitted in Phelps’s federal trial.

On November 30, 1996, Phelps returned home, and began to argue with Keeler. Phelps told Keeler that he wanted her out of his house permanently. Phelps was swearing at her and speaking loudly. Keeler thought that he might have been drinking. She asked for keys to the car so she could leave, and he threw them at her. As Keeler bent over to pick up the keys, Phelps pointed a small gun at her and told her to leave again. She and her sons left the house and got into a brown Skylark, but were unable to leave because Phelps had given Keeler the wrong keys. As they exited from the car, Phelps came out of the house, carrying a larger gun. Keeler and the children ran towards a neighbor’s house. As she was running, Keeler heard a gunshot. She pushed her children to the ground and fell on top of them to protect them. Keeler heard five to six gunshots. The shots were fired by Phelps, who was standing approximately 257 yards away from Keeler and the children.

When Keeler arrived at her neighbor’s house, she called 911. There was conflicting testimony at trial regarding Keeler’s 911 phone calls. Tiphany Dvorak, the 911 dispatcher, testified that Keeler had called 911 twice. Dvorak testified that during the first call, Keeler stated that someone was shooting at her and requested police assistance. During both calls, Keeler sounded upset and there was crying in the background. When asked if she thought that Keeler had been “making more of [the incident] than what it really was,” Dvorak testified that “it sounded [1053]*1053pretty bad.” Trial Tr. at 108. Dvorak’s testimony was admitted under the excited utterance exception to the rule against hearsay.

In contrast to Dvorak’s testimony, Keeler testified that she had called 911 three times. She testified that in her first call, she had requested assistance to retrieve her belongings from Phelps’s house and that the dispatcher did not offer assistance. Keeler testified that she repeated her request during the second call and still received no assistance. Keeler then claimed that she was frustrated because an officer had not been dispatched, so she called a third time and said that someone was shooting at her.

Keeler also had called a relative, Nancy Cooke, shortly after the shooting. Keeler spoke to Cooke for several minutes. Keeler told Cooke that she needed a ride out of Greenwood and that she needed “to get out of here fast.” Trial Tr. at 111. At trial, Cooke testified that Keeler had sounded out of breath, scared, and nervous throughout their conversation. Cooke had known Keeler for many years and testified that she did not usually sound this way. Cooke’s testimony was admitted under the excited utterance exception to the rule against hearsay.

Officer Russell Leaf testified that he arrived on the scene approximately 15 minutes after receiving a phone call from Cooke. Leaf testified that he spoke to Cooke for several minutes and then saw Keeler and her sons walk out from a field. Leaf testified that he spoke to Keeler, who was very upset. Her hands were shaking, and she and the children were crying. Keeler told Leaf that her boyfriend had tried to shoot her and had threatened to use her and the children for target practice. Leaf repeatedly urged her to calm down, but she remained upset throughout her description of the shooting.

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United States v. Randy Phelps, 168 F.3d 1048, 50 Fed. R. Serv. 1629, 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 1477, 1999 WL 55704 (8th Cir. 1999).

168 F.3d 1048 (United States v. Randy Phelps) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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