United States v. Sherrod

United States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals·Decided September 20, 2018·No. ACM 39347·Unpublished

Opinion

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

No. ACM 39347

UNITED STATES

Appellee

v.

William R. SHERROD

Senior Airman (E-4), U.S. Air Force, Appellant

Appeal from the United States Air Force Trial Judiciary Decided 20 September 2018

Military Judge: Patricia A. Gruen. Approved sentence: Dishonorable discharge, confinement for 6 years, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, reduction to E-1, and a reprimand. Sentence adjudged 31 May 2017 by GCM convened at Kadena Air Base, Japan. For Appellant: Captain Mark J. Schwartz, USAF. For Appellee: Lieutenant Colonel Joseph J. Kubler, USAF; Lieutenant Colonel G. Matt Osborn, USAF; Mary Ellen Payne, Esquire. Before JOHNSON, DENNIS, and LEWIS, Appellate Military Judges. Judge LEWIS delivered the opinion of the court, in which Senior Judge JOHNSON and Judge DENNIS joined.

This is an unpublished opinion and, as such, does not serve as precedent under AFCCA Rule of Practice and Procedure 18.4.

LEWIS, Judge:

In accordance with his pleas, Appellant was found guilty at a general court- martial of stealing mail on divers occasions in violation of Article 134, Uniform

Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. § 934. Contrary to his pleas, Appellant was found guilty of one specification of rape by unlawful force in violation of Article 120, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 920. 1 Officer members sentenced Appellant to a dishonorable discharge, six years confinement, total forfeitures of all pay and allowances, reduction to the grade of E-1, and a reprimand. The convening authority deferred the reduction in grade, automatic forfeitures, and adjudged forfeitures until action. At action, the convening authority approved the adjudged sentence. 2 Appellant raises three issues for our consideration on appeal: (1) whether his rape conviction is legally and factually sufficient; (2) whether the military judge abused her discretion by failing to give an instruction on what constitutes unlawful force; and (3) whether Appellant’s sentence is inappropriately severe. 3 We find no prejudicial error and affirm the findings and sentence.

I. BACKGROUND

Appellant and his spouse, ES, married in 2010 when she was 17 years old. 4 In January 2014, Appellant and ES moved to their second assignment at Kadena Air Base (AB), Japan. Appellant began working as a Postal Clerk at the Kadena Post Office. By November 2015, the couple’s fourth child was born.

During the assignment at Kadena AB, Appellant began trying to convince his spouse to experiment with anal sex. He started by putting his penis around her anal area while they were in bed together. On more than one occasion, ES told him that she did not want it to go any further. On a couple of occasions prior to 9 August 2016, Appellant pushed his penis in a little bit, causing ES pain. She would “scream” and “startle” Appellant, who would then say he was sorry and leave her alone.

1 Appellant pleaded guilty to the lesser included offense of sexual assault by causing bodily harm, but the officer members found him guilty of the greater offense of rape. The members found Appellant not guilty of four specifications of sexual assault, three of which were alleged on divers occasions, in violation of Article 120, UCMJ. All Article 120 allegations involved Appellant’s spouse, ES. 2Appellant reached his expiration of his term of service (ETS) prior to convening authority action, which terminated all of his pay and allowances. 3Appellant personally submitted supplemental matters on the first issue and personally asserted the third issue pursuant to United States v. Grostefon, 12 M.J. 431 (C.M.A. 1982). We considered all matters submitted on legal and factual sufficiency as a single assignment of error. 4 ES’s father provided written permission for the marriage due to her age.

On Tuesday, 9 August 2016, when Appellant came home from work, ES was exhausted from her day. As they were going to bed that night, she told Appellant that she did not want to have sex and that she needed to sleep. When she awoke, it was still dark and she was on her stomach. ES wondered what was going on as she does not sleep on her stomach. Appellant was behind her and on top of her back. ES said “no, no.” Appellant stopped what he was doing and said he was sorry. ES began falling back asleep and then realized Appellant was holding her arms at the triceps/biceps area. Appellant penetrated her anus with his penis. ES tried to move her arms, “yelled” that it hurt, and that she wanted Appellant to stop. ES hit her pillow and the headboard and Appellant still did not stop. Eventually, Appellant “held it in for a minute,” and then his penis “came out” and he “let [ES] go.” Appellant told ES he was sorry and that he did not know why he did not stop. ES retreated to the bathroom crying and then dressed and left the house in the middle of the night.

On 20 September 2016, ES made an unrestricted report of sexual assault which began an investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI). That same day, Appellant waived his rights under Article 31, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 831, and in a recorded AFOSI interview, admitted that he had anal sex with his spouse during August 2016 without her consent. Appellant described being in the heat of the moment, the anal penetration as lasting “maybe two or three seconds,” that his spouse said “ow, ow, stop,” that he was “already frozen in a state of shock,” and “could not move.” Appellant denied being “even in the motion of sex.” Appellant described what he did as “unwanted sodomy” and twice as “rape.” He denied holding his spouse’s hands down, but stated “I can completely understand why she would feel like she was being held there because I couldn’t move myself.” Later in the interview, Appellant stated, “I was on top of her, so when I froze inadvertently, yes, I was holding her down, but it was not my intention to forcibly control her or hold her in that position.”

In November 2016, Appellant noticed envelopes in the Kadena Main Post Office from the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) that could not be delivered because the addressees had moved. The envelopes had the statement “Your Reward is Here” printed on them and Appellant could feel something inside each of them about the size of a gift card. On two occasions, Appellant took a stack of envelopes, opened them, and removed the $20.00 AAFES gift card he found inside. He used a total of 25 gift cards to buy an iPad mini tablet for $489.00 from AAFES.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Legal and Factual Sufficiency 1. Additional Background Appellant asserts that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the findings of guilt to rape because the Government failed to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Appellant used unlawful force when he penetrated his spouse’s anus. Much as he did at trial, Appellant asserts on appeal that he is only guilty of sexual assault by causing bodily harm.

2. Law We review issues of factual and legal sufficiency de novo. Article 66(c), UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 866(c); United States v. Washington, 57 M.J. 394, 399 (C.A.A.F. 2002).

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