United States v. Norwood, No. 19-2178 (7th Cir. 2020)
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Norwood met a 15‐year‐old girl, a runaway from a state facility, at an Indianapolis gas station. Using drugs, violence, threats, and manipulative affection, he enticed her to have sexual intercourse with him and then prostituted her to countless men. A jury convicted him of attempted transportation of a minor across state lines with the intent that the minor engage in prostitution, 18 U.S.C. 2423(a) and (e). The district court sentenced him to 330 months’ imprisonment.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed. Norwood’s efforts to prostitute the victim before attempting to transport her to Wisconsin was sufficient evidence of his intent to continue prostituting her once they crossed state lines. The court upheld the admission of the victim’s medical records; the victim’s statements about what had happened and when were for the primary purpose of medical treatment. They are non-testimonial. The court also upheld the admission of a recorded jail call in which Norwood talked about “pimping” a young “white girl” to whom he had given cocaine. By arguing that the victim had sex with five men per day because that was what Norwood intended, the government simply asked the jury to draw a reasonable inference from the evidence. The court rejected a challenge involving a juror and affirmed the substantive reasonableness of the sentence and the application of the five‐level enhancement under U.S.S.G 4B1.5(b).
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