United States v. Contreras, No. 14-3789 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his conviction and sentence for second degree murder and assault resulting in serious bodily injury. The victim is defendant's two-year-old daughter. The court concluded that the jury could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the victim's injuries fell within the time period specified in the indictment and that sufficient evidence exists to support defendant's convictions on Counts 1 and 3; the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion for a new trial based on prejudicial pretrial publicity; the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the August 2011 spanking incident under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b); the court rejected defendant's claim that the district court abused its discretion in ruling that his stepson's testimony could be admissible as rebuttal evidence; the district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to admit evidence of prior arrests, convictions, police reports, or character evidence related to the victim's mother and her husband; based on the Bureau of Prisons psychiatrist's medical opinion, the district court did not clearly err in finding defendant competent; defendant's mandatory minimum sentence provided in 18 U.S.C. 3559(f)(1) is not constitutional as applied to him; and defendant's sentence did not violate the Eighth Amendment and was substantively reasonable. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Smith, Author, with Riley, Chief Judge, and Shepherd, Circuit Judge] Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. The evidence was sufficient to support defendant's convictions for second degree murder and assault resulting in serious bodily injury; no error in denying defendant's motion for new trial based on claim of prejudicial pretrial publicity as he failed to show the publicity was so extensive and corrupting that the court should presume prejudice or that the voir dire testimony of any juror demonstrated actual prejudice; additionally, the court gave the jury a cautionary instruction to disregard any information other than the evidence; evidentiary challenges rejected; the court did not clearly err in finding defendant was competent; 360-month sentence for the murder of defendant's two-year-old daughter was within the statutory range and did not violate the Eighth Amendment; nor was the sentence substantively unreasonable.
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