United States v. Petruk, No. 14-1928 (8th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CasePetruk stole Behning’s pickup truck. Separate charges were brought against Petruk in Minnesota state court (2012) and federal court (2013) related to the theft. While incarcerated on the theft charges, Petruk attempted to obtain false exculpatory statements. Petruk was convicted of carjacking, 18 U.S.C. 2119(1) and two counts of corruptly attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, 18 U.S.C. 1512(c)(2). The district court sentenced Petruk to three concurrent terms of 168 months in prison, at the bottom of the Guidelines range of 168-210 months. The Eighth Circuit affirmed Petruk’s conviction for attempting to obstruct an official proceeding for actions he took to obtain false statements after his original federal indictment had been filed, but vacated the carjacking conviction and his remaining obstruction conviction based on insufficiency of the evidence. The court remanded for resentencing.
Court Description: Criminal case - Criminal law. The evidence was not sufficient to establish that defendant committed the offense of carjacking as the initial theft of the truck was accomplished when the truck was unoccupied and his actions in attacking someone who followed him and attempted to recover the truck amounted to retaining rather than acquiring control of the stolen truck; no rational trier of fact could conclude that in attempting to secure a false statement in December, 2012 that defendant contemplated a particular, foreseeable "official proceeding" as defined by 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1515(a)(1)(A), and his conviction for obstructing an official proceeding under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1512(c)(2) is vacated; however, defendant's efforts to obtain a false statements after the initiation of this federal prosecution did amount to a violation of 1512(c)(2), and this conviction is affirmed. Remanded for resentencing.
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