United States v. Timothy White Plume, No. 16-1340 (8th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his conviction for assault resulting in serious bodily injury and child abuse. The court concluded that the evidence was sufficient to support defendant's convictions. The court also concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion by excluding prior-acts evidence of a child abuse incident involving his wife and another child because the evidence does not tend logically to prove any element of the crime charged and is not an integral part of the immediate context of the crime charged. Furthermore, defendant failed to establish the required non-propensity purpose. Finally, the court concluded that the district court's limit on defendant's cross-examination of his wife was reasonable and there was no Confrontation Clause violation. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Benton, Author, with Riley, Chief Judge, and Wollman, Circuit Judge] Criminal case - Criminal law. Evidence was sufficient to support defendant's convictions for assault resulting in serious bodily injury and child abuse; no error in refusing to admit evidence regarding a prior child-abuse incident involving his wife and a different child than the one harmed in this incident as it was not proper res gestae evidence or reverse Rule 404(b) evidence; nor did the court err in refusing to permit him to cross-examine his wife about the prior child abuse.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.