United States v. Lonnie Dale Spotted Bear, No. 18-1008 (8th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction of four counts of sexual abuse involving three young female relatives. The court held that the district court did not err in allowing the government to play video recordings of the victims' forensic interviews for the jury. In this case, defendant opened the door to the admission of one of the videos, defendant did not object to the admission of the other videos, and the admission did not affect his substantial rights where the videos were cumulative and the evidence of his guilt was strong overall.
Court Description: Stras, Author, with Colloton, and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law. In this prosecution for sexual abuse of female minors, the district court did not err in allowing the government to play video recordings of the victims' forensic interviews for the jury; with respect to one of the videos, defendant opened the door to its admission by suggesting during his questioning of the forensic expert that the victim had changed her story during the interview; defendant did not object to the admission of the other videos and he cannot show, under the plain-error standard, that the admission of the videos affected his substantial rights in that the videos were cumulative and the evidence of his guilt was strong
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