U.S. v. Serawop
| Decision Date | 06 June 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-4082.,04-4082. |
| Citation | 410 F.3d 656 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Redd Rock SERAWOP, a/k/a Reddrock Serawop, a/k/a Redrock Serawop, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
G. Fred Metos, Salt Lake City, UT, for Defendant-Appellant.
Diana Hagen, Assistant United States Attorney (Paul M. Warner, United States Attorney, with her on the brief), Salt Lake City, UT, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Before TACHA, Chief Circuit Judge, McKAY, Senior Circuit Judge, and EBEL, Circuit Judge.
This appeal requires us to decide what mental state is required to convict a defendant of voluntary manslaughter under 18 U.S.C. § 1112 and to determine how district courts must instruct juries regarding that mental element. We hold that, in order to convict a defendant of voluntary manslaughter under 18 U.S.C. § 1112, the Government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant acted in the heat of passion with either (1) a general intent to kill, meaning that the defendant was aware that the result was practically certain to follow from his conduct regardless of his desire as to that result; (2) intent to do serious bodily injury; or (3) depraved heart recklessness. Instructing the jury that voluntary manslaughter requires only an unlawful killing "in the heat of passion" is insufficient to convey this mental state requirement. Instead, juries must be specifically instructed that voluntary manslaughter requires the above-stated intentional or reckless mental state in addition to the homicidal act occurring in the heat of passion.
In this case, Defendant-Appellant Redd Rock Serawop ("Serawop" or "Defendant") was indicted for second degree murder under 18 U.S.C. § 1111(a) (2000) following the death of his three-month-old daughter, Beyonce, in Indian Country. The trial court instructed the jury on this charged offense and also on the lesser-included offenses of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter under 18 U.S.C. § 1112(a). The jury convicted Serawop of voluntary manslaughter. Below, and on appeal, Serawop argues that jury instructions failed to charge the jury with the proper mental state required for voluntary manslaughter and thereby prevented the jury from considering whether he should instead have been convicted of the less serious offense of involuntary manslaughter.
With respect to voluntary manslaughter, the district court instructed the jury:
If you find the defendant is not guilty of murder in the second degree, then you should proceed to determine whether the defendant is guilty of voluntary manslaughter.
Voluntary manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice in the heat of passion.
In order to prove the charge against the defendant of voluntary manslaughter, the government must establish beyond a reasonable doubt each of the following elements:
First, the defendant killed Beyonce Serawop;
Second, the defendant acted unlawfully;
Third, the defendant did so in the heat of passion;
Fourth, the defendant is an Indian; and
Fifth, the crime alleged in the Indictment occurred within Indian Country.
We agree with Serawop that this instruction fails to articulate any mental state element for voluntary manslaughter other than "in the heat of passion." Therefore, the jury erroneously could have convicted Serawop of voluntary manslaughter even if they believed he had a less culpable mental state than murderous intent or recklessness. All the jury had to find to convict Serawop of voluntary manslaughter with this erroneous instruction was that Serawop acted in the heat of passion, which could include mere negligent or grossly negligent acts.
To prevent this error, juries must be specifically instructed that voluntary manslaughter requires either an intentional or reckless killing. One example of a proper instruction in this case would be:
In order to prove the charge against the defendant of voluntary manslaughter, the government must establish beyond a reasonable doubt each of the following elements:
First, the defendant killed Beyonce Serawop;
Second, the defendant acted unlawfully;
Third, while in a sudden quarrel or heat of passion, and therefore without malice, the defendant:
a) intentionally killed Beyonce;
b) intended to cause Beyonce serious bodily injury; or
c) acted recklessly with extreme disregard for human life;
Fourth, the defendant is an Indian; and
Fifth, the crime alleged in the Indictment occurred within Indian Country.
As used in this instruction, "intentionally killed" means either:
(1) a specific purpose to take the life of another human being, or
(2) a willingness to act knowing that the death of another human being is practically certain to follow from that conduct.
Serawop was not given such an instruction in this case. Therefore, exercising jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we REVERSE Serawop's voluntary manslaughter conviction and REMAND for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
On November 2, 2002, Ernestina Moya, left her home on the Ute Indian reservation in northeastern Utah to serve a 12-day jail sentence for providing false information to a police officer. She left her nephew and three children, including three-month-old Beyonce Serawop, at home with Beyonce's father, Redd Rock Serawop. Beyonce had been sick before Moya left, and she cried almost constantly while Moya was away. Serawop had also just started a new job at a bottling company that week.
At approximately 1:30 a.m. on November 3, 2002, Serawop called for an ambulance and reported that Beyonce was having difficulty breathing. When she arrived at the hospital, Beyonce was limp, pale, and not breathing or moving on her own. A spinal tap produced blood, indicating she had suffered a head trauma. Beyonce was life-flighted to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, where she was pronounced dead.
The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Beyonce found rib fractures and contusions on her face and concluded her death was caused by three skull fractures along the left side of her skull, which were consistent with a blunt force trauma. According to the medical examiner, Beyonce would have been unable to cry or eat after she sustained these injuries, as they would have immediately rendered her unconscious. The medical examiner also testified that, because an infant's skull is relatively malleable, it would require a considerable amount of force to compress the head to the point where the skull fractures.
Serawop gave several conflicting versions of what occurred. Initially, he told emergency room doctors that when he checked on Beyonce in the night he found she had inexplicably stopped breathing. Later, Serawop said that his 17-month-old son hit Beyonce in the head with a child's cup and that one of the children may have dropped her. In subsequent FBI interviews, Serawop said he tripped over a shoe and fell with Beyonce in his arms, causing her to hit her head on the edge of the television stand, and then revised his story to assert that he accidentally dropped his daughter and that her head struck the bathroom counter as she fell.
At trial, the Government asked the jury to convict Serawop of second degree murder. The Government relied on the evidence of multiple blows to Beyonce's face, head, and body; the inconsistencies in Serawop's stories; and the medical testimony about the amount of force required to cause Beyonce's death.
In defense, Serawop did not dispute that he had caused the death of Beyonce but instead argued he was guilty of only involuntary manslaughter or, in the alternative, voluntary manslaughter. Specifically, Serawop argued that Beyonce's death was caused by a single accidental fall and that there was doubt about the amount of force, as applied to her body, necessary to cause her injuries on impact—particularly given Serawop's size and the weight and relative strength of the infant's head and neck. Serawop also argued that the injuries to Beyonce's face and ribs were consistent with him attempting to perform CPR. Thus, he argued, he was guilty of involuntary manslaughter at most.
In the alternative, Serawop argued that if the jury found he used extreme force, then that force was used in a heat of passion arising out of the frustration, stress, and exhaustion caused by Beyonce's consistent crying and Moya's absence. If this was the case, he said, he should be convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
The district court instructed the jury on second degree murder and the lesser included offenses of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. The jury convicted Serawop of voluntary manslaughter, and this appeal followed.
Serawop argues that the district court improperly instructed the jury regarding voluntary manslaughter's mental state. In particular, he contends that voluntary manslaughter requires the Government to prove an intentional or reckless killing as an element of the offense1 and that the district court committed prejudicial error by not instructing the jury to this effect in this case. We agree.
As an initial matter, we must determine what mental state is required for the federal crime of voluntary manslaughter. "[D]etermining the mental state required for commission of a federal crime requires `construction of the statute and ... inference of the intent of Congress.'" Staples v. United States, 511 U.S. 600, 605, 114 S.Ct. 1793, 128 L.Ed.2d 608 (1994) (quoting United States v. Balint, 258 U.S. 250, 253, 42 S.Ct. 301, 66 L.Ed. 604 (1922)) (ellipsis in original). Thus, determining the mental state required under the federal voluntary manslaughter statute is a question of statutory construction we review de novo. United States v. McVeigh, 153 F.3d 1166, 1193 (10th Cir.1998).
Voluntary manslaughter is one offense within a hierarchy of federal homicides. Both voluntary...
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