Kreusel v. State

Citation523 P.3d 312
Decision Date27 January 2023
Docket NumberS-22-0135
Parties Kye Tyrell KREUSEL, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Wyoming

Representing Appellant: Eric F. Phillips, Eric F. Phillips & Associates, Rock Springs, Wyoming.

Representing Appellee: Bridget Hill, Wyoming Attorney General; Jenny L. Craig, Deputy Attorney General; Kristen R. Jones, Senior Assistant Attorney General. Argument by Ms. Jones.

Before FOX, C.J., and KAUTZ, BOOMGAARDEN, GRAY, and FENN, JJ.

KAUTZ, Justice.

[¶1] After a trial, a jury convicted Kye Tyrell Kreusel of felony strangulation of a household member and misdemeanor false imprisonment. The jury found him not guilty on two counts of first-degree sexual assault, and the trial court granted his motion for judgment of acquittal on a third count of first-degree sexual assault. He claims the district court erred during the trial by denying his motion to suppress his journals and admitting the journals into evidence. He also claims the trial court abused its discretion at sentencing by considering conduct related to the three counts for which he was acquitted. We affirm.

ISSUES

[¶2] Mr. Kreusel raises two issues which we restate as:

1. Did the district court err by concluding the affidavit in support of the search warrant established probable cause to search and seize his journals?
2. Did the district court abuse its discretion at sentencing by considering conduct for which Mr. Kreusel was acquitted?
FACTS

[¶3] Mr. Kreusel and his wife Dana Kreusel lived in Green River, Wyoming, with their four children. On the morning of May 21, 2020, Mr. Kreusel and Ms. Kreusel got into an argument because Mr. Kreusel thought Ms. Kreusel was ignoring him. They went into their bedroom. Mr. Kreusel closed and locked the door and stood in front of it. Ms. Kreusel asked Mr. Kreusel multiple times to let her leave the room, but he refused to let her go. After an estimated forty-five minutes, Mr. Kreusel let Ms. Kreusel out of the room so she could help their children with their online schooling.

[¶4] Later that day, Ms. Kreusel went to the Green River Police Department to report the bedroom incident. She was interviewed by Officer Kevin Lennon and Sergeant Jesse Nielson. In addition to recounting the event of that morning, Ms. Kreusel reported numerous other incidents of sexual, physical, mental, and emotional abuse by Mr. Kreusel toward her. Among these incidents, Ms. Kreusel reported the following:

July 19, 2017 : Ms. Kreusel woke up to Mr. Kreusel on top of her. He was holding her hands above her head and touching her body all over, including down her pants. When she resisted, Mr. Kreusel stated, "it's ok, it's me Mitch," referring to Ms. Kreusel's best friend with whom Mr. Kreusel believed she was having an affair.
September 27, 2017 : Ms. Kreusel woke up from sleeping on the couch to Mr. Kreusel biting her ear. After he bit her ear a second time, he flipped her over onto her stomach, pulled her shorts and underwear down, tied her right hand behind her back using the string from her shorts, and threatened to insert the handle of a screwdriver, which he had attached to a cordless battery-powered drill, "inside of her and turn the drill on." When she started screaming and resisting, Mr. Kreusel flipped her onto her back, took off her underwear, stuffed the underwear into her mouth, and raped her.
September 17, 2018 : Ms. Kreusel and Mr. Kreusel got into an argument over sex. When Ms. Kreusel asked him how much sex each week would appease him, Mr. Kreusel "got mad at her[,] picked her up and threw her onto their bed[,]" and said, "I just want to strangle you." He sat on her and pinned both of her arms to her sides with his knees. Mr. Kreusel placed both of his hands around Ms. Kreusel's throat and began choking her. Ms. Kreusel saw "speckles" and "everything started to go black." She had a "hard time breathing" and "thought she was going to die." Mr. Kreusel stopped choking her and began punching the bed with his balled fists. He struck Ms. Kreusel in the nose, causing it to bleed, and hit her lower leg, leaving a bruise. After the incident, Ms. Kreusel had red marks on her neck from Mr. Kreusel's hands, her voice was hoarse for a couple of days, and she had a "hard time" swallowing and talking "for a short period."
May 13, 2020: Ms. Kreusel was laying on the parties’ bed. Mr. Kreusel took off his pants and told her "she needs to ‘suck’ him." Mr. Kreusel grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head toward his "exposed genitals." Ms. Kreusel "did as [Mr. Kreusel] requested and then laid on the bed on her back." Mr. Kreusel placed Ms. Kreusel's head over the edge of the bed and pushed his penis inside of her mouth. She told him, "no, stop," and he replied, "you trained me to do that."

[¶5] After the interview, Officer Lennon and Sergeant Nielson conducted a "civil standby" at the parties’ residence to allow Ms. Kreusel to gather the children and some belongings. While they were there, Mr. Kreusel arrived home. The officers asked Mr. Kreusel about the incident which had occurred that morning. He admitted he had argued with Ms. Kreusel because she ignored him when he was talking to her; they went into the bedroom and he shut the door; he stood in front of the door while they argued; Ms. Kreusel approached him multiple times seeking to leave; and he placed his hands on her upper arms to prevent her from leaving. The officers arrested Mr. Kreusel for false imprisonment and transported him to the Sweetwater County Detention Center.

[¶6] About two weeks later, on June 5, 2020, Ms. Kreusel was again interviewed by law enforcement. During this interview, she informed the officers that Mr. Kreusel kept "detailed" journals on his cellphone and work computer and he has several handwritten journals. She stated she had seen Mr. Kreusel journaling on his work computer at night and the document contained the date and time he was journaling. She said she believed Mr. Kreusel had been journaling "more and in more detail" since he started counseling in September 2019, and she knew he was in possession of the journals because he picked them up from their house after he bonded out of the detention center. She stated she believed Mr. Kreusel kept the journals in his work bag, which she described as a black canvas bag with a shoulder strap.

[¶7] Twelve days later, Detective Robert Fischer obtained a warrant from a circuit court magistrate to search Mr. Kreusel's cellular phones, his place of employment, his work truck, and his person for "documents, books, papers and other tangible objects and information to include but not limited to: Books, journals, records, notes, ledgers, cellular telephones (including information stored in the cellular telephones through applications), computers, tablets, thumb drives, and external hard drives[.]" Law enforcement executed the warrant and seized, among other things, several computer thumb drives containing Mr. Kreusel's typewritten journals.

[¶8] The State charged Mr. Kreusel with one count of first-degree sexual assault (physically helpless victim) in violation of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-2-302(a)(iii) (LexisNexis 2021) (July 19, 2017, incident); two counts of first-degree sexual assault (submission of the victim with physical force or forcible confinement) in violation of § 6-2-302(a)(i) (September 27, 2017, and May 13, 2020, incidents); strangulation of a household member in violation of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-2-509(a)(i) (LexisNexis 2021) (September 17, 2018, incident); and misdemeanor false imprisonment in violation of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-2-203(a) (LexisNexis 2021) (May 21, 2020, incident). Mr. Kreusel filed a motion to suppress his journals. Among other things, he argued the affidavit in support of the search warrant did not establish probable cause justifying the search and seizure of his journals because it failed to provide sufficient facts demonstrating evidence of the alleged crimes would be found in his journals. The district court denied the motion, concluding the affidavit stated sufficient facts to believe a crime had been committed and that "evidence of a crime could be found in [Mr. Kreusel's] journal[s]."

[¶9] During the jury trial, the State presented two entries from Mr. Kreusel's typewritten journals. The first entry contained information concerning the week beginning Monday, September 17, 2018 (the date of the strangulation). For Monday, Mr. Kreusel wrote in relevant part:

Dana and I fooling around late – I said something that set off her porn emotions, she got furious at me, we ended up arguing about sex, she wouldn't stop making accusations[.] I threw her on bed and held her down, then let go and pulled away, came back at foot of bed and g[o]t upset again and began punching bed[.] RUINED ALL PROGRESS!!

On Friday, Mr. Kreusel wrote he and Ms. Kreusel "began having an argument again [with] Dad and Mom (on the phone) ‘mediating’ (see those separate notes)." The second entry presented by the State consisted of Mr. Kreusel's "separate notes" concerning the "mediation." In those notes, Mr. Kreusel stated the following regarding "Kye's ‘faults’ " with respect to the "Monday night fight/2° Counseling": "frustration[,] anger[;] [l]ed to: [ ]strangling[,] hitting." In another section titled, "What can I do specifically?," Mr. Kreusel wrote [apparently referring to what Ms. Kreusel said]: "Holding is OK" but "Don't pull me down on the bed," "Don't put your hands on my neck" and "Don't hold so tight I can't move."1

[¶10] At the close of the State's evidence, Mr. Kreusel moved for a judgment of acquittal with respect to the first-degree sexual assault (physically helpless victim) charge because Ms. Kreusel testified she was awake when Mr. Kreusel put his hand down her pants on July 19, 2017, and therefore she was not physically helpless at the time of the assault. The district court granted the motion. The jury found Mr. Kreusel not guilty of the remaining first-degree sexual...

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1 cases
  • Herdt v. State
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Wyoming
    • 9 Maggio 2023
    ...manner to determine if it presents probable cause supporting the issuance of the warrant." Kreusel v. State, 2023 WY 9, ¶ 16, 523 P.3d 312, 317 (Wyo. 2023) (citations "[W]e begin with the presumption the warrant and supporting affidavit are valid" and "resolve doubtful or marginal cases by ......

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