State v. Yeo

• Decision Date: 02 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. 01-1653.,01-1653.
• Citation: 659 N.W.2d 544
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Clarence Adrian YEO, Jr., Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

659 N.W.2d 544

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Clarence Adrian YEO, Jr., Appellant.

No. 01-1653.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

April 2, 2003.

Brian L. Earley of Earley Law Office, Montezuma, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Bridget A. Chambers and Scott Brown, Assistant Attorneys General, and Charles A. Stream, County Attorney, for appellee.

CADY, Justice.

In this appeal, we consider a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence underlying the defendant's conviction for child endangerment, particularly with respect to accomplice testimony he asserts was insufficiently corroborated. The defendant also challenges the district court's finding of four separate acts of child endangerment and argues that he was found guilty under a theory not described in his indictment. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment and sentence of the district court.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

Frank Charbonneau, Jr. (Frankie), was born on September 14, 1998. From the time of his birth until March 7, 2000, Frankie lived with his parents, Miranda and Frank Charbonneau, Sr. On March 7, Frankie's parents chose to separate and Frank moved from the marital home. The same day, Miranda's boyfriend — Frank's half brother — Clarence A. Yeo, Jr., moved in with Miranda and Frankie.

Within a month after Clarence arrived in the home, Frankie's father and paternal grandmother reported suspicious bruises on Frankie to the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) and expressed concerns that he was being abused. In response to their report, the DHS contacted a local doctor who examined Frankie on April 10. The doctor observed three small bruises on Frankie's forehead. She opined the bruises indicated his head recently had been "palmed" like a basketball. After the examination, Frankie went to live with his father and grandmother for a short time. Unfortunately, Frank was unable to care for his son in the long term, and the child was soon returned to his mother and her boyfriend.

Frankie was subjected to several episodes of abuse over the next six weeks.¹ On one occasion in mid-August, Clarence grew angry with Frankie while trying to feed him. He then picked Frankie up by the head, and threw the child across the room into a wall. Frankie slid down the wall, hit his head on a living room couch, and began to cry. When he stood-up and walked away, he walked with a noticeable limp. Near the end of August, Clarence lifted Frankie up by grabbing him around the chest and slammed his "bottom" onto the floor. This incident rendered Frankie unable to sit comfortably for a period of time. Yet, these injuries were only a prelude to September 3, when his abuse reached a watershed. On that day, Clarence and Miranda decided to run some errands. They brought Frankie with them even though he was ill. While the three drove through town, Frankie vomited in the car. Clarence told Miranda to stop the car. He then snatched Frankie from his soiled car seat, and forcefully sat him down on the trunk of the car. Although Miranda reacted angrily to this act, the threesome eventually returned to the car and drove to a local Casey's General Store so that Frankie could be cleaned up.

As they headed toward the local Casey's, tempers flared between Clarence and Miranda. Frankie was now in the front seat of the car, having been placed between the couple at some point. While the car was stopped at a stop sign, Miranda jerked Frankie toward her, only to have Clarence take him right back. Miranda angrily exited the car and walked away from her son and boyfriend. She eventually returned to the car, and the group continued to the Casey's.

After arriving at the Casey's, the group went to the restroom to clean up Frankie. When Frankie began to cry during the cleaning process, Clarence slammed the child's head into a toilet. This act made Miranda "hysterical" and caused her to flee the restroom. Clarence later emerged with Frankie. The threesome left the Casey's and went home.

Once home, Clarence and Miranda put Frankie on a living room couch. Clarence claimed Frankie was alone on the couch when they both heard a thud. Clarence went to check on Frankie and found he had rolled off of the couch and was limp, barely breathing, and his eyes were rolled back in his head. Miranda gave Frankie CPR, and the couple brought him to Mahaska County Hospital. He was later transported to Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines where he was admitted in critical condition.²

When initially questioned about Frankie's injuries by medical personnel, Miranda claimed that Frankie had been playing in the house and fell, hitting his head. Clarence did not dispute this account. Later, Clarence told investigators that Frankie had been injured when he fell off the couch while sleeping. Neither story was consistent with Frankie's injuries: a serious closed head injury caused by non-accidental shaking, a healing fracture of the foot, a healing compression fracture of the spine, and a number of bruises of varying age, location, and severity. Clarence was later charged with committing multiple acts of child endangerment against Frankie in violation of Iowa Code sections 726.6(1), 726.6(2), and 726.6A (1999). His first trial resulted in a conviction, but he was granted a new trial due to the trial court's failure to include a jury instruction pertaining to the accomplice testimony of Miranda. Clarence consented to a bench trial following his successful motion for a new trial.

On retrial, Clarence argued he had not caused Frankie's injuries, including the closed head injury. He claimed the head injury was caused when Frankie struck his head on September 3 after Miranda jerked him from his seat in the car. The district court rejected Clarence's defense and, although noting evidence of additional incidences of abuse, found that he committed four separate acts of child endangerment to Frankie resulting in (1) bruises and abrasions when Frankie was "palmed" sometime "during the first few days of April 2000," (2) a broken bone in Frankie's foot when Clarence threw him against a wall "near the middle of August, approximately three weeks before September 3rd," (3) an injury when Clarence grabbed Frankie and forcefully sat him down on the trunk of the car on September 3, and (4) injuries when Clarence slammed Frankie's head into the toilet at Casey's on September 3.

Based on these findings, Clarence was found guilty of committing three or more separate acts of child endangerment, one of which involved a skeletal injury, in violation of Iowa Code sections 726.6(1) and 726.6A. In its conclusions of law, the district court noted that the evidence in the case supported a finding that Clarence violated subsections (a) and (b) of section 726.6(1) in particular. Under those subsections, child endangerment occurs when a "person having custody or control over a child[:]"

a. Knowingly acts in a manner that creates a substantial risk to a child['s]... physical, mental or emotional health or safety[; or]

b. [Intentionally] ... uses unreasonable force, torture or cruelty that results in physical injury, or that is intended to cause serious injury.

Iowa Code § 726.6(1)(a), (b). The district court also concluded that Clarence violated Iowa Code section 726.6A by engaging

in a course of conduct including three or more acts of child endangerment ... within a period of twelve months involving the same child ... where one or more of the acts ... result[ed] in a skeletal injury to a child under the age of four years....

Id. § 726.6A. Clarence was sentenced to a term of imprisonment not to exceed fifty years. See id. He appeals from the district court's judgment and sentence.

II. Standard of Review.

Each of Clarence's challenges on appeal focuses on the sufficiency of the evidence underlying his judgment and sentence. Our review of challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence is for correction of errors at law. State v. Lambert, 612 N.W.2d 810, 813 (Iowa 2000) (citing State v. Thomas, 561 N.W.2d 37, 39 (Iowa 1997)). We are bound by the trial court's finding of guilt if it is supported by substantial evidence upon which "a rational trier of fact could conceivably find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Id. To determine whether the evidence was substantial, we consider the entirety of the evidence presented in a "light most favorable to the State, including all legitimate inferences and presumptions which may be fairly and reasonably deduced from the record." Id. Evidence is not substantial if it raises only suspicion, speculation, or conjecture. Id.

III. Corroboration of Miranda's Testimony.

The district court concluded that Miranda was Clarence's accomplice and, therefore, pursuant to Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 2.21(3), her testimony describing the time, place, and details of Frankie's abuse required corroboration if it was to support the court's conclusion that Clarence was responsible for three or more separate acts of child endangerment. Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 2.21(3) provides:

A conviction cannot be had upon the testimony of an accomplice or a solicited person, unless corroborated by other evidence which shall tend to connect the defendant with the commission of the offense; and the corroboration is not sufficient if it merely shows the commission of the offense or the circumstances thereof.

Corroborating evidence, which may be direct or circumstantial, "`need not be strong and need not be entirely inconsistent with innocence.'" State v. Bugely, 562 N.W.2d 173, 176 (Iowa 1997) (quoting State v. Dickerson, 313 N.W.2d 526, 529 (Iowa 1981)). The evidence is sufficient as long as it "support[s] some material part of the accomplice's testimony and tend[s] to connect the accused to the commission of the crime." Id.

The district court found Miranda's testimony was corroborated by the testimony of Frank Charbonneau, Sr., Dr. Ronda Dennis-Smithhart, Linda and Heather Horn, ...