U.S. v. Martin

• Decision Date: 10 September 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-4026.,03-4026.
• Citation: 382 F.3d 840
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Shauntel MARTIN, also known as Boo, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

382 F.3d 840

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Shauntel MARTIN, also known as Boo, Appellant.

No. 03-4026.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: May 11, 2004.

Filed: September 10, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Jean C. Hamilton, J Eugene O. Howard, argued, St. Louis, MO, for appellant.

Howard J. Marcus, argued, Asst. U.S. Attorney, St. Louis, MO, for appellee.

Before MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, McMILLIAN and MELLOY, Circuit Judges.

MCMILLIAN, Circuit Judge.

Shauntel Martin appeals from a final judgment entered in the United States District Court¹ for the Eastern District of Missouri revoking his supervised release and ordering him to serve twenty-four months in prison. United States v. Martin, No. 4:00CR3 (E.D.Mo. Nov. 25, 2003) (judgment). For reversal, Martin argues that the district court erred in permitting the government to present hearsay evidence at the revocation hearing in violation of Fed.R.Crim.P. 32.1(b)(2)(C) and his constitutional right to confront witnesses against him. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

Background

On January 28, 2000, Martin pled guilty to conspiracy to transport a minor in interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. On April 7, 2000, Martin was sentenced to thirty-seven months in prison and three years of supervised release. On July 14, 2003, after Martin had served his initial prison term and while he was on supervised release, his girlfriend, Norma Garcia, reported to the police that she had been raped and sodomized by Martin. Martin was questioned by the police later that day. On September 2, 2003, Martin's probation officer petitioned the district court to revoke his supervised release, alleging that Martin had committed a Grade A violation (the rape and sodomy of Garcia) and two Grade C violations: (1) failure to notify his probation officer within 72 hours of being arrested or questioned by a law enforcement officer and (2) use of a controlled substance (marijuana), as evidenced by multiple positive urine test results.²

On November 25, 2003, the district court held an evidentiary hearing on the government's motion to revoke Martin's supervised release. Martin admitted the facts underlying the two Grade C violations but denied committing the Grade A violation. The district court thus proceeded to hear evidence solely on the sexual assault allegation.

In presenting its case, the government did not call the alleged victim, Garcia, as a witness. The government called Dr. Jeffrey Helwig, the emergency room physician who treated Garcia shortly after the sexual assault allegedly occurred. Martin objected to the possible admission of hearsay statements by Garcia through Dr. Helwig's testimony. The government argued in response that Garcia's hearsay statements were admissible through Dr. Helwig's testimony because of the inherent reliability of Dr. Helwig's testimony and because Garcia was unavailable. The district court overruled Martin's objection and allowed Dr. Helwig to testify. The district court reasoned: ("[I]f he's going to be talking about what a patient said to a doctor at a particular time, . . . I think [it] carries a certain reliability, and so I will allow ... those statements."). See Transcript of hearing at 11 (Nov. 25, 2003).

According to Dr. Helwig's testimony, on July 14, 2003, at approximately 8:58 a.m., he treated Garcia in the emergency room of the Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Illinois, after she had been transported there by ambulance. Garcia appeared "upset and distressed" at the time. She reported that her boyfriend had pulled her hair, twisted her arm, and forced her to have vaginal and anal sexual intercourse. Her medical condition was consistent with having been physically and sexually assaulted as she described, although some aspects of her condition were also consistent with the fact that she had recently given birth.³

The government also called as a witness Arlington Heights Police Detective Richard Sperando. Over Martin's continuing objection to the admission of any hearsay statements by Garcia, Sperando was allowed to testify regarding statements Garcia had made to him when he interviewed her at approximately 4:00 p.m., on July 14, 2003, at the Arlington Heights police station.

According to Sperando's testimony, Garcia was "excited and upset" at the time of the interview. She reported the following events. During the previous night of July 13, 2003, Garcia and Martin had gone out drinking and partying. In the early morning hours of July 14, 2003, she and Martin were returning home, with Martin driving the vehicle, when they got into an argument. Martin grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head down into his lap. When they reached their apartment complex, he dragged her into the apartment. Inside the apartment, he forced her to have vaginal and anal sexual intercourse. To make him stop, she feigned that she was hyperventilating. She continued to feign illness and asked Martin to take her to the hospital. He agreed. Martin drove Garcia to the hospital but, when he got there, he drove past it. About a mile down the road, she jumped out of the car at a stop light and ran into a nearby police station. At the time of the interview, Sperando could see bruises on Garcia's inner thighs. Garcia further stated that she would not be a witness against Martin because Martin had ties to a "crime family." Garcia reported to him at a later time that Martin's mother had called her and pressured her not to testify against Martin. When state criminal charges were brought against Martin arising out of the incident on July 14, 2003, Garcia was subpoenaed to testify and she showed up in court, but refused to testify against Martin. The state charges against Martin were dismissed.

Sperando further testified that he later questioned Martin at the Arlington Heights police station on July 14, 2003. According to Sperando, Martin came to the Arlington Heights police station voluntarily. Martin denied raping Garcia and claimed that they had engaged in consensual sex until Garcia complained of pain from having recently given birth. Martin told Sperando that he had intended to take Garcia to the hospital, but changed his mind when it appeared that she had fallen asleep in the car. After Garcia jumped out of the car at a stop light and ran into the police station, Martin did not assist her further because he did not want to be arrested for drinking and driving.

Martin did not testify at the revocation hearing or call any of his own witnesses. Based upon the evidence before it, the district court ruled as follows:

Based upon the evidence the Court has heard, I think the Government has proved its case by a preponderance of the evidence.

I think the most persuasive evidence here, and objective evidence, is the doctor's testimony. While I think [defense counsel] does indicate the doctor did say that the vaginal injury could possibly be consistent with the recent childbirth, the rectal evidence was consistent, as he testified, with sexual assault, so even excluding the vaginal injury, which I don't think has to be done, but even if you did that, there's certainly rectal injury.

There are bruises, both on the thighs and the scratches on the arm injury.

That evidence, I think, is objective. It's a doctor observing a patient which is also consistent with the statements made, so that the statements, I think, simply corroborate the physical evidence of the victim here.

And I find that those statements are, as I found earlier, those statements are admissible.

So I think what we do have is forcible sexual assault and I think the Government has proved that both with reliable hearsay and with objective evidence through the doctor's testimony. And the other evidence of the police officer corroborates what the objective testimony was.

So on that basis, I believe the Government has proved a Grade A violation here, in violation of the general condition that the defendant not commit another federal, state, or local crime.

Transcript of hearing at 43.

Accordingly, the district court revoked Martin's supervised release. Martin was ordered to serve an additional twenty-four months in prison. He timely appealed.

Discussion

Martin argues that the presentation of hearsay evidence at the revocation hearing, through Dr. Helwig's and Sperando's testimony, violated his federal constitutional rights and Fed.R.Crim.P. 32.1(b)(2)(C). We review questions arising under the constitution de novo, United States v. Pfeifer 371 F.3d 430, 436 (8th Cir.2004), but we review the claim of a Rule 32.1(b)(2)(C) violation for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Martin, 371 F.3d 446, 449 (8th Cir.2004) (Martin) (applying abuse of discretion standard to admissions of out-of-court statements at a supervised release revocation hearing, under Fed.R.Crim.P. 32.1(b)(2)(C)).

In Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 487-89, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972), the Supreme Court discussed the "minimum requirements of due process" applicable in a parole revocation hearing. The Court held that one of those due process requirements is "the right to confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses (unless the hearing officer specifically finds good cause for not allowing confrontation)." Id. at 489, 92 S.Ct. 2593; see also Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778, 781-787, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 36 L.Ed.2d 656 (1973) (holding that the same due process requirements apply in probation revocation proceedings as in parole revocation proceedings). In Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. at 489, 92 S.Ct. 2593, however, the Supreme Court cautioned that a parole revocation hearing should not, for this purpose, be equated with a criminal trial. In other words, the constitutional standard applicable in this type of post-conviction revocation hearing will sometimes permit the...