U.S. v. Waagner

• Decision Date: 19 February 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-1257.,No. 02-1258.,02-1257.,02-1258.
• Citation: 319 F.3d 962
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Clayton L. WAAGNER, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 962

319 F.3d 962

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Clayton L. WAAGNER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 02-1257.

No. 02-1258.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued September 17, 2002.

Decided February 19, 2003.

Richard N. Cox, Eugene L. Miller (argued), Office of U.S. Attorney, Urbana Div., Urbana, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

J. Steven Beckett, Carol A. Dison (argued), Beckett & Webber, Urbana, IL, for Defendant-Appellant.

Before COFFEY, EVANS, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

TERENCE T. EVANS, Circuit Judge.

Clayton L. Waagner says that after his daughter suffered a miscarriage, he heard a voice ask "how could [he] grieve so hard over this one when millions are killed, or murdered, every year." Waagner said the voice, which only he could hear, belonged to God and that it went on to say "I have called you to be my warrior and I want you to go to war against the abortion industry." Describing himself as a "warrior for pre-born children," Waagner embarked on what ultimately became a 2-year, cross-country crime spree. The spree included staking out abortion clinics, stealing a 4-wheel drive Yukon on which he logged 30,000 miles, stealing a Winnebago motor home, robbing gas stations, burglarizing residences, and even evading Pennsylvania state troopers after a high-speed chase. Waagner, a convicted felon, stole firearms during his burglaries, and he went to great lengths to avoid apprehension, going so far as downloading police frequencies from the Internet and storing them on a CD-ROM so he could monitor police movements on a scanner.

Waagner was eventually apprehended by an Illinois state trooper in September of 1999 and subsequently charged with a couple of federal offenses—possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a stolen motor vehicle which crossed state lines. See 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) and 18 U.S.C. § 2313(a).

It is, of course, certainly not surprising that someone who claims to hear bizarre commands from God and then embarks on a massive crime spree has more than a few mental problems. And Waagner did. This became clear when he filed a notice of intent to raise an insanity defense to the charges against him. After filing his notice, the government requested a psychiatric examination, and Waagner was evaluated by Dr. Daniel S. Greenstein, a clinical psychologist whose diagnosis was adjustment disorder, delusional disorder grandiose type, and antisocial personality disorder. Dr. Greenstein testified at Waagner's trial that the diagnoses of adjustment disorder and antisocial personality disorder were not severe mental diseases or defects. However, he testified that Waagner's "delusional disorder grandiose type" is a severe mental disease and that he would not necessarily be able to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions. The insanity defense primarily rested on this opinion, but the jury didn't buy it, as Waagner was convicted on both counts.

Despite his loss at the trial, Waagner proved to be a tough nut to crack: he escaped from the DeWitt County jail in Clinton, Illinois, where he was in custody awaiting sentencing. The escape led to 9 more months of freedom before he was arrested again in December of 2001.

Back in court, Waagner pled guilty to a charge of escape under 18 U.S.C. § 751(a). Later, he was sentenced on all three counts of conviction. The district judge found that Waagner was an armed career criminal who possessed firearms in connection with crimes of violence, that he obstructed justice by escaping and, finally, that he had not shown acceptance of responsibility for either the original charges or the escape. Based on these findings, Waagner was sentenced to 327 months imprisonment on the gun charge, 120 months on the stolen vehicle charge, and 37 months on the escape charge. The gun and stolen vehicle sentences were ordered to run concurrent, but the escape sentence was consecutive—resulting in a total sentence of 364 months.

On this appeal, Waagner seeks a new trial on the original charges. His argument rests on a claim that the jury clearly erred in concluding that he failed to meet his burden of proof on the insanity defense and that the court erred in failing to give the jury a requested instruction on the consequences that would flow from a finding of not guilty by reason of mental defect. Failing that, Waagner tacks on a trio of challenges to the sentence imposed by the district judge.

Waagner's first claim, that the jury clearly erred in failing to find him not guilty by reason of insanity, is an offshoot of a routine challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence argument. As we have noted, a defendant making an ordinary sufficiency challenge "faces a nearly insurmountable hurdle [in that we will] consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government, defer to the credibility determination of the jury, and overturn a verdict only when the record contains no evidence, regardless of how it is weighed, from which the jury could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." United States v. Szarwark, 168 F.3d 993, 995 (7th Cir. 1999) (quoting United States v. Moore, 115 F.3d 1348, 1363 (7th Cir.1997)).

In an insanity case, unlike a typical challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, the defendant's burden is even greater. At trial, it is the defendant, not the government, that must carry the burden of proving insanity (which is an affirmative defense) by clear and convincing evidence. 18 U.S.C. § 17(b). Because, under 704(b) of the Federal Rules of Evidence, legal insanity is a question to be decided by the trier of fact, the finding here by the jury may not be disturbed unless it is clearly erroneous. United States v. Reed, 997 F.2d 332, 334 (7th Cir.1993).

To succeed on an insanity defense, a defendant must prove that as the result of a severe mental disease or defect he was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or wrongfulness of his acts. 18 U.S.C. § 17(a). So the question becomes, what was the evidence the jury considered, and was it so one-sided that any decision except a finding of not guilty by reason of mental defect must be cast aside? We think not.

Dr. Greenstein offered the only expert opinion evidence in this case. But on cross-examination, the doctor testified that whether Waagner even had a delusional disorder was a very close call, made more difficult because it involved religious beliefs. He noted that a person would not necessarily be delusional simply because the person believed, based on strongly held religious beliefs, that killing abortion doctors was morally justified. Because it was a close call, Dr. Greenstein testified that he felt ethically obliged to err in favor of diagnosing Waagner with a delusional disorder. Plus, the doctor candidly acknowledged that on the same facts a different psychologist might come to a different conclusion.

Dr. Greenstein's equivocal testimony is not surprising given that none of the objective evidence pointed very strongly toward a finding that Waagner had a severe mental disorder. Likewise, the diagnosis was further drawn into question because Waagner, despite an extensive criminal record, had no recorded history of psychiatric illness.

Dr. Greenstein's diagnosis of delusional disorder is even more dubious given that his evaluation was based mainly on Waagner's own self-reported, and we think self-serving, statements. Dr. Greenstein did not interview any other persons regarding Waagner's mental condition. Indeed, the...