U.S. v. Webb

• Decision Date: 13 November 1984
• Docket Number: No. 84-1287,84-1287
• Citation: 747 F.2d 278
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. June WEBB, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 278

747 F.2d 278

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. June WEBB, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 84-1287.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Nov. 13, 1984.

Certiorari Denied Feb. 19, 1985.

See 105 S.Ct. 1222.

Raymond Caballero and Barbara Wiederstein, El Paso, Tex. (court-appointed), for defendant-appellant.

Mervyn Hamburg, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Before CLARK, JOHNSON and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

CLARK, Chief Judge:

June Webb appeals from her conviction on two counts of injury to a child in violation of Tex.Penal Code Ann. Sec. 22.04, made applicable to her by the Assimilative Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. Secs. 7 and 13. The alleged acts occurred on a United States military reservation. Consequently, under the Assimilative Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. Secs. 7 and 13, the Texas statute defines the crime, even though this remains a federal criminal prosecution. Webb argues on appeal that her motion for judgment of acquittal should have been granted. She further argues that the indictment and jury instructions were insufficient under Tex.Penal Code Ann. Sec. 6.01 which requires that in order for actions to be criminal they must be voluntary. Finally, Webb argues that the Texas statute is unconstitutional. For the reasons stated below, Webb's two convictions are affirmed.

I. Facts

June Webb was raised in Wilmington, Delaware. At the age of thirteen, June Wilson (who later became known as June Webb) became involved with Keith Webb. Prior to graduating from high school, June Wilson bore two children by Keith Webb: Steve Wilson and Andrea Wilson. Keith Webb had married another woman, Robin Webb, prior to the birth of June Wilson's second child. The record is unclear whether June Wilson knew at that time of Keith Webb's marriage. In early 1980, after graduation from high school, June Wilson began residing with Keith Webb in Wilmington, Delaware.

Between June 1980 and September 1980, Keith Webb frequently physically abused or beat June Wilson. June Wilson reported several of these beatings to the police, but Keith Webb was never prosecuted. In September 1980, June Wilson enlisted in the Army and sent her children to live with her parents. Following basic training, June Wilson served in Germany. In August 1982, she returned to Wilmington before beginning a new assignment at Fort Bliss, Texas. While in Wilmington, June Wilson became reconciled with Keith Webb. In September 1982, Keith Webb accompanied June Wilson to Fort Bliss, Texas. June Wilson married Keith Webb shortly thereafter, although she was not certain whether he had divorced Robin Webb. In fact, he had not.

From October 1982 to January 1983, Keith and June Webb lived together in El Paso, Texas. Keith Webb resumed beating June Webb during that period. In January, Keith Webb sent for his legal wife Robin Webb, who arrived in El Paso with one of her children shortly thereafter. The three adults and one child shared an apartment. Later, Robin Webb's other two children joined them. In May 1983, Keith Webb travelled to Wilmington, Delaware, and brought June Webb's two children back to El Paso with him. In June, June Webb (who was pregnant), Keith Webb, Robin Webb, Robin's four children, and June's two children moved into a three bedroom house on the military reservation. June Webb was the sole employed and working support for this group.

Keith Webb continued to physically abuse June Webb. ¹ In addition, he frequently physically abused Steve Wilson, who was 6 years of age at this time. There was testimony at trial that June Webb also physically abused Steve Wilson. In July 1983, because of severe beatings, Steve Wilson developed a soft spot on his skull which caused convulsions. This injury forms the basis for the first count of injury to a child against June Webb. On August 9 or 10, 1983, Keith Webb scalded Steve Wilson by placing him in a bathtub of hot water. The child was severely burned, and his health rapidly deteriorated. Steve Wilson became listless, stayed in bed, ate little, and frequently asked for water. At one point, he collapsed and quit breathing after eating a cookie and drinking juice. Late August 11, 1983, Steve Wilson died. Keith Webb buried Steve's body in the desert. This tragedy forms the basis for the second count of injury to a child against June Webb.

For almost one month, no one made any effort to notify the authorities of Steve Wilson's death. Finally, on September 5, 1983, June Webb persuaded Keith Webb to take her to the Fort Bliss CID office on the pretext that she (June Webb) had been raped by another man. Once separated from Keith Webb at the Fort Bliss CID office, June Webb told authorities of her son's death. Keith Webb, apparently concluding that June Webb had implicated him, fled and was later apprehended. ²

June Webb made two statements to the authorities. In both, she accused Keith Webb of causing Steve Wilson's death by placing him in scalding water and by hitting his head against a wall. June Webb stated that she could not report her son's death earlier because Keith Webb had threatened to kill her, her other children, and her family in Wilmington if she reported him.

June Webb was indicted as an accessory after the fact to murder, and on two counts of injury to a child by failing to obtain medical care for the child while under a legal duty to do so. At trial, testimony implicated June Webb in the physical abuse of Steve. Moreover, June Webb's testimony made it clear that she knew that Steve was gravely ill before he died, but that she was afraid to obtain medical care for him because of what Keith Webb would do to her, her other children, and her parents. The jury, which was presented with an instruction on the defense of duress, acquitted June Webb of the accessory after the fact count, but convicted her on two counts of injury to a child by failing to obtain medical care for Steve Wilson. June Webb was sentenced to two ten year prison terms, to run concurrently. She presently appeals these two convictions.

II. The District Court Properly Denied Webb's Motion for Judgment of Acquittal

Webb first argues that her motion for judgment of acquittal should have been granted. She argues that because she was charged with intentionally and knowingly causing severe bodily injury to a child, the Government must demonstrate the greater level of culpability of intentionally causing serious bodily injury to a child. ³ This Court disagrees.

As a general rule, when a jury returns a guilty verdict on an indictment charging several acts in the conjunctive, the verdict will stand if the evidence is sufficient with respect to any one of the acts charged. Turner v. United States, 396 U.S. 398, 420, 90 S.Ct. 642, 654, 24 L.Ed.2d 610 (1970). "To sustain a conviction it is not necessary that the accused be shown to have violated the act in all of the ways in which it could be violated." United States v. Rubio-Gonzalez, 674 F.2d 1067, 1073 (5th Cir.1982). The fact that the indictment is worded in the conjunctive does not change the result. A "[c]onviction may nevertheless rest on evidence showing any, though less than all" of the ways of violating a statute. Id. Consequently, even though the instant indictment charged in the conjunctive, the Government needed to show only that Webb intentionally or knowingly caused serious bodily injury to her child by failing to obtain medical care.

The evidence supports the verdict that Webb knowingly failed to obtain medical care for her son. In examining Webb's attack on the sufficiency of the evidence, we must decide whether a "reasonable trier of fact could find that the evidence establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." ⁴ United States v. Bell, 678 F.2d 547, 549 (5th Cir.1982) (en banc), aff'd on other grounds, 462 U.S. 356, 103 S.Ct. 2398, 76 L.Ed.2d 638 (1983) (footnote omitted). In doing so, we must view the evidence and the inferences drawn from it in the light most favorable to the jury verdict. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 469, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942).

To demonstrate that Webb knowingly caused injury to her child, the Government must show she was "aware that [her] conduct [was] reasonably certain to cause the result." Tex.Penal Code Ann. Sec. 6.03(b). Our review of the record, including Webb's own testimony, demonstrates that the evidence was sufficient to find that Webb was aware of the consequences of her failure to obtain medical care for her son. ⁵ Taking the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government, and given that the jury rejected Webb's duress defense, a reasonable trier of fact could find that the evidence establishes Webb's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

III. The Voluntariness Issue

The thrust of Webb's defense was that she failed to obtain medical care for her son as a direct result of the threats Keith Webb made against her and her family. On appeal, Webb argues that the issue of the voluntariness of her conduct was not properly treated in the indictment or jury instruction. Contrary to Webb's contention, this Court finds that the indictment was sufficient and that the jury charge properly treated the issue of voluntariness by including an instruction on duress.

The Texas injury to a child statute, Tex.Penal Code Ann. Sec. 22.04, ⁶ does not mention a voluntariness requirement. Section 22.04(a) sets forth four culpable mental states: intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence, by act or omission, engaging in conduct that causes injury to a child. Nevertheless, Tex.Penal Code Ann. Sec. 6.01 provides that "[a] person commits an offense only if he voluntarily engages in conduct, including an act, an omission, or possession...."

Webb relies on section 6.01 and several Texas cases for the proposition that voluntariness is an essential element of the crime of injury to a child....