Villafana v. State

• Decision Date: 25 October 2022
• Docket Number: S-22-0049
• Citation: 2022 WY 130
• Parties: DANIEL IVAN VILLAFANA, Appellant (Defendant), v. THE STATE OF WYOMING, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

2022 WY 130

DANIEL IVAN VILLAFANA, Appellant (Defendant), v. THE STATE OF WYOMING, Appellee (Plaintiff).

No. S-22-0049

Supreme Court of Wyoming

October 25, 2022

Appeal from the District Court of Laramie County The Honorable Catherine R. Rogers, Judge.

Representing Appellant: Mary (Katye) Ames, Woodhouse Roden Ames & Brennan, LLC, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Representing Appellee: Bridget Hill, Wyoming Attorney General; Jenny L. Craig, Deputy Attorney General; Joshua C Eames ^[*] Senior Assistant Attorney General; Kristen R. Jones, Senior Assistant Attorney General.

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

KAUTZ JUSTICE.

[¶1] Daniel Ivan Villafana pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor, KK. The district court imposed two consecutive terms of 5-7 years in prison. Mr. Villafana argues the court abused its discretion at sentencing by (1) refusing to hear argument and testimony that KK's parents condoned his sexual abuse of their daughter and financially extorted him after learning of the abuse; and (2) imposing consecutive sentences of imprisonment rather than probation. He also claims his sentences constitute cruel or unusual punishment in violation of the Wyoming Constitution. We affirm.

ISSUES

[¶2] Mr. Villafana raises three issues, which we restate as:

1. Did the district court abuse its discretion at sentencing by refusing to hear argument and testimony that KK's parents condoned Mr. Villavana's sexual abuse of their daughter and financially extorted him after learning of the abuse?

2. Did the district court abuse its discretion by sentencing Mr. Villafana to consecutive terms of imprisonment rather than probation?

3. Do Mr. Villafana's sentences constitute cruel or unusual punishment under Article 1, § 14 of the Wyoming Constitution?

FACTS

[¶3] In 2016, Mr. Villafana formed a business with KK's father (Father) and Shamar Pigg. In December 2017, Mr. Villafana began having sexual intercourse with KK. At that time, KK was 14 years-old and Mr. Villafana was 27 years-old. They continued to have a sexual relationship until December 2018 when KK learned she was pregnant and told her parents about the abuse. Father immediately reported the abuse to law enforcement. Mr. Villafana admitted to the police he had sexual intercourse with KK on at least ten occasions over the course of a year. KK reported they had sex numerous times, including in Mr. Villafana's car, at his home, and in a hotel.

[¶4] The State charged Mr. Villafana with seven counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor in violation of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-2-315(a)(i) (LexisNexis 2021). The parties eventually reached a plea agreement. In exchange for Mr. Villafana agreeing to plead guilty to two of the counts, the State agreed to dismiss the other five counts and to recommend two concurrent sentences of 15-20 years imprisonment. Mr. Villafana was "free to argue for the sentence he deem[ed] appropriate, including probation." The court accepted Mr. Villafana's guilty pleas.

[¶5] Prior to sentencing, Mr. Villafana retained Dr. Amanda Turlington, a clinical psychologist, to perform a psychosexual evaluation. During the examination, Mr. Villafana told Dr. Turlington he was close to Father and his family, including KK, and spent most of his time with them. He said Father "always had [him] deal with [KK]" because he "could relate to her" as he was closer in age to KK. He claimed people told him and Father they thought KK was Mr. Villafana's wife. Father would laugh and say KK "looked old enough to be [Mr. Villafana's] wife." According to Mr. Villafana, KK's parents allowed KK to call him "whenever she wanted to" and he began picking KK up from school. He claimed that as time passed, KK's parents "pushed [KK] on [him] more and more[.]"

[¶6] Mr. Villafana described several instances where KK's parents "would just drop [KK] off at [his] house" and tell him she "needed to stay the night" because they were going out drinking. On one of those occasions, KK went into Mr. Villafana's bedroom after he had gone to bed and they had sexual intercourse. Contrary to KK's parents' report that they did not learn of the abuse until KK told them she was pregnant, Mr. Villafana informed Dr. Turlington that he told Father he had sex with KK but "[n]othing changed. [KK] still called [him] all the time. Her parents still dropped her off at [his] house. They still had [him] come over all the time." Seven months after Mr. Villafana and KK first had sexual intercourse, "[KK] came into [his] room again, after [he] had gone to sleep, and had sex with [him]." Mr. Villafana told Dr. Turlington that after Father learned of the abuse, Father required him to buy various items for KK in exchange for Father not reporting the abuse to law enforcement. After paying over $20,000 to Father over a two year period, Mr. Villafana claimed he stopped paying Father and turned himself into the police.

[¶7] Dr. Turlington concluded Mr. Villafana was a "Below Average Risk" for sexual recidivism and "Low Risk" for future violent criminal behavior. She also determined he did not meet any of the criteria for a mental health diagnosis, including pedophilia. She "predicted" that placing Mr. Villafana in prison or in group therapy with higher-risk individuals would increase his risk to reoffend.

[¶8] A probation agent prepared a Presentence Investigation Report (PSIR). The agent concluded probation was not an appropriate sentence. Although it was Mr. Villafana's first offense, the agent determined he was a risk to the community due to the nature of the offense, in particular, KK's young age and the duration of the abuse. She also noted Mr. Villafana had scored as an "Average Risk" for reoffending on the Sex-Offender Static-99R Risk Assessment, took minimal responsibility for his actions, blamed KK for his legal issues, and had not taken full advantage of sex offender treatment.

[¶9] At the sentencing hearing, Dr. Turlington offered her conclusions and opined Mr. Villafana would "do very well with community supervision." Mr. Pigg, Mr. Villafana's former business partner, testified he, Mr. Villafana, Father, and their families did "a lot of stuff together." He claimed that in 2016 or 2017, KK had sexual relations with an adult man (not Mr. Villafana) and Father knew about it. The State objected to this testimony as irrelevant. The district court sustained the State's objection, explaining:

I concur wholeheartedly with the State, [Counsel]. This is about whether your client, and he's now convicted of doing this-your client had sex with a teenage girl. This [is] about how he's punished for that, this is about how he's sentenced for that. Blaming the victim, creating a situation in which the victim is looked at as some sort of seductress or an instigator, a child, that's wholly inappropriate and completely out of the context for a sentencing proceeding. If you want this individual to speak on behalf of your client and in support of your client, I will hear that, but I will not condone a presentation by the defense that paints the type of picture of this victim and this victim's family that it would appear you're attempting to paint.

Defense counsel claimed she was not "victim blaming" but rather providing "information regarding the relationship, how we got to this point. Those are mitigating factors . . . ." The court responded, "No, they're not."

[¶10] Defense counsel then asked the court whether it was appropriate to ask Mr. Pigg about KK's parents' financial extortion of Mr. Villafana as it "[had] been brought up multiple times" and she believed it was relevant. The court again disagreed, stating: "What may have happened after your client sexually abused this child is not material to the manner in which he should be sentenced for his conduct. It is not material to the considerations the court must focus on. Retribution, rehabilitation, deterrents, those are the things the Court focuses on, not whether after your client sexually abused this child somebody extorted him."

[¶11] Thereafter, defense counsel elicited testimony from Mr. Pigg, the business partner of Mr. Villafana and KK's father. Mr. Pigg vouched for Mr. Villafana's character and stated he did not have "any concerns about Mr. Villafana being in the community." Defense counsel then made a proffer for the record, stating she would have asked "Mr. Pigg questions about his observations about comments the parents made about [Mr. Villafana's] relationship with the child. I think they are mitigating factors, indicate whether or not the family was accepting or condone[d] the relationship prior to it happening." The court stated:

[C]ertainly you've incorporated that into the record - the documents that I've read in preparation for sentencing are replete with those suggestions. I mean, it's all in there between the presentence investigation report and Dr. Turlington's report. There's no question in my mind that Mr. Villafana believes that the conduct of the parents . . . did lead him and would have led any reasonable individual potentially to conclude that somehow his sexual relationship with their daughter was okay with them. That doesn't make it not criminal, it doesn't make it [not] a felony, and because of that it's not material to the Court's considerations in sentencing. So while I appreciate your desire, [Counsel], it will not be allowed.

[¶12] During her sentencing argument, defense counsel began by emphasizing that Mr. Villafana was not blaming KK for his actions and KK was "unquestionably the victim here." However, she claimed KK's parents "would often push their 15-year-old daughter onto Mr Villafana[.]" At this point, the State objected, claiming the parents' conduct was not a...