Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-05-03044/USCOURTS-ca8-05-03044-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Herbert Lyle Swallow
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

1

The Honorable Charles B. Kornmann, United States District Judge for the

District of South Dakota.

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 05-3044

___________

United States of America, *

*

Appellee, *

* Appeal from the United States

v. * District Court for the

* District of South Dakota.

Herbert Lyle Swallow, *

* [UNPUBLISHED]

Appellant. *

___________

Submitted: August 31, 2006 

Filed: September 6, 2006

___________

Before SMITH, MAGILL, and BENTON, Circuit Judges.

___________

PER CURIAM.

Herbert Lyle Swallow appeals the sentence the district court1

 imposed after he

pleaded guilty to knowingly engaging in a sexual act with another person who was

incapable of appraising the nature of the conduct and was physically incapable of

declining participation, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1153, 2242(2), and 2246(2)(A).

He argues that the district court erred in including a vulnerable-victim enhancement

in its advisory Guidelines calculation.

Appellate Case: 05-3044 Page: 1 Date Filed: 09/06/2006 Entry ID: 2086196
-2-

We conclude that the district court did not clearly err in applying the

enhancement based on its finding that Swallow “knew or should have known” that the

victim was a “vulnerable victim.” See U.S.S.G. § 3A1.1(b)(1); United States v.

Anderson, 349 F.3d 568, 571 (8th Cir. 2003) (standard of review). A vulnerable

victim is a person “who is unusually vulnerable due to age [or] physical or mental

condition, or who is otherwise particularly susceptible to the criminal conduct.”

U.S.S.G. § 3A1.1, comment. (n.2). While Swallow argues that his intoxication and

alcoholic blackout kept him from realizing the victim’s vulnerability due to her own

intoxication, he does not deny that he had been drinking with the victim and that she

had passed out. The record supports the district court’s determination that Swallow

should have known that the victim was unusually vulnerable.

Accordingly, we affirm. 

______________________________

Appellate Case: 05-3044 Page: 2 Date Filed: 09/06/2006 Entry ID: 2086196