Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-03-02426/USCOURTS-ca8-03-02426-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Aaron Jorge Diaz
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

*

The Honorable Richard W. Goldberg, Judge of the United States Court of

International Trade, sitting by designation.

**The Honorable Harold D. Vietor, United States District Judge for the

Southern District of Iowa. 

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 03-2426

___________

United States of America, *

*

Appellee, *

* Appeal from the United States

v. * District Court for the Southern

* District of Iowa.

Aaron Jorge Diaz, * 

*

Appellant. *

___________

Submitted: May 11, 2004

Filed: May 17, 2004

___________

Before MURPHY and FAGG, Circuit Judges, and GOLDBERG,*

 Judge of the United

States Court of International Trade.

___________

FAGG, Circuit Judge.

Aaron Jorge Diaz pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography. At

sentencing, the district court** increased Diaz’s offense level by four under U.S.S.G.

Appellate Case: 03-2426 Page: 1 Date Filed: 05/17/2004 Entry ID: 1767659 
-2-

§ 2G2.2(b)(3) (increase required if child pornography “portrays sadistic or

masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence”). 

On appeal, Diaz contends his images of child pornography were not sadistic,

masochistic, or depictions of violence within the meaning of § 2G2.2(b)(3). We

disagree. We have defined the term sadism as the infliction of pain on a love object

to obtain sexual release, and as delight in physical or mental cruelty. United States

v. Wolk, 337 F.3d 997, 1008 (8th Cir. 2003); United States v. Parker, 267 F.3d 839,

847 (8th Cir. 2001). We have defined violence as the exertion of physical force to

injure or abuse. Id. The images in this case depict the sexual penetration of a minor

girl by an adult male with his penis, a young boy performing fellatio on an adult male,

an adult male performing anal sex on a minor girl, prepubescent girls performing

fellatio on an adult male, a group of adolescent boys ejaculating on a grimacing

prepubescent boy, and an adolescent male performing anal sex on a young boy. We

conclude the images are sadistic or depictions of violence within the meaning of §

2G2.2(b)(3). See Parker, 267 F.3d at 847; United States v. Hall, 312 F.3d 1250,

1261-63 (11th Cir. 2002) (images showing vaginal or anal penetration of a

prepubescent minor by either an adult male or a foreign object is sadistic within the

meaning of § 2G2.2(b)(3)); United States v. Lyckman, 235 F.3d 234, 238-39 (5th Cir.

2000) (when pornographic image shows an adult male engaging in sexual intercourse

with a young girl, the conduct shown is sufficiently painful, coercive, abusive, and

degrading to qualify as sadistic or violent under § 2G2.2(b)(3)); United States v.

Canada, 110 F.3d 260, 264 (5th Cir. 1997) (same). 

Diaz also argues the Government did not show he intended to receive the

sadistic or masochistic images. Diaz did not raise this issue in the district court, and

appellate review of the issue is foreclosed by Diaz’s plea agreement. Besides, we

have already held that § 2G2.2(b)(3) has no express intent element and that we will

not read one into it. Wolk, 337 F.3d at 1008.

We thus affirm Diaz’s sentence. 

______________________________

Appellate Case: 03-2426 Page: 2 Date Filed: 05/17/2004 Entry ID: 1767659