Opinion ID: 564918
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 2 The defendant-appellant, Joseph Ventura Little, Sr., was charged with the first degree murder of his five-month old daughter, Carol Ann, under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1111(a). According to the indictment, the crime was committed on May 2, 1989. The defendant pleaded nolo contendere to the reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter on May 10, 1990, under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1112(a). He was sentenced to a prison term of 108 months by the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on July 10, 1990. 3 During the pendency of the federal proceedings, the State of Oklahoma was prosecuting the defendant for murdering another child, his five-week old son, Joseph Ventura Little, Jr. The defendant had been charged with first degree manslaughter in the district court of Kay County, Oklahoma on November 30, 1987. A mistrial was declared on February 13, 1989. A second trial took place, and on April 24, 1990, the defendant was convicted of murdering his son. He received a sentence of 45 years from the Oklahoma court. 4 Therefore, at the time the United States district court sentenced the defendant for the voluntary manslaughter charge, the defendant had a murder conviction on his record--the murder conviction in the Oklahoma state court. Further, the federal crime had been committed while the defendant was awaiting his second trial in state court for the Oklahoma murder charge. The district court used the Oklahoma conviction to calculate the defendant's criminal history pursuant to U.S.S.G. Sec. 4A1.1(a). The district court noted, however, that the guidelines do not specifically account for the seriousness of the crime given that it was committed while he was awaiting trial for the separate state crime. 1 Because the district court held that the defendant's federal murder conviction was made worse by the fact that he committed the crime while he was awaiting trial on the state murder charge, the district court determined that an upward departure was appropriate.