Opinion ID: 4155972
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Degree-of-Injury Finding

Text: We review sentencing fact findings for clear error. United States v. Jenkins, 578 F.3d 745, 749 (8th Cir. 2009). If a finding is plausible in light of the whole record, we will not reverse it. United States v. Tucker, 243 F.3d 499, 506 (8th Cir. 2001). This is true even if we would have found differently in the first instance, and it is especially true if the finding is credibility-based. Id. Wallace raises several sentencing errors flowing from the district court’s finding that Atlas suffered more than “serious bodily injury” but less than “permanent or life threatening bodily injury,” as those terms are used in the Guidelines. She argues that Atlas’s 2015 out-of-court statement relayed by a probation officer at sentencing should not have been admitted to establish the seriousness of his injuries. In a phone call, Atlas told the officer that he had lost some use of his leg and experienced great pain. Atlas also claimed, according to the officer, that he now walked with a limp, was still taking pain medication, and had tried rehabilitation therapy without success. Hearsay—even uncorroborated hearsay—is admissible at sentencing if it has “sufficient indicia of reliability” and the defendant is allowed to rebut or explain it. United States v. Garcia, 774 F.3d 472, 475 (8th Cir. 2014) (per curiam). Atlas’s hearsay account of his 2015 condition was backed by the testimony of witnesses who saw him injured in 2010, which allays any reliability concerns. One trial witness testified that Atlas was thrown ten feet off of Wallace’s car and “rolled across the pavement holding his leg, you know, and in pain.” He was “rolling back and forth and in pain. He was in a lot of pain.” An officer at the scene said Atlas was holding his leg, “and it seemed like he was in a lot of pain.” Atlas said that on a scale of one to -8- ten, the pain was a ten—“10 is the worse part and that was my left leg, my back, my hip, the whole left side.” He had bruises on his torso, his leg, and his hip, as well as knee pain. A residual limp and nagging pain in 2015 correlate with Atlas’s 2010 condition. Also, Wallace cross-examined the probation officer and chose not to examine Atlas, who was present at sentencing. Admitting Atlas’s 2015 hearsay statement was not an abuse of discretion.