Court Opinion

ID: 9475335
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:24:15.366365+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:39.358510
License: Public Domain

ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.
Defendant W.T.T., a juvenile, appeals from a judgment of the District Court for the District of South Dakota1 declaring him a juvenile delinquent. The District Court found that W.T.T. had committed three offenses: simple assault, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 113(e) (Count I); assault by striking, beating, and wounding, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 113(d) (Count II); and robbery, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2111 (Count III).2 The defendant was committed to the *781custody of the Attorney General or his authorized representative for the period of his minority. See 18 U.S.C. § 5037. On appeal, the defendant argues that the government presented insufficient evidence to support a finding of guilt on any count. We disagree, and affirm as to all three counts.
I.
The charges against W.T.T. stem from a violent confrontation between two groups of people that occurred August 18, 1984 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Very early that morning, a pickup carrying Clifford Grass, Rose Cottier, Lori Ann Cottier, and three others became stuck in the mud on a dirt road near Porcupine, South Dakota. Some time later, two cars carrying W.T.T. and ten others arrived on the scene. Shortly after the cars arrived, a series of fights erupted between the pickup occupants and the car occupants.
Almost everyone present had been drinking heavily, and, not surprisingly, accounts of the incident given by different witnesses at trial varied substantially. However, prosecution witness Lori Ann Cottier testified that she had not been drinking, and her testimony on this point was corroborated by other witnesses. The District Court found her testimony particularly credible, and relied principally on it in making findings of fact. Tr. 172.
Lori Ann testified that while Clifford Grass was jacking up the pickup, W.T.T. came up behind Grass and hit him, knocking him to the ground. Tr. 109. Lori Ann continued that when Clifford stood back up, he was knocked down again, and \y.T.T. and several others began hitting hjim. Tr. 110-111. Other fights began to b'reak out throughout the crowd. Tr. 110-112. Grass’s girlfriend, Rose Cottier, was beset by three assailants; Grass moved to protect her, lying on top of her and proclaiming that she was pregnant. Tr. 112. W.T.T. and others began beating Grass again, using their fists and clubs. Tr. 112-113. Grass tried to escape several times by getting into the pickup, but each time W.T.T. and the others pulled him out and continued beating him. Tr. 114-115.
Lori Ann further testified that she saw one of Grass’s attackers, whom she later identified as W.T.T., with a knife. Tr. 115-116. She stated that she saw W.T.T. use the knife on Grass when Grass was trying to get in the pickup. Tr. 116-117. Dr. Robert Israel, who examined Grass later that day, testified that Grass had a wound on the rear of his shoulder that could have been made by a knife, as well as a number of other injuries. Tr. 72.
Finally, Lori Ann testified that after the stabbing, W.T.T. and the other assailants got in the back of the pickup and began taking things; she saw W.T.T. take a toolbox, while the others took a jack and some groceries. Tr. 118-119, 133-134. Grass took this opportunity to crawl through the pickup and over to Rose Cottier, lying beside her on the ground. Tr. 134. Unable to run, Grass and Rose Cottier moved to the other side of a barbed-wire fence near the road. Tr. 119. At this point, Lori Ann and another of the pickup’s occupants ran from the scene and went to call the police. Id.
II.
As in a criminal case against an adult, the government’s burden in a juvenile case is to prove all elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 368, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 1074, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970). The standard by which the sufficiency of the evidence is reviewed on appeal is “whether a reasonable factfinder could have found that the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the government, established the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable *782doubt.” United States v. De Leon, 768 F.2d 629, 631 (5th Cir.1985); see United States v. GJH, 681 F.2d 527 (8th Cir.1982).
We think this standard is clearly met in the present case. The defendant’s arguments to the contrary are based largely upon the fact that various witnesses gave inconsistent and contradictory versions of the confrontation and W.T.T.’s behavior. However, we conclude that a factfinder could very reasonably have sifted through the evidence and determined, as the District Court did, that Lori Ann Cottier’s testimony was credible and that, based on her testimony, W.T.T. was guilty of the offenses for which he was adjudged a juvenile delinquent. Lori Ann’s testimony as to W.T.T.’s participation in the beating of Grass, and as to his use of the knife on Grass, provide ample support for the conclusion that W.T.T. committed simple assault, 18 U.S.C. § 113(e), and assault by striking, beating, and wounding, 18 U.S.C. § 113(d).
The District Court’s determination that the defendant committed robbery, 18 U.S.C. § 2111, is also supported by Lori Ann’s testimony. Robbery, under § 2111, is the taking of anything of value from the person or presence of another by force and violence or by intimidation. “[PJroperty is in the presence of a person if it is so within his reach, inspection, observation or control, that he could if not overcome by violence or prevented by fear, retain his possession of it.” United States v. Burns, 701 F.2d 840, 843 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 462 U.S. 1137, 103 S.Ct. 3123, 77 L.Ed.2d 1375 (1983). Lori Ann’s testimony was that Grass and Rose Cottier had been beaten, that W.T.T. took the toolbox from their truck, and that when he did so Rose Cottier was on the ground beside the truck and Grass was either crawling through the cab of the truck or collapsed on the ground beside Rose Cottier. Thus, her testimony establishes all the elements of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2111.
III.
We conclude that the government adduced sufficient evidence to support findings that W.T.T. committed the offenses upon which the District Court based its adjudication of juvenile delinquency. Accordingly, the judgment of the District Court is
Affirmed.

. The Hon. Donald J. Porter, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of South Dakota.

. These statutes are made applicable to the defendant by 18 U.S.C. § 1153, which provides that any Indian who commits any of several specified offenses (including those charged here) within Indian country shall be subject to the same laws that govern all other persons committing such offenses within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States. The parties have stipulated that the defendant is an Indian and that the events in question occurred in Indian country.
In the case of Counts I and II, the District Court’s findings were of offenses lesser than but included within the charges contained in the amended information. Count I charged assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 113(c), and Count II charged assault resulting in seri*781ous bodily injury, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 113(f). As noted in text, the actual findings were of simple assault and assault by striking, beating, and wounding. We observe, in addition, that W.T.T. has not been convicted of or sentenced for a crime. Rather, he has been adjudged a juvenile delinquent because he has committed acts that would be crimes if committed by an adult. See Fagerstrom v. United States, 311 F.2d 717, 720 (8th Cir.1963).