United States of America, Appellee, v. Arlie Gene Wipf, Appellant.
04-1765
United States Court of Appeals FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT
Submitted: November 19, 2004 Filed: February 9, 2005
Before MURPHY, LAY, and MELLOY, Circuit Judges.
Arlie Gene Wipf (“Wipf“) was convicted of two counts of involuntary manslaughter in Indian country. The district court1 sentenced Wipf to twenty-four months’ imprisonment. Wipf now appeals. We affirm.
On March 1, 2003, Wipf was driving south on County Road 89 on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. There were two passengers in the car, Luana Perkins, the mother of Wipf‘s two children, and Angel Riviera. The car went off the road onto the shoulder, then returned to the road and slid sideways across the center line where it collided with another vehicle. The collision killed both Perkins and Riviera. The collision also broke the kneecap of Valerie Clark, the driver of the second vehicle. Clark‘s passenger, Gary Dudley, did not seek medical attention. The road was slippery because of ice and snow on the ground.
After the collision, Wipf was found sitting behind the driver‘s seat with Perkins seated next to him in the passenger seat. Riviera had been thrown from the car. There was a strong odor of alcohol coming from the vehicle, and beer bottles were scattered on the vehicle‘s floor. Wipf was taken to the emergency room at North Country Regional Hospital in Bemidji, Minnesota. While Wipf was in the emergency room, FBI Agent Timothy Ball arrived to ask Wipf the names of the two other passengers in the car and to obtain a blood sample. Agent Ball did not have a warrant to obtain the blood sample, and the district court later suppressed the evidence of the blood sample. Medical professionals also withdrew and tested Wipf‘s blood as part of his medical treatment. Testing of this sample showed that Wipf‘s blood alcohol level was .214 shortly after the accident. Wipf admits that he consumed alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during the twenty-four hours prior to the accident.
II. Procedure
The government filed a three-count Indictment charging Wipf with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in violation of
III. Discussion
A. The Jury Instructions
Wipf‘s first argument on appeal is that the district court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on proximate cause. We review challenges to jury instructions for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Beckman, 222 F.3d 512, 520 (8th Cir. 2000). “‘It is not grounds for reversal that the charge might have been differently, or even better, worded; a district court has wide discretion on choice of language, and we will not find that discretion abused when the instructions as a whole accurately and adequately state the relevant law.‘” Id. (quoting United States v. Kabat, 797 F.2d 580, 588 (8th Cir. 1986)).
For each count of manslaughter, the court instructed the jury that:
In order to sustain its burden of proof for the crime of involuntary manslaughter as charged in Count 1 of the indictment, the government must prove the following four essential elements beyond a reasonable doubt:
One: [The victim] was killed as a result of an act done by the defendant during the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony, namely, driving a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol;
Two: The defendant knew that his conduct was a threat to the lives of others or knew of circumstances that would reasonably cause him to foresee that such conduct might be a threat to the lives of others;
Three: The defendant killed Luana Perkins within Indian Country; and
Four: The defendant is an Indian.
B. Admittance of Medical Evidence
Wipf‘s second argument on appeal is that the district court erred when it admitted medical record evidence that included Wipf‘s blood alcohol level. “We afford great deference to the district court‘s evidentiary rulings, reversing only where there has been a clear abuse of discretion.” United States v. Briley, 319 F.3d 360, 363 (8th Cir. 2003).
Relevant evidence is evidence that tends to show that any fact of consequence in the action is more or less probable.
Wipf contends that this evidence should not have been allowed, apparently because different evidence tending to prove the same fact was suppressed. This argument is without support in our authority. While Agent Ball obtained a blood sample without a warrant which was later suppressed, this fact has no bearing on the independently drawn sample taken for medical purposes. Hospital staff did not need probable cause to draw the sample, and the results of tests of the sample were properly part of Wipf‘s medical records. Wipf fails to point out anything that protects the blood alcohol information generated by the hospital from admission. See In re Hoare, 155 F.3d 937, 938-39 (8th Cir. 1998) (assuming blood sample taken by hospital personnel in the course of treatment admissible).
C. Refusal to Continue
Wipf‘s third argument on appeal is that the district court erred when it failed to continue the trial date after the government disclosed new evidence on the eve of
D. Sufficiency of the Evidence
Wipf‘s final argument on appeal is that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the conviction. “We review de novo the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain a conviction, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict.” United States v. Martin, 369 F.3d 1046, 1059 (8th Cir. 2004). Wipf contends that the government failed to prove that his actions caused the death of the victims. Wipf asserts that evidence of weather conditions and the construction of the road and shoulder created a reasonable doubt that his actions were the cause of the deaths.
The jury had the opportunity to hear testimony on other possible causes of the accident. Indeed, Wipf presented expert testimony on the weather, road conditions, and the construction of the road and shoulder in order to mitigate against the evidence that he caused the accident. The jury also heard evidence that Wipf was driving and that his blood alcohol content was .214. Taking the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, there was more than enough evidence to find, as the jury did, that Wipf caused the deaths of Perkins and Riviera while driving under the influence of alcohol.
For the above reasons, the judgment of the district court is affirmed.