DISCLAIMER: Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
192262P.pdf 02/25/2021 United States v. Xavier Zephier
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 19-2262
U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota - Sioux Falls
[PUBLISHED] [Stras, Author, with Kelly and Erickson, Circuit Judges]
Criminal case - Criminal law. Even though defendant had invoked his right
to counsel, the district court did not err in admitting his jailhouse
statements to investigators because he made them voluntarily after the
investigator made a limited and focused inquiry attendant to a legitimate
police procedure - presenting defendant with a search warrant and telling
him that it authorized the investigator to take DNA sample swabs; the
district court's two rulings - admitting expert testimony about the
typical behaviors of sexual-assault victims and refusing to admit
testimony about whether the victim had been sexually assaulted before -
improperly prevented defendant from presenting his complete defense and
showing an earlier sexual assault was the source of the victim's trauma;
conviction reversed, and the matter remanded for a new trial.