US v. Lowe
Case Date: 06/05/1998
Court: United States Court of Appeals
Docket No: 97-1452
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For the First Circuit ____________________ No. 97-1452 UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. PAUL E. LOWE, Defendant, Appellant. ____________________ APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS [Hon. Patti B. Saris, U.S. District Judge] [Hon. Robert B. Collings, U.S. Magistrate Judge] ____________________ Before Torruella, Chief Judge, Aldrich, Senior Circuit Judge, and Boudin, Circuit Judge. _____________________ E. Peter Parker, Federal Defender Office, for appellant. Paula J. DeGiacomo, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Donald K. Stern, United States Attorney, and Despena F. Billings, Assistant United States Attorney, were on brief, for appellee. ____________________ May 27, 1998 ____________________ TORRUELLA, Chief Judge. Defendant Paul E. Lowe appeals his three-count conviction for carjacking in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2119, kidnapping in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1201, and interstate transportation for illegal sexual activity in violation of the Mann Act, 18 U.S.C. 2421. He was sentenced to a total term of 432 months of imprisonment. Lowe argues that he was deprived of his full complement of peremptory challenges during voir dire, alleges that the jury was exposed to prejudicial facts not in evidence, and challenges the sufficiency and admissibility of certain evidence. He also contends that the district court erred in sentencing him for the carjacking count. We affirm. I. BACKGROUND On an appeal from a jury conviction, we view the facts, consistent with record support, in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict. United States v. Rosen, 130 F.3d 5, 6 (1st Cir. 1997). We find that a jury could have found the following facts. At approximately 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 10, 1995, Lowe helped a young woman ("K.") by pushing her car as she drove it out of a snowbank at the end of her driveway in Lowell, Massachusetts. Upon freeing K.'s car, he forced her to let him in, and drove her to New Hampshire, where, in the front passenger seat, he forced her to perform oral sex on him while holding a screwdriver to her neck, and then raped her vaginally. He then drove K. back to Massachusetts, and after stealing her jewelry and money, left K. in her car in Lowell near the Belvedere police precinct. She immediately drove to the house of her boyfriend, Steve Makris, and told him about the kidnapping, but did not recount the rape. Makris called the police, and when the responding officer arrived, K. again failed to mention the rape. However, en route to the police station, K. stated to Makris that she had been raped. Upon arriving at the police station, she was immediately taken to Saints Memorial Hospital, where emergency room nurse Kathleen Sweetser spoke to K. for approximately 25 minutes. She was eventually examined by an emergency room physician, and released. After giving her statement to the police, she retraced Lowe's route to New Hampshire and back for police detectives. On December 13, 1995, FBI agents and police officers arrested Lowe at his girlfriend's apartment in Waltham, Massachusetts. The evidence presented at trial also showed that in the hours prior to kidnapping K., Lowe had been involved in an incident in which he purposely and repeatedly rammed his pickup truck into the car in which his friends Nancy Goudreau and Rachel Briggar and their boyfriends were driving. When they confronted Lowe, he threatened to continue hitting the car until Goudreau got into the truck with him. Eventually, Goudreau and her friends parked at the Lowell police station, and there, Lowe rammed the truck right into the car. Lowe fled and drove to Goudreau's apartment in Lowell where he found her sister, Priscilla Champagne. The police arrived at Goudreau's apartment, searched for Lowe, who was hiding in a closet, but failed to find him. However, they towed Lowe's truck. Lowe left the apartment on foot with two screwdrivers Champagne had provided. A short time later, Lowe encountered K. with her car stuck in a snowbank. During trial, the government presented DNA evidence, which Lowe's counsel moved to exclude. After evidentiary hearings, the district court issued a detailed memorandum and order denying the motion and admitting the DNA evidence. A jury convicted Lowe of carjacking, kidnapping, and interstate transportation for illegal sexual activity. He was acquitted on an additional count for using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence. The district court sentenced Lowe to 300 months imprisonment for carjacking, 432 months for kidnapping, and 60 months for the interstate transportation charge, all terms to be served concurrently with each other. Lowe appeals. II. DISCUSSION A. Peremptory Challenges Lowe argues that the district court's refusal to strike for cause two prospective jurors, one of whom had been sexually molested and the other who had been the victim of an attempted rape, unfairly forced him to expend two peremptory challenges. Citing United States v. Cambara, 902 F.2d 144, 147 (1st Cir. 1990), Lowe claims that the district court committed reversible error by denying him the full number of peremptory challenges required by law. Before addressing Lowe's grounds for reversal, we must first determine whether the district court erred in failing to excuse these two jurors for cause. We review a district court's ruling on for-cause challenges to prospective jurors for clear abuse of discretion. See United States v. Gonz |