The
SD Supreme Court handed down one decision this morning, holding inter alia:
- Prison sentence for aggravated assault on
girlfriend upheld
Summary
follows:
STATE
v. TIMMONS, 2022 S.D. 28: Defendant was
sentenced to 15 years in prison, with 3 years suspended, for aggravated assault
on his girlfriend. Defendant's motion
for new trial was supported by letter from girlfriend which Defendant asserted
to be “newly discovered evidence.” In
the letter:
[girlfriend] stated that she
felt like she was lied to, manipulated, and threatened by the State’s
prosecutor…[and] that she did not want to call the cops, was coming down from
meth, and did not believe that [Defendant] deserved a heavy sentence. She
believed that [Defendant’s] [intentions] were not to hurt me.”
On
appeal, Defendant asserted both insufficiency of evidence and denial of motion
for new trial based upon newly discovered evidence (the letter). The SD Supreme
Court affirmed, with opinion authored by Chief Justice Jensen. The decision is unanimous (4-0) with Justice
DeVaney having recused herself.
NOTE: This case was submitted to
the Court, on briefs, less than 2 months ago on March 21, 2011.
This
decision may be accessed at
http://ujs.sd.gov/Supreme_Court/opinions.aspx .
