A Level 3 predatory offender living near the vicinity of Wise Road and Gregory Way in rural Brainerd lost an appeal regarding the conditional release portion of his sentence.
Christopher Eugene Wheeler, 41, challenged in the Minnesota State Court of Appeals to correct his district court sentence as he believed it was unauthorized by state law.
Wheeler was released from prison on March 12. He was convicted in 1998 on two counts of felony second-degree criminal sexual conduct. Wheeler was known to his victim and he used sexual penetration with the victim who was under age 13 and had a significant relationship to the victim. The court sentenced Wheeler to 97.5 months in prison and 10 years conditional release for the first conviction and 90 months in prison and 10 years conditional release for the second conviction, a consecutive sentence.
In 2014, Wheeler moved for correction of his sentence, seeking removal of the conditional release periods he was serving. The district court denied the motion.
Wheeler's sentence for his criminal sexual conduct convictions included conditional release periods and Wheeler asserts the plea record does not show he committed the offenses on or after Aug. 1, 1992. Wheeler argued the conditional release portion of his sentence was unauthorized by law, since no statute was applicable on the dates of his offenses provides for the inclusion of a conditional release period in a sentence for second-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to the unpublished court document.
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The charging portion of the April 1998 complaint alleges "on the past six years at various locations," Wheeler committed first-degree criminal sexual conduct by "engaging in sexual penetration" with a victim before her 13th birthday while being more than 36 months older than her and by "engaging in sexual penetration before her 16th birthday while being in a significant relationship with her." Although Wheeler pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, as charged in a "new complaint," the record contains no amended complaint and nothing to indicate the state ever amended the April 1998 complaint's offense date allegation. Therefore, by entering his guilty plea, Wheeler judicially admitted the offenses occurred "on the past six years." At his plea hearing, Wheeler also admitted, he had at least "two separate occasions" of sexual contact with the victim before her 16th birthday, before Feb. 19, 1998 and he was charged with sexual contact "that took place in a time frame probably as far back as 1992."
Wheeler's admission at his plea hearing that the sexual contact he was being charged with "took place in a time frame probably as far back as 1992" is tantamount to an admission the sexual contact had occurred since 1992, the court document said. Wheeler's plea-hearing admission supports a finding the sexual contact began sometime in 1992 and extended beyond 1992. Such an interpretation of Wheeler's plea-hearing admission is bolstered by his judicial admission of the April 1998 complaint's allegation that the offenses occurred "on the past six years," the document said. Wheeler's judicial admission supports a finding the sexual contact occurred at the given time of 1992 through 1998.
Wheeler's plea-hearing and judicial admissions defeat his attempts to rely on State versus Goldenstein, whose review was denied in Minnesota on Oct. 19, 1993. In Goldenstein, the district court used guidelines with an effective date of Aug. 1, 1989, to sentence the defendants for criminal sexual conduct alleged to have occurred between May 1987 and May 1990.
Wheeler, in contrast, made multiple admissions addressing the dates of his offenses, rendering Goldenstein inapposite.
The state appeal's court acknowledge Wheeler's plea petition indicates the offenses, as originally charged, were "committed on or about Feb. 19, 1992." The facts established by Wheeler's guilty plea are not limited by the contents of his plea petition, and the offense date on the petition does not control here, the court document said.
The appeal's court concluded the district court did not err in finding some of the sexual contact between Wheeler and the victim took place after August 1992. The conditional release statute applies notwithstanding the possibility some of the sexual contact preceded August 1992. The court ruled the conditional portion of Wheeler's sentence was authorized by law.
Heidi S. Schellhas was the judge in the matter.
