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People v. Fields8/11/2005
UNPUBLISHED
Before: Whitbeck, C.J., and Sawyer and Fitzgerald, JJ.
Defendant Ronald Fields appeals as of right from his jury trial conviction of first-degree criminal sexual conduct (CSC I), and assault with intent to commit murder. He was sentenced to concurrent prison terms of 225 to 500 months' imprisonment on each conviction. We affirm.
I. Basic Facts And Procedural History
This case arises from an assault that took place in Flint on the morning of July 4, 2002. On that morning Fields arranged with the complainant, a prostitute, to perform oral sex. Fields drove the complainant to a house, and when the complainant followed him inside, he locked the door from inside. The complainant testified that as she performed oral sex on Fields, he hit her on the back of the head with a bottle. The complainant attempted to flee, but Fields tackled her and slammed her into the door. According to the complainant, Fields then ordered her to go to the basement and clean herself up so he could take her home.
The complainant stated that when she got to the basement, Fields ordered her to get in the tub and wash up. The complainant stated that when she climbed into the tub, still fully dressed, Fields ordered her to bend over. As the complainant did so, she testified, Fields knocked her down from behind and held her head under the water. The complainant stated that she fought and scratched at Fields's arms, gagging and struggling to breathe, and was able to get her head out from under the water when Fields began to tire.
The complainant testified that Fields then ordered her back to the ground floor of the house, where he hit her in the forehead with a two-by-four. The complainant testified that at some point Fields inserted a long light bulb tube into her vagina. Fields then ordered the complainant to tie her shoes, and as she bent to do so, Fields slashed her throat with a steak knife, and she lost consciousness.
That afternoon, the complainant was discovered lying nude behind a local high school, and paramedics treated her at the scene. The complainant was then taken to the hospital, where she was treated and underwent an operation to close her wounds. According to the doctor who treated the complainant and performed her surgery, she suffered a skull fracture near the back of her head, a gash on her neck, a scalp laceration at her hairline, minor lacerations near her left eye, and a broken thumb on her right hand. The doctor and the complainant both testified that she suffered from vaginal soreness and vaginal bleeding following the assault. The complainant asserted at trial that this soreness and bleeding was not attributable to menstruation, and that she had not experienced any bleeding or discharge from her vagina before the assault that day. However, the doctor testified that the paramedics provided him with no physical evidence of a sexual assault and that he and other doctors found no evidence of any injury to the complainant's vaginal cavity. The complainant remained hospitalized for approximately two weeks following the assault.
After his conviction and sentencing, Fields brought a motion for judgment of acquittal or new trial on grounds that the prosecution had presented insufficient evidence of sexual penetration to support a guilty verdict for the crime of CSC I, and, for the same reasons, that the CSC I conviction was against the great weight of the evidence. After hearing arguments on the motion, the trial court found that there was sufficient evidence of penetration to support Fields's CSC I conviction and, accordingly, denied the motion.
II. Sufficiency Of The Evidence
A. Stand
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