Criminal Law-Assault-Above-Guidelines Sentence-Procedural and Substantive Reasonableness of Sentence

Staff Report//April 8, 2026//

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Defendant appealed the sentence imposed following his guilty plea to assault resulting in serious bodily injury, which stemmed from his physical altercation with his wife in their vehicle where he punched her in the face, pointed a sword at her, and refused to let her out of the vehicle, forcing her to jump out of the car while it was moving. Defendant argued that the district court procedurally erred in applying a three-level enhancement and imposed a substantively unreasonable sentence.

Where police recovered evidence that corroborated defendant’s wife’s description of the assault, there was sufficient evidence to support the sentencing enhancement, and the appeal waiver in defendant’s plea agreement waived his substantive reasonableness challenge.

Judgment is affirmed in part, appeal is dismissed in part.

U.S. v. Brewer (MLW No. 84578/Case No. 24-2723 – 5 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, per curiam) Appealed from U.S. District Court, District of South Dakota, Schreier, J.