BRENNAN, J.
¶ 1 Bobbie Tanta Bowen appeals from a judgment of conviction entered after a jury found him guilty of felony bail jumping, resisting or obstructing an officer, and violating a domestic-abuse injunction; he also appeals from an order denying his motion for postconviction relief. He complains on appeal that the evidence produced at trial was insufficient to convict him of bail jumping as set forth by the relevant jury instruction. We disagree and affirm.
¶ 2 On August 11, 2012, the State filed a criminal complaint in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Case No.2012CF3991, charging Bowen with substantial battery (domestic abuse) and disorderly conduct (domestic violence). The complaint arose from incidents occurring on May 14, 2012, and August 9, 2012.
¶ 3 According to the complaint, on May 14, 2012, police were dispatched to a residence on 44th Street in the City of Milwaukee to investigate a domestic violence dispute. Upon arriving at the residence, F.B. told police that her boyfriend, Bowen, had physically assaulted her. The police then escorted F.B. to the hospital, where doctors stated that F.B. suffered a fractured rib and a perforated ear drum.
¶ 4 The complaint also alleged that on August 9, 2012, police were again dispatched to the 44th Street residence to investigate a domestic violence complaint. Upon arrival, an officer spoke with F.B., who stated that Bowen had come to the residence intoxicated, started a verbal argument with F.B., and accosted F.B. outside her residence as she was attempting to get into her car. F.B. told police that Bowen took her keys, began yelling at her, and threatened to beat her if she called the police.
¶ 5 Following Bowen's initial appearance on August 12, 2012, the trial court issued a no-contact order, directing Bowen to "have
¶ 6 On August 23, 2012, the trial court issued a domestic-abuse injunction, ordering Bowen to, among other things, "avoid [F.B.]'s residence and/or any location temporarily occupied by [F.B.]." Bowen was present when the injunction order was issued and was personally served with a copy of the order.
¶ 7 Thereafter, on September 5, 2012,
¶ 8 F.B. stayed hidden in her upstairs bedroom with the door locked until police arrived on the scene. When officers arrived, they found one of the downstairs windows broken, with a garbage can and chair stacked underneath. Officers believed that someone had broken into the
¶ 9 Police officers found Bowen in the basement "concealed" by couch cushions and highly intoxicated. Officers demanded that he show them his hands, but Bowen refused to comply. Bowen struggled with officers and attempted to resist arrest. He was eventually arrested. After arresting Bowen, officers attempted to escort Bowen upstairs and out of the home. Bowen struggled and attempted to push the officers down the stairs.
¶ 10 Following the September 5, 2012 incident, the State filed the complaint in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Case No.2012CF4399, charging Bowen with felony bail jumping for violating the August 12 no-contact order, obstructing an officer, and violating the August 23 domestic-abuse injunction.
¶ 11 On September 14, 2012, the trial court consolidated the two cases against Bowen and set a trial date. However, because F.B. did not appear on the first day of trial, the trial court dismissed the substantial battery and disorderly conduct charges set forth in Case No.2012CF3991.
¶ 12 A jury trial on the charges set forth in Case No.2012CF4399 began on March 25, 2013. Following testimony, the jury was instructed as follows, as relevant to the bail-jumping charge:
(Emphasis added.)
¶ 13 The jury found Bowen guilty on all three counts: bail jumping, obstructing an officer, and violating a domestic-abuse injunction. The trial court sentenced Bowen to thirty-two months of initial confinement, followed by thirty-two months of extended supervision for the bail-jumping count, and to two concurrent nine-month terms in the House of Correction on the obstruction and violation-of-injunction counts.
¶ 14 On December 26, 2013, Bowen filed a motion for postconviction relief, arguing that there was insufficient evidence to support the bail-jumping count as that count was explained to the jury in the jury instruction.
¶ 15 The trial court denied Bowen's postconviction motion, stating:
Bowen appeals.
¶ 16 On appeal, Bowen continues to complain that there was insufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict that he committed the crime of bail jumping as set forth in the jury instruction. We disagree and affirm.
¶ 17 The question raised by Bowen — whether the evidence is sufficient to support his conviction for bail jumping — is somewhat more nuanced than a typical sufficiency-of-the-evidence claim, in that he claims that the evidence fails to support the crime as described in the jury instruction. Bowen does not argue that the evidence at trial was insufficient to demonstrate that he, in fact, violated the terms of the August 12 no-contact order, nor could he. The August 12 no-contact order explicitly ordered that Bowen could "have
¶ 18 Bowen argues that, when reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we must be guided by the jury instruction and that the jury instruction in this case, which asked the jury to determine whether the evidence demonstrated that Bowen "had contact with [F.B.]," (emphasis added), required the State to produce evidence demonstrating that Bowen had "face-to-face physical proximity" with F.B. or made an "attempt to communicate" with her. In other words, Bowen contends that F.B.'s testimony that she heard breaking glass and someone moving around the house was insufficient to show that Bowen made "contact with [F.B.]" and thereby not enough to convict him of bail jumping as that crime was explained to the jury.
¶ 19 To obtain a conviction in a criminal case, the State bears the burden of proving each essential element of the charged offense beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Poellinger, 153 Wis.2d 493, 501, 451 N.W.2d 752 (1990). We may not reverse a conviction "unless the evidence, viewed most favorably to the [S]tate and the conviction, is so insufficient in probative value and force that it can be said as a matter of law that no trier of fact, acting reasonably, could have found guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." Id. "If any possibility exists that the trier of fact could have drawn the appropriate inferences from the evidence adduced at trial to find the requisite guilt, [we] may not overturn a verdict even if [we] believe[] that the trier of fact should not have found guilt based on the evidence before it." Id. at 507, 451 N.W.2d 752.
¶ 20 "The [trial] court has broad discretion in instructing a jury." See State v. Harmon, 2006 WI App 214, ¶ 8, 296 Wis.2d 861, 723 N.W.2d 732. We independently review jury instruction issues that involve definitions of statutory words. Id. However, Bowen's challenge is to the
¶ 21 "Contact" has multiple dictionary meanings. Definitions of "contact" in THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, include: "[a] coming together or touching," "[c]onnection or interaction," and "[v]isual observation." Id. at 406 (3d ed.1992). WEBSTER'S THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY also defines "contact" to mean: "to touch on all sides," "association or relationship," "direct experience through the senses," and "caused or transmitted by direct or indirect contact." Id. at 490 (1993). Thus, we see that the common meaning of "contact" can include touching and face-to-face interactions, as Bowen argues, but it can also include auditory observations and indirect contact of the type F.B. testified occurred here.
¶ 22 Furthermore, the jury heard testimony setting forth the definition of "contact" in the August 12 no-contact order. Officer James Neuzerling read the specific language of the no-contact order at trial, in the following exchange:
¶ 23 The terms of Bowen's August 16 bond order required him to comply with the August 12 no-contact order. The jury's task was to determine whether Bowen had "contact with F.B." After hearing Officer Neuzerling's testimony, setting forth the definition of "contact" in the no-contact order, the jury concluded Bowen did have contact with F.B. The no-contact order broadly defines "contact" to include contact with F.B. personally, at her home, or anywhere else, and expressly restricts contact by telephone, mail, pager, fax, computer, or even through another person. None of those forms of contact require any face-to-face connection. Clearly, the no-contact order itself shows that the common meaning of "contact" encompasses connections that are indirect and not face-to-face. This testimony was available for the jury to use as a basis for drawing the reasonable inference that "contact with F.B." in the jury instructions included hearing Bowen in her house. See Poellinger, 153 Wis.2d at 507, 451 N.W.2d 752.
¶ 25 Nonetheless, Bowen still argues that "contact with [F.B.]" only includes face-to-face interactions. In support of that proposition, Bowen cites to WIS. STAT. § 813.12(1)(cj) and State v. Schaab, 2000 WI App 204, 238 Wis.2d 598, 617 N.W.2d 872. Neither § 813.12(1)(cj) nor Schaab is on point.
¶ 26 WISCONSIN STAT. § 813.12(1)(cj) defines the phrase "[r]egular and direct contact," within the context of the injunction statute, which is not implicated here. This is a bail order no contact violation. Additionally, § 813.12(1)(cj) defines a particular type of contact, "[r]egular and direct," as "face-to-face physical proximity to an individual that is planned, scheduled, expected, or periodic." Id. However, the word "contact" within the context of the jury instruction before us is not qualified by the words "[r]egular" or "direct." For both reasons, § 813.12(1)(cj) is not on point.
¶ 27 Contrary to Bowen's claim, Schaab never addressed whether "contact" is required to be face-to-face. According to Bowen, Schaab "clarified that `contact' requires more than perceiving another person through one's visual or auditory senses." Schaab does no such thing.
¶ 28 In Schaab, the trial court relaxed a no-contact order to permit Peter Schaab to have "incidental contact at work" with Christopher Krerowicz. Id., 238 Wis.2d 598, ¶ 2, 617 N.W.2d 872. Our analysis focused on the meaning of the phrase "at work" in the no-contact order, not on the word "contact." Id., ¶¶ 10, 15. We upheld the preliminary hearing magistrate's decision that Schaab did not violate the no-contact order. Id., ¶15. We did not, as Bowen contends, "clarif[y] that `contact' requires more than perceiving another person through one's visual or auditory senses." The plain and ordinary meaning of the word "contact" was not even before the court.
¶ 29 Bowen bases his argument on a footnote in Schaab, in which we stated the following:
¶ 30 In sum, the jury instruction requiring the State to prove that Bowen made "contact with [F.B.]" did not require the State to show that F.B. saw Bowen or that Bowen directly communicated with F.B. F.B.'s testimony that she saw Bowen's truck in the driveway, heard glass breaking, and heard someone walking up and down her stairs, combined with police officer testimony that Bowen was found intoxicated in F.B.'s basement, was sufficient to demonstrate that Bowen made "contact with [F.B.]." As such, we affirm.
Judgment and order affirmed.