From Tuesday's Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision in State v. Brister, by Judge Sara Geenen, joined by Chief Judge Joseph Donald and Judge Pedro Colón:
On June 22, 2023, Brister was sentenced in two unrelated cases. In Milwaukee County Circuit Court Case No. 2020CF367, which is not part of this appeal, Brister was sentenced for possessing a firearm as a felon ("the 2020 case"). He illegally possessed a gun while also committing acts of domestic abuse against his live-in girlfriend, Marie.
In Milwaukee County Circuit Court Case No. 2021CF3563, the case before us on appeal, Brister was sentenced for child neglect and OWI (1st) [Operating While Intoxicated] with a minor in the car, after Brister was pulled over for speeding and weaving on I-43 while Diana, then two years old, was unsecured in the backseat of the car. Diana was not injured, so the charge of child neglect alleged that harm would be a natural and probable consequence of the neglect. During the traffic stop, police found a loaded gun under the rear passenger seat. Brister called Marie to pick Diana up from the traffic stop, in violation of a no-contact order that had been imposed while he was released on bail in the 2020 case…. Brister's criminal record … included 2006 convictions for burglary and uttering a forgery, a 2009 conviction for marijuana possession, and three convictions for burglary in 2011….
The circuit court's sentencing remarks focused on the gravity of the offenses, noting the danger to which Brister had exposed his daughter and the seriousness of twice having a gun while intoxicated. The court summarized the most relevant sentencing factors when rejecting Brister's recommendation for probation:
The first thing I have to consider is whether probation is appropriate. I can't think of anything further from appropriate, than putting you on probation, for these offenses. You have demonstrated, by your behavior, not only by your criminal record, not only by your incredibly dangerous behavior in not following court orders and having that firearm and being drunk while you have the firearm, and battering [Marie], engaging in disorderly conduct. Not only that, but then adding on, that you needed to neglect and endanger your two-year-old while you were driving with her, again drunk, at incredibly high speeds, and having the firearm accessible to her. It defies description.
The court sentenced Brister to six months in jail for the OWI, concurrent to 18 months of confinement and 18 months of extended supervision for child neglect. Those sentences were made consecutive to four years' confinement and four years' extended supervision for the 2020 case. Thus, the total sentence for both cases was eleven years' imprisonment, equally divided between confinement and extended supervision.
After stating the sentences, the court ordered that Brister have no contact with Marie or Diana for the entire eleven-year sentence, stating: "I'm going to find, as conditions of the time that you are on—either serving your sentence, initial confinement, or extended supervision—I'm going to order that there be a no contact order with [Marie] and [Diana]."
