PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — A Buffalo County woman found guilty of kicking a four-year-old boy to death has lost an appeal to be released from prison.
Donika Rae Gonzales was convicted by a jury in 2014 of first-degree manslaughter and aggravated assault in the death of her boyfriend’s son after the son wet his pants. She originally was sentenced to 130 years in prison for the manslaughter conviction, which was later reduced to 90 years with 50 years suspended, and a concurrent 15 years for the assault conviction.
Gonzales, who is now 34, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging her convictions. She claimed that the use of a jury district, which included residents of both Brule and Buffalo
counties, unconstitutionally diluted the percentage of prospective Native American jurors available for her case.
Second Circuit Judge Donald E. Hoffman of Sioux Falls found in Gonzales’ favor. State prosecutors appealed Judge Hoffman’s decision to the South Dakota Supreme Court. The high court’s justices in turn found that the judge had erred and Gonzales must remain in custody.
Supreme Court Justice Janine Kern wrote the high court’s opinion.
Justice Kern found that Judge Hoffman made a mathematical error when he determined that Gonzales didn’t receive a fair trial as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Judge Hoffman had concluded that Native Americans were under-represented from the Brule County portion of the jury pool, but Justice Kern said that the judge should have used the entire jury district of Brule and Buffalo counties in his calculations. Together the two counties’ combined Native American population totaled 29%, according to Justice Kern.
The U.S. Supreme Court in a 1979 decision Duren v. Missouri established a multi-prong test regarding a jury’s demographic representation.
“Because of this inability to meet the second prong of Duren, Gonzales has failed to establish that the jury pool did not represent a fair cross-section of the community,” Justice Kern wrote. “The habeas court thus erred in its application of the Duren test and in its conclusion that Gonzales’ Sixth Amendment rights were violated.”
Gonzales appears to be incarcerated in another state, but where isn’t public information, according to Michael Winder, spokesman for South Dakota Department of Corrections. The ‘Offender Locator’ function on the department’s website states for Gonzales, “Virtual Facility (SD Offender elsewhere).”
In a statement, Winder told KELOLAND News, “It is the policy of the South Dakota DOC not to release records of offenders who are incarcerated in our facilities from another state as part of the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision and/or any contracts between states, or offenders from South Dakota incarcerated in other states.”
