Background
Chad Patrick Winters sent threatening messages and firearm photographs to two law-enforcement officers, then pointed a handgun toward two state troopers during an attempted traffic stop. The troopers fired, stopped when Winters fell back into his vehicle, and fired again after he raised the gun toward them. Winters suffered serious gunshot injuries, but neither trooper was injured. Police later found firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his vehicle and items described as a “torture bag,” shocking devices, Molotov cocktails, zip ties, and ropes in a barn associated with him.
A jury convicted Winters of two counts of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder, two counts of felony-firearm, and one count of carrying a firearm with unlawful intent. Although the sentencing guidelines recommended minimum terms of 34 to 83 months, the trial court imposed concurrent terms of 10 to 15 years for the assault convictions, along with two-year terms for felony-firearm and 400 days for unlawful carrying. Winters challenged the scoring of offense variables 3 and 13 and the proportionality of the upward departure.
The Court’s Holding
The Court of Appeals affirmed the assessment of 25 points under offense variable 3. Under binding Michigan Supreme Court precedent, a defendant may qualify as a “victim” for purposes of that variable when the defendant’s criminal conduct causes his own life-threatening or permanently incapacitating injury. Winters’s serious injuries therefore supported the score even though the troopers were unharmed. His related ineffective-assistance claim also failed because defense counsel had challenged that score in a written sentencing memorandum.
The court also upheld the 25-point score under offense variable 13. Winters committed separate threatening acts against the two troopers during the charged episode, and his conduct during a 2020 encounter with police supplied an additional qualifying act within the five-year period. The court further held that the 10-to-15-year assault sentences were proportionate. The trial court expressly considered Winters’s schizophrenia and physical injuries but reasonably concluded that the guidelines inadequately accounted for his planning, animus toward law enforcement, risk of future violence, criminal history, and the need for deterrence.
Key Takeaways
- Michigan’s offense-variable framework permits OV 3 points for serious injuries that a defendant’s own criminal conduct causes the defendant to suffer.
- Separate criminal acts arising from one episode may contribute to a pattern of felonious activity under OV 13, and qualifying conduct may be counted even if it did not result in a conviction.
- An above-guidelines sentence may be upheld when the sentencing court explains why offense-specific and offender-specific circumstances make the departure more proportionate than a guidelines sentence.
Why It Matters
The unpublished decision illustrates the breadth of information Michigan sentencing courts may consider when scoring offense variables, including a defendant’s own injuries, separate acts within one confrontation, and earlier criminal conduct that did not produce a felony conviction.
It also shows that documented mental illness and serious physical injuries do not foreclose an upward departure when the sentencing court addresses those mitigating circumstances and explains why planning, dangerousness, deterrence, and other inadequately scored factors justify a longer sentence.