Sufficiency of Evidence

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WI Court of Appeals – District II

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Natalie J. Bosin

Case No.: 2016AP2057-CR

Officials: Neubauer, C.J., Gundrum and Hagedorn, JJ.

Focus: Sufficiency of Evidence

Natalie Bosin appeals from a circuit court order denying her petition for conditional release. Bosin entered a plea agreement that included a determination that she was not guilty of three counts of battery by a prisoner due to mental disease or defect. As a result, Bosin was committed pursuant to WIS. STAT. § 971.17 (2012-13) to the Department of Health Services for nine years, and she was placed at Winnebago Mental Health Institute (WMHI). In March 2016, Bosin petitioned the circuit court for conditional release under § 971.17(4) (2015-16). The circuit court denied Bosin’s petition because she did not meet the statutory standards for conditional release. We affirm.

On appeal, Bosin argues that the evidence was not sufficient to support the circuit court’s order denying her petition for conditional release. We apply the sufficiency of the evidence standard, and we will affirm the circuit court’s findings if the findings are supported by credible evidence. State v. Randall, 2011 WI App 102, ¶¶13, 17, 336 Wis. 2d 399, 802 N.W.2d 194. We defer to the circuit court’s credibility determinations and any reasonable inference the court drew from the evidence. Id., ¶14. The circuit court was free to accept some aspects of the testimony and reject others and determine the weight and credibility of the testimony and other evidence. State v. Kienitz, 227 Wis. 2d 423, 435, 438-39, 597 N.W.2d 712 (1999); Randall, 336 Wis. 2d 399, ¶40.

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