## Facts

- David M. Larsen attacked his ex-wife, Teri Jendusa‑Nicolai, when she arrived at his Wisconsin home to pick up their children.
- Larsen beat and strangled her, bound her with duct tape, placed her in a garbage can filled with snow, and transported her by truck from Wisconsin to an Illinois self-storage facility.
- Larsen left her overnight inside the snow-filled garbage can in an unheated storage locker; she was rescued the next day and was near death.
- During the incident, the victim made multiple 911 calls, enabling law enforcement to trace events and locate her.
- Larsen was arrested at work; officers found storage-facility business cards in his wallet and used that information to help locate the victim.
- The victim survived but suffered severe injuries and miscarried several days after the attack.
- After waiving a jury trial, Larsen was convicted in federal court of kidnapping (18 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)) and interstate domestic violence (18 U.S.C. § 2261(a)(2), (b)(2)), and received a life sentence above the advisory Guidelines range.

## Issues

1. Whether 18 U.S.C. § 2261(a)(2) exceeds Congress’s Commerce Clause power as applied, by criminalizing domestic violence with an insufficient nexus to interstate commerce.
2. Whether convictions for both kidnapping under § 1201(a)(1) and interstate domestic violence under § 2261(a)(2) are multiplicitous and violate the Double Jeopardy Clause.
3. Whether officers violated the Fourth Amendment by conducting a warrantless search of Larsen’s home, allegedly without a valid exigency.
4. Whether the life sentence was substantively unreasonable because the district court considered the victim’s miscarriage as part of the harm.

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit affirmed Larsen’s convictions and life sentence.
- The court held the IDVA is constitutional as applied because it includes an interstate-travel element and regulates use of the channels of interstate commerce.
- The court held the kidnapping and IDVA convictions are not multiplicitous because each offense contains at least one element the other does not.
- The court upheld the warrantless home entry/search under the emergency-aid/exigent-circumstances doctrine based on an objectively reasonable belief that the victim required immediate assistance.
- The court held the life sentence was reasonable under § 3553(a); the miscarriage could be considered among the harms caused and the sentence was supported by the totality of the circumstances.

## Legal Principles

- Congress may regulate criminal conduct involving the channels of interstate commerce; a statute with an explicit interstate-travel jurisdictional element can satisfy the Commerce Clause as applied to conduct causing interstate movement.
- Under the *Blockburger* test, multiple convictions from the same episode do not violate double jeopardy if each statute requires proof of an element the other does not.
- The Fourth Amendment permits warrantless entry into a home when officers have an objectively reasonable basis to believe someone inside is in immediate need of aid or urgent assistance.
- A sentence above the advisory Guidelines range is permissible if supported by the factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and is not an abuse of discretion; courts may consider the scope of victim harm attributable to the offense.

## Conclusion

The Seventh Circuit sustained federal jurisdiction over interstate domestic violence tied to compelled interstate travel, allowed separate punishment for kidnapping and interstate domestic violence under *Blockburger*, upheld warrantless entry based on emergency aid, and affirmed a life sentence as reasonable in light of extreme brutality and resulting victim harm, including miscarriage.


United States v. Larsen, 615 F.3d 780 (7th Cir. 2010)