No. 23-3558 ___________________________

United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee

v.

Joseph Thompson, Sr.

lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the District of South Dakota - Central ____________

Submitted: October 25, 2024 Filed: April 3, 2025 ____________ Before LOKEN, SMITH, and GRASZ, Circuit Judges. ____________ SMITH, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted Joseph Thompson, Sr., of voluntary manslaughter, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1153 and 1112. On appeal, Thompson challenges his conviction, arguing that insufficient evidence supports the jury’s verdict and that the district court1 erred in denying Thompson’s proposed self-defense jury instruction. We affirm.

I. Background “We recite the facts in the light most favorable to the jury’s verdict.” United States v. Galloway, 917 F.3d 631, 632 (8th Cir. 2019) (internal quotation marks omitted).

One evening, Thompson was visiting Charmayne Grooms at her home in Lower Brule, South Dakota. Grooms was “walking the floor” to calm her baby when Thompson, who was on Grooms’s bed in her bedroom, told Grooms that “somebody’s knocking or pounding on your window.” R. Doc. 48-1, at 98. Grooms responded, “Oh f**k, that’s probably Marty [LaRoche].” Id. LaRoche was “[t]he father of [Grooms’s] kids.” Id. at 59. Thompson stood up from the bed and exited the room. Two locked doors separated him from outdoors. Grooms did not tell Thompson that she was afraid of LaRoche, nor did she ask Thompson to go outside and confront LaRoche or to protect her from him.

As Thompson was leaving the bedroom, LaRoche managed to get the bedroom window open. He yelled inside, “Open the f***in’ door, Charmayne; open the f***in’ door.” Id. at 99. He said he wanted Grooms to open the door because he knew someone was in the room with her. Grooms saw LaRoche through the window. Grooms, still holding her baby, turned around and left the bedroom.

Grooms took her baby to her roommate, Marialan Langdeau, and said, “Here, they’re going to fight.” Id. at 102. Langdeau, however, refused to take the baby.

1 The Honorable Roberto A. Lange, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of South Dakota.

-2- Langdeau “want[ed] nothing to do with it.” Id. Langdeau also believed that LaRoche would not be violent with Grooms if she was holding the baby.

Grooms went outside the home, with her baby still in her arms. Grooms “peeked around” the corner of the house and “saw Marty [LaRoche] lying on the ground” in the area near her bedroom window. Id. at 103. She then saw LaRoche “getting up.” Id. at 104. She also saw Thompson “[w]alking away” from the residence. Id. Grooms said to Thompson, “What the f**k did you do, Joseph?” Id. Thompson replied, “He was trying to fight me; he was trying to fight me.” Id. at 105. Thompson continued walking away and said nothing else to Grooms.

Grooms ran back in the house, gave the baby to Langdeau, and asked her to call the police. When Grooms went back outside, she saw LaRoche “coming around [her] car.” Id. As LaRoche got closer, Grooms noticed blood “[a]ll over” him. Id. at 106. He had “blood all over his face, all over his abdomen.” Id. The “[b]lood [was] everywhere.” Id. LaRoche “stagger[ed] on[to] the porch and . . . barely caught himself on the rail.” Id. LaRoche appeared to be “com[ing] at [Grooms].” Id. at 107. In response