No. 19-3683 ___________________________

United States of America

Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Chad Eric Mink, also known as Chad Mink

Defendant - Appellant ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa - Davenport ____________

Submitted: March 16, 2021 Filed: August 12, 2021 ____________ Before SHEPHERD, ERICKSON, and KOBES, Circuit Judges. ____________ SHEPHERD, Circuit Judge.

A jury found Chad Eric Mink guilty on all counts of a 15-count indictment, and the district court sentenced him to 600 months imprisonment. Mink appeals his convictions and sentence. Having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we vacate Mink’s conviction on Count 8, affirm his convictions on the remaining counts, and vacate his sentence in its entirety so that the district court may reconfigure Mink’s sentencing plan to guarantee that his sentence satisfies the 18 U.S.C. § 3553 factors. I.

“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) (citation omitted).

This case arises out of Mink’s incessant and extreme harassment of his ex- girlfriend, L.L., and her partner, D.B., after Mink and L.L.’s relationship ended in 2013. 1 The events began on October 11, 2013, when Mink allegedly stabbed L.L. in the ear with a fork while she was asleep. Mink told law enforcement that L.L. had been drinking and must have fallen on the fork, but a preliminary breath test revealed L.L.’s blood alcohol concentration to be 0.000. On November 14, 2013, D.B. discovered that someone had vandalized his car while parked at “Group O,” an Illinois business where D.B. and L.L. worked. That same day, L.L. noticed a strong odor in her house: someone had placed mothballs near the furnace and blocked the exhaust pipe with plumber’s putty. The following day, a Group O employee witnessed a red box truck drive around the business and leave. That evening, as L.L. and D.B. were returning from their break together, that same truck collided with D.B.’s car, damaging the driver’s side. The truck entered a nearby field, and the driver fled the scene on foot. Responding to the incident, law enforcement stopped a nearby van. Mink was in the backseat wearing wet, muddy clothes and Adidas- brand shoes, matching the shoe impressions taken near the abandoned truck. Mink told law enforcement that he had been walking home from a nearby bar and called the van’s driver for a ride. Later, Mink changed his story, telling law enforcement that he had permission to drive the box truck; however, subsequent investigation revealed that the truck had been stolen from a Davenport business. A day later, on November 16, 2013, L.L.’s sister discovered a “pipe bomb”—a steel pipe with endcaps containing an oily residue, a balloon, and some aluminum foil—in the backseat of her car. After this incident, L.L. moved with D.B. from her Milan, Illinois residence to Davenport, Iowa, near the Holy Family Cemetery (HFC).

1 Prior to the events at issue, Mink had been convicted of multiple felonies in Illinois, including burglary in 1991, 1994, 1997, and 2007; unlawful use of weapons by a felon in 1994; and arson in 1994. -2- Mink was employed at “Fol-Da-Tank,” a Milan, Illinois business. One of Mink’s coworkers, a Leclaire, Iowa resident, kept a Springfield XD .45 caliber semi- automatic pistol in his truck and claimed that Mink was aware of the