State v. Earl

• Decision Date: 11 August 2005
• Docket Number: No. A04-1328.,A04-1328.
• Citation: 702 N.W.2d 711
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Christopher J. EARL, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

702 N.W.2d 711

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Christopher J. EARL, Appellant.

No. A04-1328.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

August 11, 2005.

Rehearing Denied September 1, 2005.

John M. Stuart, State Public Defender, Benjamin Jon Butler, Asst. Public Defender, Minneapolis MN, for Appellant.

Gaylord A. Saetre, Todd County Attorney, Long Prairie MN; and Kimberly Ross Parker, Assistant Attorney General, St. Paul MN, for Respondent.

Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.

OPINION

HANSON, Justice.

Appellant Christopher Jacob Earl appeals his conviction of ten counts of first-degree murder in connection with the April 28, 2003, deaths of Hollis Chromey and her children, Jerrod and Katie Zapzalka, in Long Prairie, Minnesota. Earl bases his appeal on four issues: (1) whether the district court erred in admitting into evidence Earl's statement to police, taken after appellant had invoked his right to counsel; (2) whether the jury instructions misstated the state's burden of proof on accomplice liability; (3) whether the evidence was sufficient to convict Earl of aiding and abetting first-degree murder while committing kidnapping or while committing criminal sexual conduct; and (4) whether seven of Earl's convictions must be vacated because he may only be formally adjudicated guilty of a maximum of one count of first-degree murder for each victim. We affirm Earl's convictions of first-degree murder while committing kidnapping of Chromey and Jerrod Zapzalka (Counts 7 and 9) and first-degree murder while committing criminal sexual conduct of Katie Zapzalka (Count 10), but vacate the other seven convictions (Counts 1 through 6 and 8).

Early on April 28, 2003, Jonathan Carpenter and Earl drove to Long Prairie from the Twin Cities with masks, gloves, electrical tape, heavy flashlights, and a BB gun that was a replica of a rifle. They planned to steal from a specific home, but were unable to locate it. Rather than drive away empty-handed, they randomly selected the Chromey home and, shortly after 3:30 a.m., entered through a side door. They found Hollis Chromey sleeping in the living room on the couch, and her two children, 16-year-old Jerrod Zapzalka and 18-year-old Katie Zapzalka, sleeping in their bedrooms. Carpenter and Earl forced the three victims into the kitchen at gunpoint and bound their wrists and ankles with electrical tape. They then began to search the home for valuables.

Earl testified at his trial and gave the following version of events. Realizing that there was nothing valuable in the Chromey home, Earl stopped searching and began to talk with Chromey. Carpenter told Earl to stand guard by the door and kept searching for a while. When Earl returned to the kitchen, he saw that both of the women were gone. He then noticed Carpenter placing Katie on the bed in her room, and asked what was going on. At that moment, Chromey, who had managed to free herself and Jerrod, emerged from Jerrod's bedroom and attempted to strike Earl with a chair. Earl knocked Chromey backward. Carpenter grabbed the chair and knocked Chromey to the floor, rendering her unconscious. Jerrod went after Carpenter, dislodging his mask. Carpenter hit Jerrod and knocked him out. Carpenter then stomped on Chromey's and Jerrod's heads. After assaulting Chromey and Jerrod, Carpenter brandished a knife in Earl's face and told him to continue standing guard. At some point, a maul belonging to the Chromey family was used to beat Chromey's and Jerrod's heads.

Carpenter returned to Katie's room and raped her. Earl claimed that he did not witness the rape, but saw Carpenter emerge from Katie's room with a "big grin on his face." According to Earl, Carpenter then used the knife to cut the throats of Chromey, Jerrod, and Katie.

After the killings, Carpenter and Earl discarded two blood-stained knives in the Chromey's microwave and threw the maul onto the couch. Earl testified that they fled to burn their masks, clothing, and gloves. They next drove to Lake Park, Minnesota, where they stayed throughout the day and overnight with Bobbie Gorden, a former girlfriend of Carpenter's, and her husband. On the morning of April 29, 2003, they followed Bobbie into town so she could fill their tank with gas. They returned to her home while it was unoccupied, taking two handguns, a shotgun, a holster, brass knuckles, handcuffs, CDs, DVDs, and jewelry. They then drove back to the Twin Cities.

On April 30, 2003, Robert Jorgenson went to the Brooklyn Park police, informing them that Earl had told him that Earl and Carpenter had killed a family up north over the weekend. Jorgenson, a security guard who frequented a convenience store where Earl worked, said that Earl told him that a burglary had gone bad, that the mother and son had fought back, and had revealed one of their masked faces, and that "we did it," "we tied them up," and "we" killed them with knives. Earl also told Jorgenson he had committed certain other crimes. Earl informed Jorgenson that he and Carpenter would be at Carpenter's father's house for the day, and Jorgenson and Earl had discussed Jorgenson going to the police with the information.

A high-risk warrant-execution team entered the Carpenter home in Minneapolis that afternoon and found Earl lounging in a chair and Carpenter standing in a bedroom. Both were armed. Outside the Carpenter home, police found Earl's car, which contained physical evidence connecting Carpenter and Earl to the Long Prairie crime and to other burglaries.

Earl was interviewed at the Minneapolis Police Department. He initially invoked his right to counsel but after a later discussion with police officers and a second Miranda warning, he gave a statement, which was videotaped. In his statement, Earl admitted that he had participated in the burglary in Long Prairie and in several other burglaries in the Twin Cities area.

Earl was indicted on three counts of aiding and abetting first-degree premeditated murder, three counts of aiding and abetting first-degree murder while committing burglary, three counts of aiding and abetting first-degree murder while committing kidnapping, and one count of aiding and abetting first-degree murder while committing first-degree criminal sexual assault.

Before trial, Earl moved for the suppression of his videotaped statement, arguing that it was obtained in violation of his Miranda rights. The trial court denied the motion, finding that the Miranda warnings were adequate, that Earl voluntarily reinitiated contact after his contacts with the police had ceased, and that Earl's waiver of his right to counsel and subsequent statement were made knowingly and voluntarily.

The state's theory of the case at trial was that Earl actively planned and participated in the burglary that led to the Long Prairie killings, and that due to his previous association with Carpenter, he could have reasonably foreseen that death could result from the burglary. To support this theory, the state offered evidence of several burglaries Carpenter and Earl had committed, one of which involved the deaths of two people.

Earl's former fiancée, Lisa Madison, testified that Earl and Carpenter had burglarized a home early in the morning of April 6, 2003. She testified that she rode in the car with them, and kept lookout while they committed the burglary. She testified that on the way to the burglary, Earl and Carpenter stopped to buy duct tape, "to tie the people up * * * if there were people in the house." The occupants of the home testified that on April 6, 2003, they were awakened, threatened, and bound by two masked men. The men stole computers, cameras, personal digital assistants, and jewelry. As they left, one of them announced that they were "the Jack Boys." Madison also stated that Earl discussed his plans to burglarize the Long Prairie house with her. She testified that Earl shaved his head before leaving for Long Prairie, and told her he did it so that he would not leave DNA evidence at the scene.

Jorgenson testified that Earl told him that Carpenter had also killed an elderly Minneapolis man and his disabled daughter. These killings had occurred two weeks before the Long Prairie killings. Earl told Jorgenson that he helped clean up the crime scene and removed valuables and cash, which Earl later testified amounted to $16,000. Madison testified that she was in the getaway car after this burglary and that Earl was so excited about the amount of money he and Carpenter had taken that he began throwing it around the car, kissed Carpenter's hands, and told him he was "the man."

Erica Overlie, Carpenter's former girl-friend, testified that Carpenter had overheard her parents say that her grandparents had guns. Earl testified that Overlie had said that her grandparents were always away from home on Sunday mornings. Overlie's grandmother testified that two masked and gloved men entered her home in New London, Minnesota, on April 27, 2003, the Sunday after Easter. When she asked them what they wanted, they told her they had the wrong home and left.

Raelynn Jones, with whom Earl briefly lived, testified that Earl approached her and told her that he and Carpenter robbed houses and "we kill people," and asked whether there was anyone she wanted killed. Jones gave them the name and address of her estranged mother, who lived in Long Prairie, and told them they could kill her. Jones testified that later she had a falling-out with Earl and Carpenter and told them to call off their plans.

Sarah Dombrovski, Earl's former workmate, testified that Earl told her that he and Carpenter robbed houses. She stated that Earl told her they looked for unoccupied homes, but that if anyone was there, they had weapons and would "take care of business."

Bobbie and Shane Gorden testified that Earl and Carpenter arrived at their Lake Park home at about 7 a.m. on April 28, 2003. They let Earl and Carpenter stay overnight and drove with them into town to buy them...