McCollum v. State

• Decision Date: 21 March 2002
• Docket Number: No. C9-01-1274., No. C2-00-1056
• Parties: Shawn Allen McCOLLUM, Petitioner, Appellant, v. STATE of Minnesota, Respondent.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

640 N.W.2d 610

Shawn Allen McCOLLUM, Petitioner, Appellant, v. STATE of Minnesota, Respondent.

Nos. C2-00-1056, C9-01-1274.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

March 21, 2002.

Susan K. Maki, Asst. State Public Defender, Minneapolis, MN, for appellant.

Mike Hatch, Attorney General, St. Paul, MN, Michael K. Junge, McLeod County Attorney, Glencoe, MN, for respondent.

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

OPINION

LANCASTER, Justice.

On March 29, 2000, a jury found appellant Shawn Allen McCollum guilty of murder in the first degree while committing kidnapping, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(3) (2000), murder in the second degree, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.19, subd. 1(1) (2000), and kidnapping, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.25, subd. 1(3) (2000), for his role in the kidnapping and death of Randy Pool in Hutchinson, Minnesota, between July 18 and 21, 1999. At the sentencing hearing, the court entered a conviction for first-degree murder while committing kidnapping and sentenced McCollum to life imprisonment without possibility of release. McCollum appealed and later filed a motion, which we granted, to stay his direct appeal for the purpose of instituting postconviction proceedings.

McCollum's petition for postconviction relief sets forth two claims. First, that his conviction should be reversed and he be granted a new trial because the trial court did not inform him of his right to instruct the jury that it may not attach an adverse inference to the fact that he did not testify at trial. Second, that his sentence should be modified to include the possibility of release because the indictment did not refer to the heinous crimes statute, Minn. Stat. § 609.106, subd. 2(2) (2000). The postconviction court denied his petition. McCollum then appealed the judgment denying his petition for postconviction relief and filed motions to vacate the stay of his direct appeal and to consolidate the appeals. We granted those motions. This case, therefore, comes to us on direct appeal and appeal of the judgment denying postconviction relief. We affirm.

The facts giving rise to McCollum's conviction are as follows. In early 1999, Salem Bernhardt and Heather Ecklund began living with Pool in Pool's house in Hutchinson, Minnesota. Bernhardt sold methamphetamine from Pool's house. In June 1999, Bernhardt and Ecklund planned a trip to visit friends and family in Nebraska and Indiana. Bernhardt asked McCollum to look after the drug business during Bernhardt's absence. McCollum then moved into Pool's house. In early July 1999, Bernhardt and Ecklund traveled to Nebraska to visit Jason and Tanya Caldwell (J. Caldwell and T. Caldwell, respectively). On July 10, 1999, Bernhardt returned to Hutchinson with J. Caldwell. Four days later, the Hutchinson Police Department received a tip from Lance Mattson that J. Caldwell was at Pool's house. Mattson knew that there was an outstanding warrant for J. Caldwell's arrest.

That evening, Hutchinson police officers went to Pool's house. Officer Johnson and Officer Nadeau spoke to Pool outside the house, learned that J. Caldwell was inside the house, and asked Pool to bring J. Caldwell out of the house. Pool entered the house and returned with J. Caldwell. After Officer Nadeau confirmed J. Caldwell's identity and the existence of a warrant for his arrest, J. Caldwell passed a large wad of bills to Pool. Officer Nadeau then placed J. Caldwell in handcuffs and searched him. Officer Nadeau found a plastic bag that contained a white powdery substance in one of his pockets and brought him to the police station for booking.

Officer Johnson remained at Pool's house. Sergeant Jones arrived to assist Officer Johnson after Officer Nadeau left. Sergeant Jones and Officer Johnson told Pool that they may have to seize the money that J. Caldwell passed to him because of the discovery of apparent narcotics on J. Caldwell. Pool stated that the money was in the house. Pool entered the house and returned a few minutes later with some money. Officer Johnson noticed that Pool returned with less money than J. Caldwell had passed to him. Pool admitted that he kept some of the money for J. Caldwell's bail. Pool agreed to retrieve the remainder of the money. Pool appeared very nervous to the officers. When asked whether he was hiding something or someone in the house, Pool responded that Bernhardt was in the house and that there were outstanding warrants for Bernhardt's arrest.¹

Pool consented to the police officers' search of the house. Pool advised the officers that Bernhardt was upstairs. Sergeant Jones found Bernhardt in an upstairs bedroom closet. The officers arrested Bernhardt and brought him to the police station. Officers found controlled substances, a scale, and approximately $2,500 in their search of Pool's house.

Ecklund and T. Caldwell learned of Bernhardt's and J. Caldwell's arrests that day and returned to Hutchinson on July 18, 1999. That afternoon, Ecklund visited Bernhardt at the McLeod County jail. Bernhardt asked her to find out who had turned J. Caldwell and him in to the police. That evening, Ecklund and T. Caldwell went to Pool's house. Ecklund, T. Caldwell, Pool, and McCollum went upstairs. Richard Ligenza arrived a few minutes later.

Ecklund, T. Caldwell, and Ligenza questioned McCollum and Pool about Bernhardt's and J. Caldwell's arrests, missing money, and drugs. The questioning then focused on Pool and turned violent. Ecklund, McCollum, and Ligenza hit Pool. Pool tried to escape by running downstairs, but McCollum tripped him and slammed him to the floor. Ecklund, McCollum, Ligenza, and possibly T. Caldwell bound Pool's arms and legs with plastic ties and duct tape. McCollum brought Pool back upstairs and Pool's beating continued. They threatened Pool with a stun gun and may have used it on him. Eventually, Pool was brought downstairs and placed in a fruit cellar.

The next day, Pool's beating continued. McCollum, Ecklund, Isaak Engstrom, Toby Johnson, and Salem Bernhardt's brother, Scott, beat Pool. That night, Pool was returned to the fruit cellar and secured to a chair with duct tape.

The following night, July 20, 1999, Pool was taken from the fruit cellar and brought upstairs. Engstrom, Ecklund, and McCollum gave somewhat conflicting descriptions of the events that followed, culminating in Pool's death.

Engstrom testified that McCollum told Pool to get into a duffel bag. After Pool climbed into it, Engstrom zipped it shut. McCollum hit Pool's head with a closet rod, dragged the bag downstairs, and beat Pool's head with a hammer. Ecklund sprayed aerosol into the bag. McCollum stepped on the bag for at least ten minutes.

Ecklund testified that McCollum put Pool into the duffel bag. McCollum hit Pool's head with a hammer, dragged the bag downstairs, sprayed aerosol into the bag, and stood on Pool's chest or neck for several minutes.

McCollum did not testify at trial, but a recording of an interview police conducted with him on August 5, 1999, was introduced into evidence. McCollum told the police in that interview that someone put Pool in the duffel bag and someone dragged the bag downstairs. McCollum denied beating Pool's head with a hammer and stated that Engstrom hit Pool's head with the hammer. McCollum and others sprayed aerosol into the bag. McCollum, Engstrom, and Johnson stood on Pool's stomach, chest, and neck.

After hitting Pool's head, spraying aerosol into the bag, and standing on Pool, Ecklund, McCollum, and Engstrom concluded that Pool had died. Ecklund and Engstrom described disposing of Pool's body as follows. Engstrom and McCollum placed the bag that contained Pool's body into the trunk of a car. Ecklund, Engstrom, and McCollum drove to a train trestle in Wright County. McCollum and Engstrom carried the bag halfway across the trestle. Engstrom retrieved a cinder block from the car and McCollum tied the block to the bag. They threw the bag off the trestle into the water below.

In his statement to the police, McCollum described disposing of the body as follows. McCollum, Engstrom, Ecklund, and Johnson drove to a train trestle. McCollum stayed at the car with Ecklund while Engstrom and Johnson carried the bag to the trestle. Either Johnson or Engstrom retrieved a brick from the car and returned to the trestle. They tied the brick to the bag and threw the bag off the trestle.

On July 28, 1999, officers from the Wright County Sheriff's Department discovered Pool's body in the backwater of the Clearwater River. Pool's body was identified on August 3, 1999. Police arrested McCollum two days later. Officers interviewed him that afternoon.

On September 22, 1999, a McLeod County grand jury issued a three-count indictment against McCollum: (1) murder in the first degree while committing kidnapping, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(3); (2) murder in the second degree, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.19, subd. 1(1); and (3) kidnapping, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.25, subd. 1(3).

McCollum's jury trial² took place from March 21 to 29, 2000. The state and McCollum each received a copy of the proposed final jury instructions and had an opportunity to review them. Before instructing the jury, the trial court asked the parties: "[I]s it correct that there have been no requested jury instructions which I have not included in this set of instructions?" Defense counsel responded: "Your Honor, that is correct. And I'm satisfied with the instructions as they are presented to me." The state agreed that the instructions did not omit any requested instructions. The trial court then instructed the jury. An instruction that the jury may not attach an adverse inference to McCollum's decision not to testify was not given to the jury. After instructing the jury, the trial court asked the parties whether the instructions as given contained any errors or omissions. They responded that the instructions as given did not contain any errors or omissions. The...