State Of Minn. v. Jason Hull
| Decision Date | 09 September 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. A09-220.,A09-220. |
| Citation | 788 N.W.2d 91 |
| Parties | STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Jeremy Jason HULL, Appellant. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED.
Syllabus by the Court
The district court did not violate the defendant's Confrontation Clause rights by admitting into evidence the deceased victim's out-of-court statement to a friend when the statement was not testimonial.
The district court's admission of an officer's statement that the defendant's name “came up” in an investigation of a robbery does not warrant reversal because the admission of the statement did not constitute plain error and did not affect the defendant's substantial rights.
Any error in the admission of fingerprint and handwriting expert evidence was harmless because there is no reasonable possibility that the admission of the evidence significantly affected the verdict.
The defendant's pro se arguments lack merit and therefore do not warrant a reversal.
Lori Swanson, Attorney General, Kimberly R. Parker, Assistant Attorney General, St. Paul, MN; and Jan Kolb, Mille Lacs County Attorney, Milaca, MN, for respondent.
Jodie L. Carlson, Assistant State Public Defender, St. Paul, MN, for appellant.
ANDERSON, PAUL H., Justice.
Lewis Wilczek disappeared after attending a family barbeque in Little Falls on April 29, 2007. Six days later, the police found Wilczek's body buried in a gravel pit. A Mille Lacs County grand jury subsequently indicted Jeremy Jason Hull for one count of first-degree premeditated murder, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(a)(1) (2008), and one count of first-degree intentional murder while committing aggravated robbery, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(a)(3) (2008), for causing Wilczek's death. After a jury trial, Hull was found guilty of both counts. Conviction was entered on the first-degree premeditated murder count, and Hull received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He now appeals his conviction. Hull argues that two out-of-court statements made by Wilczek before his death, one to a friend and another to a police officer investigating a theft, were admitted in violation of the Confrontation Clause. He further argues that a complete hearing should have been conducted on the admissibility of expert testimony on the subjects of fingerprint and handwriting analysis. Hull also raises several arguments in a pro se supplemental brief. We affirm.
We draw our account of the events leading up to and following Lewis Wilczek's murder from the testimony and physical evidence presented by the State at appellant Jeremy Jason Hull's trial. Several relatives of both Hull and Wilczek testified at the trial, along with several law enforcement officers and forensic scientists. Important testimony was also provided by Hull's girlfriend, Casey Jo Oldenburg.
Hull and Wilczek were acquaintances who shared a common interest in cars and trucks. Wilczek worked for his family's business delivering firewood to restaurants. He also owned an auto-repair business called Performance Exhaust, which was located on his parents' land in Little Falls, Minnesota. Wilczek lived in an apartment above his auto-repair business. During the summer of 2006, Hull lived with Oldenburg in St. Cloud and spent time helping Wilczek with firewood deliveries and in the auto-repair business. At this time, several warrants had been issued for Hull's arrest because of theft and driving offenses. Wilczek gave Hull rides to the auto shop because Hull did not have a valid driver's license.
In August 2006, Hull brought his black Ford Mustang to Wilczek's auto shop for repairs. Wilczek and Hull worked on the car but were unable to fix it, so Wilczek brought the car to another shop and billed the repairs to the Wilczek family's account. Hull picked up the car when the repairs were completed. At the time of Wilczek's death, which occurred eight months later, Hull still owed Wilczek money for the repairs to the car.
A second vehicle-related transaction between Hull and Wilczek involved an older green Ford pickup truck. Wilczek sold the truck to Hull during the summer of 2006, and Hull agreed to work for Wilczek in order to pay for part of the purchase price. At Hull's request, Hull's sister put the title of the truck in her name. Wilczek and Hull performed repair work on the truck during the summer, but Hull failed to make payments toward the truck's purchase price.
At some point during the summer of 2006, Hull was stopped by the police for driving the truck while it had a broken taillight. During the stop, Hull ran from the police. The truck was then impounded. At Wilczek's request, Hull's sister subsequently transferred the title to the truck to Wilczek, so Wilczek could retrieve the truck from the police.
On the night of September 29, 2006, Hull and Oldenburg went to Wilczek's property to take the truck back from Wilczek. Wilczek called the sheriff's office and stated that Hull may have taken the truck, and that Hull did not own the truck and had not paid for it. A deputy sheriff on patrol located Hull driving the truck and pulled him over. Hull identified himself using the name of a friend and gave a false birth date. After processing this identification information on the computer, the deputy was informed by the dispatch center that no such person had a driver's license in Minnesota. The deputy then instructed another officer to run a search for Jeremy Hull-the name given by Wilczek-in hopes of finding a photo. After overhearing the discussion about that search, Hull got out of the truck and ran away from the scene of the stop. The deputy sent his dog to apprehend Hull, but Hull crossed a barbed wire fence and the dog got caught up in the fence, so Hull was able to escape arrest.
As a result of the two incidents with the police, Hull and Oldenburg moved from their St. Cloud apartment to the home of a friend in Paynesville, Minnesota. In February 2007, while the couple lived in Paynesville, Hull attempted to get a birth certificate using another false name. Oldenburg stated that Hull wanted to “start clean” with a different name because of the outstanding warrants for his arrest. Hull and Oldenburg went to the Meeker County Courthouse to get the birth certificate but failed in their attempt to do so because the registrar found a record showing that the person whose name Hull used was deceased. Following this failed attempt to obtain a false birth certificate, the police went to the Paynesville residence to question Hull about the incident and confiscated his computer and his wallet.
After the police visit, Hull and Oldenburg left their friend's home in Paynesville and stayed at a hotel for a week. They next moved in with a relative of Hull's. Hull had previously given the last name of that relative as his own last name. In April 2007, Hull and Oldenburg moved into a new apartment in St. Cloud. Hull again used a false name-this time that of his cousin-to enter into the lease.
During this time period, Hull frequently wrote personal notes to himself and to Oldenburg in spiral notebooks. He wrote about feeling lonely and depressed and about contemplating suicide because his life was so bad. During the time Hull and Oldenburg lived in Paynesville, Hull wrote the following note describing his plan to fix his life:
Well I think I might have finally figured something out. I'm kinda screwed though cuz I need a computer and I need cash. I hope and pray that Casey can afford to help me yet again.
(PLAN)
-make fake Birth Certificate
-go to Wisconson [sic] or Montana to get State ID
-The [sic] go to Social Security office to hope to get new number
-Then use the SS# and State ID to go through Drivers training
Later, after Hull and Oldenburg moved back to St. Cloud, Hull stole a computer from the relative's home where they had recently been staying.
Sometime in April 2007, Hull made another entry in his notebook revising his plan to get a new life. He wrote to Oldenburg:
Don't hate me for this. This is my plan to have a good happy life again. I hope you will understand. I want to go up to lewis around 11 pm and walk in to his place while he is sleeping. Stab him a couple times. Then pack up alot [sic] of his stuff and leave. Basically make it look like he moved. I will the [sic] bury him and his bed. Take as much stuff as I can get and be outta his place by 1 am! I'd take down the sign's out side and type up some signs for the door that say out of business. Maybe write a letter saying he meet [sic] a girl in Cali. and that he is sick of all the bs. Then the next day put all the stuff in a storage shed.
Several partial sentences follow that part of the notebook entry, but the sentences are not complete because the bottom right corner of the page was torn before the police acquired the notebook. The partial continuation of the note reads:
After reading the note, Oldenburg told Hull that he was crazy. Oldenburg said that Hull responded that “nothing could go wrong.” Evidence showed that Hull began executing his plan in the days leading up to Wilczek's death, which occurred on April 29, 2007. On April 24, Hull visited a website that included a list of Ford vehicles that Wilczek owned. On April 25, Hull conducted a number of searches for “Wells Fargo Bank.” On April 27, someone identifying himself as Wilczek called Wells Fargo to set up an appointment for April 30. Also on April 27, someone called Wilczek from Hull's apartment. And sometime in the days before April 29, Oldenburg said Hull told her that he rode a bicycle from St. Cloud to Little Falls-a distance of about 36 miles-and “scoped out” Wilczek's auto shop.
Wilczek spent the afternoon of April 29, a Sunday, at a barbeque at his mother's house in Little Falls. While at...
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