State v. Andrews

• Decision Date: 06 June 1986
• Docket Number: No. CO-85-146,CO-85-146
• Citation: 388 N.W.2d 723
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Charles Wesley ANDREWS, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 723

388 N.W.2d 723

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Charles Wesley ANDREWS, Appellant.

No. CO-85-146.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

June 6, 1986.

Syllabus by the Court

1. The evidence is sufficient as a matter of law to support the jury's conclusion that the defendant killed the victim intentionally and with premeditation.

2. The defendant knowingly and intelligently waived the privilege against self-incrimination and, under the totality of the circumstances of this case, his confession was voluntary. The trial court did not err in admitting defendant's confession into evidence.

3. The trial court's refusal to sequester prospective jurors during voir dire was not an abuse of discretion that denied defendant a fair trial where there was no claim of a "significant possibility" that prospective jurors would have been exposed to prejudicial pretrial publicity and where the record reflects that trial court did not restrict defense counsel's questioning of prospective jurors about exposure to such publicity.

C. Paul Jones, State Public Defender, Heidi H. Crissey, Asst. Public Defender, Minneapolis, for appellant.

Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Atty. Gen., Tom Foley, Co. Atty., Darrell C. Hill, Asst. Co. Atty., St. Paul, for respondent.

Heard, considered and decided by the court en banc.

WAHL, Justice.

Charles Wesley Andrews was convicted of the first degree murder of Denise Alford and sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment. He appeals from this judgment of conviction, claiming the evidence is insufficient to prove that he killed Alford intentionally or with premeditation. Andrews also claims the trial court erred in failing to suppress statements he made to the police and that he did not receive a fair trial because the trial court refused to permit sequestered voir dire of prospective jurors. We affirm the conviction.

On August 7, 1984, Denise Alford bled to death from a stab wound in the back. Charles Andrews admits he was involved in the incident that led to her death, but maintains Alford was stabbed by accident, not intentionally or with premeditation.

Denise Alford, also known as "Nisi," was 31 years old and had lived in the Twin Cities for three months before her death. She moved here in May 1984 from Detroit, Michigan with her younger brother, Gregory, to take a job at the Ford Motor Company plant in St. Paul. Alford had two children, ages 9 and 15, who were living temporarily with her parents in Detroit. Charles Andrews was an old friend of Alford's. They had met in Detroit in 1981 and began a romantic relationship in 1982. Andrews had lived with Alford and her children in the Detroit area on and off during 1982-83. After Andrews left Alford's Detroit home in November 1983, the couple had continued to have some sort of relationship. In late July, Andrews came from Detroit to the Twin Cities to visit Alford. He testified he intended to stay only a few days. When he arrived, Alford and her brother were in the process of moving into a house they had rented in St. Paul. Andrews helped the Alfords move and stayed at the house with them during the rest of his visit.

During Andrews' visit, old conflicts recurred in his relationship with Alford. On several occasions, the couple fought because, Andrews testified, Alford was jealous of his past relationship with another woman. Alford feared, he said, that he was still seeing this woman in Detroit and that he was the father of this woman's children. He claimed they reconciled these conflicts, however, and said that Alford had persuaded him to change his plans and to find work in the area. Andrews accepted a temporary 3-week job with a home insulation company and was to report for work at 6:30 a.m. on August 7.

On Monday, August 6, Alford worked her scheduled shift at the Ford plant, leaving for work in the evening about 5:00 p.m. Andrews stayed home with Gregory Alford, listening to records. He went to bed early in the upstairs bedroom about 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. and Gregory stayed downstairs, listening to records and dozing on the living room couch. About midnight, Gregory awoke hungry. He went upstairs, woke Andrews and asked to borrow money and his car. Gregory went to the store, purchased food, and returned home about 12:30 a.m., replacing Andrews' keys on the bedroom dresser. Gregory went back downstairs, ate hamburgers, and watched television until he again fell asleep on the couch, about 2:30-3:00 a.m.

At this point, the version of events offered by Andrews and Gregory Alford, the state's key witness, diverge. Gregory testified he awoke four more times that night as he slept on the downstairs couch. He was first roused when his sister came home from work. A Ford personnel officer testified Denise Alford worked a normal shift on August 6-7 and would have left the plant to return home about 4:00 a.m. Gregory saw Denise go upstairs, but he didn't speak to her. He awoke a second time, hearing voices upstairs, which, he said, sounded like his sister and Andrews were "exchanging words." He woke up a third time and saw, by the light of the television, that Andrews was downstairs in the living room, walking from the kitchen and heading back upstairs.

Gregory fell asleep again and was roused a final time by his sister's voice. He heard her scream, say "Oh, Charles, No, No," then he heard a lot of "ahhs" and a choking sound. Gregory jumped off the sofa and met Andrews coming down the stairs. He confronted the man, demanding to know what he had done and saying he had heard something. Andrews said he had done nothing and headed for the back door. Gregory stopped Andrews again near the back door, saying, "You wait. You go back upstairs with me and let's see what you have done." Again, Andrews denied having done anything. Gregory testified that he felt confused at that point because Andrews didn't appear to be acting as if anything was wrong. Gregory tried to block the back door and then, he testified, Andrews grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him down the basement stairway. His shoulder broke a stair as he tumbled to the bottom. Gregory said he was unconscious for an unknown period, but long enough for Andrews to have left in his car by the time Gregory roused himself.

Gregory went upstairs and found his sister dead. She was sitting on the bathroom floor, in the corner made by the bathtub and the wall, in a pool of blood. He pulled her head forward and saw a knife "all the way in" her back. Some of Andrews' clothing was lying in the bathtub and under the woman's legs. Gregory called for the police and an ambulance.

Andrews testified that after he went to bed that evening, he was awakened once by Gregory and was shaken awake again by Denise Alford when she returned from work. Andrews said she told him at that time to leave and he agreed, thinking that it was best he return to his life in Detroit. Andrews said he got up, dressed, and gathered a bundle of work clothes for the insulating job. As he prepared to leave, Alford angrily asked him if was going to return to his other woman, but then, he said, she changed her mind and asked him to stay. Andrews said he went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb his hair, but continued to talk to Alford through the half-closed bathroom door. She talked some more about this other woman, he said, and then told him he thought he was smart. As he answered her, Andrews testified, Alford suddenly rushed into the bathroom. She had a knife, Andrews said, and he wrestled with her, grabbing her hands. Then he lost his footing and the two fell into the bathtub, with him on top. Andrews said he got up and looked at Alford, whom he described as lying in the bathtub with her legs hanging over the edge. She said, "Charles, I think I am hurt." Andrews said he saw no blood, nor the knife, but that he was afraid to help her, fearing she would come at him again with the knife. Instead, Andrews said, he went downstairs to call for help. As he went down the stairs, he was grabbed by Gregory Alford who blocked his way and struggled with him. Andrews said he felt very emotional and was afraid Gregory wanted to fight him so he decided to leave the house to get help. He pulled open the back door, which Gregory was blocking, and Gregory fell down the basement steps. Andrews said he took his car and drove off. He stopped at a service station and made a collect long-distance telephone call to his sister in Detroit. He told his sister that he had wrestled with a knife with Alford, that he didn't know if she had been injured, and that he was on his way to the police station.

The police arrived at the Alford house in response to Gregory's call at about 5:30 a.m. In addition to the body and the murder weapon, police found a second knife on the upstairs bedroom dresser and piles of Andrews' clothing on the floor in the bathroom and in the kitchen. In the kitchen, a drawer containing knives and silverware was standing open.

Andrews walked into the St. Paul Police Department at about 6:00 a.m. The officer assigned to the desk testified at trial that he immediately noticed Andrews because the man walked hesitantly and appeared distraught. Andrews said, the officer testified, "I think I just killed my girlfriend." Andrews was taken into custody and twice during that day, was interrogated by police. Andrews told police his version of events and when asked why he had come to the police station, answered "I did something wrong * * * I hit Nisi with the knife." In recounting what had happened, Andrews at one point said he had wrestled the knife away from Alford; at another point, he said she was holding it when they fell into the bathtub. When asked if he had stabbed Denise Alford, Andrews said, "No, I didn't stab her," and later he said "I don't know if I stabbed her or not. I don't know."

This appeal raises the following issues:

1) Whether the evidence was sufficient that the defendant killed Alford intentionally and with...