State v. Atkins

• Decision Date: 16 February 1996
• Docket Number: No. C8-95-333,C8-95-333
• Citation: 543 N.W.2d 642
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Tommie NMN ATKINS, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 642

543 N.W.2d 642

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Tommie NMN ATKINS, Appellant.

No. C8-95-333.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Feb. 16, 1996.

Syllabus by the Court

The state's evidence was sufficient to support defendant's conviction for first-degree murder, and the prosecutor did not commit misconduct during closing argument.

Appeal from District Court, Hennepin County; Delila F. Pierce, Judge.

John M. Stuart, State Public Defender, Marie L. Wolf, Asst. State Public Defender, Minneapolis, for appellant.

Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Atty. Gen., St. Paul, Michael O. Freeman, Hennepin County Atty., Michael Richardson, Asst. County Atty., Minneapolis, for respondent.

Heard, considered and decided by the court en banc.

OPINION

ANDERSON, Justice.

On March 6, 1994, the owner of the Snelling Motel in Minneapolis was beaten and then shot to death during the course of an attempted robbery by appellant, Tommie Atkins, and his accomplice, Robert Dixon. Atkins was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder--premeditated murder and intentional murder while committing or attempting to commit aggravated robbery. Prior to trial, the state dismissed the charge of premeditated murder. At trial, a jury found Atkins guilty of the remaining charge of intentional murder while committing or attempting to commit aggravated robbery under Minn.Stat. § 609.185(3) and Minn.Stat. § 609.05, liability for crime by another. On appeal, Atkins argues that the state's evidence is insufficient to support his conviction for first-degree murder, and contends that the prosecutor violated his right to a fair trial by committing misconduct.

Atkins' conviction arises out of an attempted robbery of the Snelling Motel in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On the night of March 6, 1994, the owner of the motel, Wesley Sankey, was beaten on the head with a clothes iron and then shot twice in the face at point-blank range with a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol. The record does not establish who shot Sankey. Atkins confessed to the attempted robbery and admitted beating Sankey with the clothes iron, but denied shooting Sankey or even knowing that he was shot and killed until told so by the police subsequent to his arrest.

On the night Sankey was murdered, Sgt. Michael Green of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) received a 911 call requesting his presence at the Snelling Motel. When he and his partner arrived at the motel, they found Sankey's body slumped against the wall of the utility room located behind the lobby. Sgt. Green investigated the crime scene. On the floor near the lobby counter, Sgt. Green found a registration card with the name "Tony Hamilton" written on it. A bloody boot print was also found on a plastic floor mat in the lobby. Sgt. Green also discovered two spent .25 caliber shell casings and some bullet fragments in the utility room. The unopened cash drawer contained $433.50 and an unopened canvas briefcase containing $1,281.80 in receipts from the previous day was found a few feet from Sankey's body.

The next day, Sgt. Richard Edinger, the MPD officer assigned to investigate Sankey's murder, went to the crime scene. Lacking eyewitnesses or other direct evidence of who committed the murder, Sgt. Edinger focused his investigation on the registration card found by Sgt. Green. This focus for the investigation proved to be fruitful. Forensic testing of the registration card revealed fingerprints which were later identified through a computer search as being Atkins'. Based on the fingerprint match, the handwriting on the registration card was also checked against the known handwriting in Atkins' Hennepin County Economic Assistance file. On March 16, 1994, Sgt. Edinger was told by an MPD forensic document examiner that the handwriting on the registration card matched Atkins'. That same day, Sankey's widow told the police that she had found a third spent .25 caliber shell casing on a wooden shelf above the door in the utility room where Sankey's body was found.

Based on the handwriting and fingerprint matches, Sgt. Edinger obtained a search warrant for Atkins' apartment. But because the police suspected that Atkins did not act alone, they set up a surveillance team to watch Atkins' apartment rather than immediately executing the warrant. After several weeks of fruitless surveillance, the police obtained a second search warrant for Atkins' apartment and arrested Atkins in his apartment on the morning of April 8, 1994. While searching Atkins' apartment, the police seized a pair of boots and a driver's license which was issued in the name of Robert Dixon and which was lying on the apartment floor. The police also seized three jackets, one of which showed traces of stains on the arms and lining.

After the police arrested Atkins, they took him to the homicide division of the MPD where he was interrogated by Sgt. Edinger and Sgt. Steven Berg. Atkins ultimately made three formal statements. In his first formal statement, taken the day of his arrest, Atkins denied any knowledge of the incident, stating that he had never been to the Snelling Motel, did not know where the motel was, and had not been involved in a robbery in the recent past. Although Dixon was not a suspect at this point in the investigation, the police asked Atkins if he knew Dixon. Atkins said no. The police then showed Dixon's driver's license to Atkins, who replied "I know the face, I don't know the name." Atkins also admitted that he had handled or touched a handgun within the past 12 months.

Atkins' second formal statement was taken approximately two and one-half hours later. In this statement, Atkins confessed to the robbery and the beating of Sankey, but not the murder. It was only after Sgt. Edinger told Atkins that fingerprints and handwriting on the registration card placed him at the scene that Atkins admitted that he attempted to rob the motel and did beat Sankey with the clothes iron. Atkins stated that:

I went up to the counter. I asked for a room. He gave me the card to fill out. I started filling out the card. He glanced away. I jumped over the counter. He ran in the back room. I followed. When I went in the back room, he grabbed me and I saw this iron and I grabbed it and I hit him over the head with it. I hit him about 2, 3 times and he fell unconscious and I went back out to the lobby to try to get the cash drawer open. When it wouldn't open after several attempts, I got scared and left. That's it.

Prior to making the second formal statement, Atkins was told by the police that Sankey had been shot and killed. In his second formal statement, Atkins stated that he was "shock[ed]" when he heard this. Asked whether he shot Sankey after striking him with the iron, he replied, "No, I did not." Atkins insisted that he acted alone, stating, "Yes, I acted alone in trying to rob the place, but I did not shoot no one." Atkins added that he drove away from the motel in a Nissan Maxima owned by a woman named "Sherri."

On April 10, 1994, two days after Atkins made his second formal statement, Dixon and his girlfriend, Cheryl Overby, were arrested while driving a Nissan Maxima. After Dixon was arrested, Atkins made his third and final formal statement. In his third statement, Atkins named Dixon as his accomplice. Prior to making his third statement, Atkins was told that Dixon had told the police that Atkins had fired the shots that killed Sankey. Atkins vehemently and repeatedly denied this, stating that "I didn't have no gun, I didn't shoot nobody." Atkins also insisted that there was no plan to shoot anyone, that he had not gone into the motel with a gun, and that he was unaware Dixon had a gun. Contrary to what Dixon told the police, Atkins claims that after beating Sankey with the clothes iron and trying unsuccessfully to open the locked cash drawer, he got "paranoid" and ran out of the motel to the car and waited for Dixon. He admitted hearing noise at some point, but did not know if a gun was being fired.

A Hennepin County Grand Jury indicted Atkins on two counts of first-degree murder: one count for premeditated first-degree murder, and one count for first-degree murder--intentional murder during the course of an aggravated robbery. Prior to trial, the state dismissed the count of premeditated first-degree murder. At trial, because Atkins exercised his constitutional right not to testify, the substance of his three statements was presented to the jury through the testimony of Sgt. Edinger. The three written formal statements were also introduced into evidence. The jury returned a guilty verdict on the remaining charge of first-degree murder--intentional murder during the course of an aggravated robbery, and the judge sentenced Atkins to life imprisonment. On direct appeal to this court, Atkins asserts that the state's evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for first-degree murder, and contends that the prosecutor violated his right to a fair trial by committing misconduct.

I.

Atkins first asserts that the state's evidence was insufficient to support his conviction for first-degree murder under Minn.Stat. §§ 609.185(3) and 609.05 (1994). In reviewing a sufficiency of the evidence claim, this court is limited to ascertaining whether, given the facts in the record and any legitimate inferences that can be drawn from those facts, a jury could reasonably conclude that the defendant was guilty of the charged offense. State v. Merrill, 274 N.W.2d 99, 111 (Minn.1978) (citations omitted). This court does not retry the facts, but instead views the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict and assumes that the jury believed the state's witnesses and disbelieved any evidence to the contrary. State v. Pierson, 530 N.W.2d 784, 787 (Minn.1995). If the jury, giving due regard to the presumption of innocence and to the state's burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, could reasonably have found the defendant guilty, the verdict will...