State v. Bolstad
| Decision Date | 23 September 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. A03-832.,A03-832. |
| Citation | 686 N.W.2d 531 |
| Parties | STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Jason Lee BOLSTAD, Appellant. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Timothy R. Anderson, Frederic Bruno & Associates, Minneapolis, MN, for Appellant.
Mike Hatch, Minnesota Attorney General, Kelly O'Neill Moller, Assistant Attorney General, St. Paul, MN, Norman J. Loren, Kanabec County Attorney, Mora, MN, for Respondent.
Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.
ANDERSON, PAUL H., Justice.
On April 2, 2003, a Kanabec County jury found Jason Lee Bolstad guilty of first-degree murder for the April 2, 1996 death of his father, Gary Bolstad. The Kanabec County District Court then sentenced Bolstad to life in prison. Bolstad appeals his conviction, arguing the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support his conviction, the court abused its discretion in denying his request to recall a witness, and the state committed misconduct by making several unduly prejudicial statements during the course of the trial. We affirm.
Sometime after 9:00 p.m. on April 2, 1996, Larry Elwood received a telephone call from Patricia Reissig, n/k/a Patricia Sinn. Sinn asked Elwood to check on Gary Bolstad, her fiancee, because he had failed to show up for a 5:30 dinner engagement. Elwood was a friend of Gary Bolstad's and both lived in the Devil's Lake area of Kanabec County. Sinn lived in Anoka County. At approximately 9:45 p.m., Elwood found Gary Bolstad's body lying at the base of the porch of Bolstad's home. Elwood went to a neighbor's house to summon help. Officers from the Kanabec County Sheriff's Department soon arrived and secured the area. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) was contacted and led the subsequent investigation.
Gary Bolstad had been shot a number of times. His wounds from these shots were not life-threatening, and a medical examiner determined he remained conscious after being shot. The examiner also determined that Bolstad was struck a minimum of 24 times in the head with a blunt object. The subsequent medical examination determined that the cause of Bolstad's death was blunt trauma to the head. When Bolstad's body was found, his wallet was missing from the back pocket of his pants and the lining of his right front pants pocket was pulled out. Bolstad reportedly often carried a large amount of cash in that pocket.
On April 3, 1996, investigators interviewed Gary Bolstad's youngest son, appellant Jason Bolstad, who was then 19 years old. Jason Bolstad told investigators that he had an apartment in Blaine, but stated that during the days before and the day of April 2, 1996, he had been staying with his girlfriend, Lisa LeTourneau, at her apartment in Hudson, Wisconsin. Lisa LeTourneau's sister, Angie LeTourneau, was also staying at the apartment to take care of Lisa LeTourneau's son. Bolstad stated he had gotten up at around 10:30 a.m. on the day of his father's murder, went to a local McDonald's to eat, and returned to LeTourneau's apartment around noon. Bolstad stated that, when he returned, he found his friend William "Billy" VonWald at the apartment. VonWald, a high school senior, was dating Angie LeTourneau and had stopped by the apartment to visit her during his lunch period.
Jason Bolstad then told investigators that he spent the afternoon of April 2 sleeping and watching movies. He said that at 4:00 p.m., VonWald stopped by the apartment on his way to work at a Wendy's restaurant and they watched movies for about an hour. Bolstad stated that, after VonWald finished work later that evening, he and VonWald went to a nearby store to shop. On April 4, 1996, Angie LeTourneau told investigators that Bolstad was in the Hudson apartment throughout the day on April 2, and VonWald stated that he saw Bolstad at the apartment at noon that day and again after work.
Jason Bolstad also told investigators about a 1995 incident when he and his father were outside his father's Devil's Lake home. Someone apparently shot at his father from across the lake and the bullet hit a nearby tire. According to Jason Bolstad, his father told him not to tell anybody about the incident.
In an effort to ascertain the time of death, investigators interviewed the garbage service route driver who collected Gary Bolstad's garbage on April 2. The garbage had been collected that day at approximately 12:45 p.m. The driver picked up the garbage from a garbage can at the end of the driveway and said that he did not notice anything unusual. The garbage can had been returned to its usual place near the house. The investigators concluded that Gary Bolstad apparently had put the garbage can away some time following the pick-up.
On two occasions in early April, investigators interviewed Gary Bolstad's neighbor Kathryn Harrison, n/k/a Kathryn Buzzell. Buzzell had arrived home from work on April 2 at 6:10 p.m. She noticed a vehicle in Gary Bolstad's driveway when she drove past his home. Buzzell, who worked at an auto body shop, told investigators that she recognized customers more by their cars than by their names. She said she thought the vehicle she saw in the driveway was an "older body style" Ford Ranger pick-up. She said a fence surrounding most of Gary Bolstad's property obstructed her view of the vehicle and this resulted in her being able to see only the vehicle's tailgate and some of its rear fender. She identified the vehicle as a Ford Ranger based on its body style, the "lines around the tailgate," and "the chrome panel across the tailgate." Buzzell said she did not pay attention to the vehicle's color.
David Harrison, Buzzell's husband at the time of the murder, also told authorities that he saw a vehicle in Gary Bolstad's driveway. Harrison described the vehicle and said he was absolutely certain that it was a Ford Ranger. Harrison did not testify at Jason Bolstad's trial, but his identification of the vehicle as a Ford Ranger and the fact that Harrison had familiarity with vehicles from his work as an insurance adjuster was introduced through the testimony of the investigator who interviewed him in April 1996.
On April 10, 1996, investigators recovered Gary Bolstad's bank card and other items that had been in his wallet. Two boys found these items in Andover in Anoka County while they were riding their bicycles. The location where the items were found was approximately one block away from the home of Gary Bolstad's oldest son, Jeff Bolstad. Jeff Bolstad is Jason Bolstad's half-brother.
On April 14 and 15, 1996, investigators interviewed Adam Sundermeyer. Adam Sundermeyer's sister, Mandi Sundermeyer, had been dating Jason Bolstad until a few weeks before Gary Bolstad's death. Adam Sundermeyer told investigators of two conversations he had with Jason Bolstad before Gary Bolstad's murder. The first conversation took place on a road in Stanchfield, Minnesota, in the Spring of 1995. Sundermeyer stated that during this conversation Jason Bolstad offered Sundermeyer $10,000 to kill his father because he was mad at him.
The second conversation took place as the two shared a case of beer at Jason Bolstad's Blaine apartment. This conversation was within a month before Gary Bolstad's murder. Adam Sundermeyer told investigators that in this conversation Bolstad offered Sundermeyer $5,000 to kill his father, but did not say why he wanted his father killed. During this conversation, Bolstad referred to his father as a "prick" and also said he was planning to sell his truck to come up with the $5,000. In this conversation, Sundermeyer and Bolstad discussed shooting Bolstad's father with a rifle from a location across Devil's Lake — a location suggested by Bolstad. They also discussed using a specific size and caliber of rifle and the need for a scope sight and tripod. Sundermeyer testified later that he did not believe Bolstad was serious in either conversation. Sundermeyer did mention the conversations to his mother, but she could not recall if he mentioned them before or after Gary Bolstad's murder. Sundermeyer's mother did not go to a law enforcement agency with the information.
Adam Sundermeyer's girlfriend was with him in Jason Bolstad's apartment at the time of the second conversation and overheard parts of the conversation. The girlfriend stated at trial that Jason Bolstad's request for Sundermeyer to kill Gary Bolstad came across to her as a joke and she said that during the conversation Sundermeyer "laughed it off" as a joke. The girlfriend also stated that Jason Bolstad had said he did not like his father and would like to have him dead.
Mandi Sundermeyer testified at trial that on "a few occasions" Jason Bolstad stated that he wished his father were dead because then he would be rich and would not have to work anymore. She stated that she did not take Jason Bolstad seriously and thought he was joking when he made the statement. She also stated that she believed money was important to Jason Bolstad because he talked about it frequently.
Jeff Bolstad testified that, about a month before his father's murder, Jason Bolstad told him that he was mad because their father would not help him replace his current Chevy truck with a Dodge Dakota. During this conversation, Jason Bolstad stated he wished their father were dead. Jeff Bolstad's wife, Kristine Bolstad, was present when Jason Bolstad made the statement and testified that she thought he was "just a hostile kid being mad at his parent."
On April 16, 1996, Jeff Bolstad, Jason Bolstad, and Gary Bolstad's parents went to the Kanabec State Bank to redeem Gary Bolstad's certificates of deposit (CDs) and close his other bank accounts. Gary Bolstad had named his sons and parents as the payable-on-death beneficiaries of the CDs. Jeff and Jason Bolstad received $104,525.67 and $87,222.02 respectively from the CDs. Gary Bolstad's parents received $158,758.43 total from the CDs and the other bank accounts. Jason Bolstad and Gary Bolstad's parents also were the...
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