State v. Crowsbreast
| Decision Date | 12 July 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. C8-99-1913.,C8-99-1913. |
| Citation | 629 N.W.2d 433 |
| Parties | STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Burr CROWSBREAST, III, Appellant. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
John M. Stuart, State Public Defender, Theodora Gaitas, Asst. State Public Defender, Minneapolis, attorney for appellant.
Mike Hatch, Attorney General, James B. Early, Asst. Attorney General, St. Paul, and Thomas G. Kramer, Yellow Medicine County Attorney, Granite Falls, attorney for respondent.
Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.
A Yellow Medicine County jury found Burr Crowsbreast, III guilty of first-degree domestic abuse homicide, first-degree premeditated murder, second-degree intentional murder, second-degree felony murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault for beating his girlfriend Latisha Brien to death with a baseball bat. While he was incarcerated and awaiting trial, Crowsbreast voluntarily confessed to killing Brien. At trial, counsel for Crowsbreast did not deny that Crowsbreast killed Brien; the only issue argued was the degree to which he was culpable for the murder. The trial court entered judgment of conviction on the charge of domestic abuse homicide, Minn.Stat. § 609.185(6) (2000), and sentenced Crowsbreast to life in prison.
On appeal from his judgment of conviction, Crowsbreast argues that the jury instructions given at trial violated his federal due process rights and state law because: (1) the trial court failed to instruct the jury that the predicate acts forming the "past pattern" of domestic abuse must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt; and (2) the court failed to instruct the jury that it must unanimously agree on which predicate acts formed the past pattern of domestic abuse. Lastly, Crowsbreast argues that the jury verdicts of guilty of domestic abuse homicide and premeditated murder are legally inconsistent, and he requests a new trial. We affirm.
Appellant Burr Crowsbreast dated the victim, Latisha Brien, on and off for approximately one and a half years before she was killed. Brien resided with Crowsbreast in Granite Falls periodically, most recently from November 4, 1998, until her death on January 15, 1999. The couple also had a son.
On January 14, 1999, Crowsbreast had been drinking with friends. He joined Brien, her uncle Larry Brien and Larry's wife, Phylliss Little Creek (Crowsbreast's half-sister), at a bar in Maynard at about 8:00 p.m. Crowsbreast and Brien continued drinking until about 11:00 p.m. at which point Larry Brien and Phylliss drove them home. About 15 minutes after being dropped off, Brien knocked on the door of Larry's and Phylliss's nearby trailer and said that she had been fighting with Crowsbreast. Brien stayed for a while and then returned to Crowsbreast's trailer. She asked Larry to call her in the morning.
When Larry called Brien in the morning, she did not answer her cellular phone. Larry then called Crowsbreast. Crowsbreast said that Brien left in the middle of the night after an argument and that he had not seen her since. He also said that Brien was not scheduled to work that weekend, which Larry soon found out was false. Larry became concerned that Brien was missing because she did not have a car or money and she missed work. He called the police and reported Brien missing on January 18, 1999.
The police searched Crowsbreast's trailer. They found a large bloodstain on the mattress in Crowsbreast's bedroom. There was also blood on the floor, walls, and ceiling. The police eventually found Brien's body buried in a garbage pile outside a nearby trailer. The cause of death was multiple traumatic injuries, including severe skull fractures. The medical examiner determined that Brien had been struck at least 37 times with a blunt instrument consistent with a baseball bat. The police later recovered a baseball bat that had traces of the victim's blood on it from a crawl space in Crowsbreast's trailer.
Crowsbreast was indicted for Latisha Brien's murder on February 19, 1999. On April 7, 1999, while he was in custody, Crowsbreast was viewing the state's photographs of the murder scene under the supervision of a sheriff's deputy. While viewing the photographs, he gave an account of what happened on the night of January 14. Crowsbreast stated that he and Brien were arguing and that she threw a shoe at him. He became enraged, got a baseball bat, and beat Brien to death with the bat. This statement contrasts with an earlier statement that Crowsbreast made on January 20, 1999, where he admitted involvement in the murder but implicated Larry Brien.
At trial, in connection with the first-degree domestic abuse homicide charge, the state presented four incidents of abuse as evidence of the past pattern of domestic abuse required under Minn.Stat. § 609.185(6). Three of the incidents were supported by Brien's statements about the incidents. The trial court admitted most of the testimony regarding what Brien said as an exception to the hearsay rule under State v. Grube, 531 N.W.2d 484, 489 (Minn. 1995), because the declarant was unavailable and the statements were supported by "particularized guarantees of trustworthiness."
Police officers testified as to the first incident, which occurred on February 15, 1998. At about 1:15 a.m., police officers saw a truck stopped in the middle of the road and Brien getting out of it and running down the road away from the truck. Distressed and crying, Brien reported to the officers that she and Crowsbreast had been arguing, he assaulted her, hurt her arm, and dumped her out of the truck. After making sure that Brien was okay, the officers drove her to the residence where her children were.
The officers testified that about a half hour later they were called to the address where they had dropped Brien off earlier. The officers found Brien lying on the driveway, and she appeared to be in pain. Brien and a witness, who also testified at the trial, told the officers that Crowsbreast had kicked Brien in the head and chest, and the officer testified that he saw footprints on Brien's chest and abdomen. Crowsbreast pleaded guilty to assault and admitted during the sentencing that he had kicked Brien in the head and face and had assaulted her in the truck.
Brien's mother testified as to the second incident. In March 1998, Brien was visiting her mother in Montana. Brien's mother testified that Brien had a wound on her hand that had become infected and was quite painful. Brien was then hospitalized for four days because of the wound. She told her mother and the treating physician that Crowsbreast had stabbed her.
Another witness testified as to the third incident, which occurred on November 18, 1998, when the witness was in a hotel room drinking with Crowsbreast and Brien. The witness testified that Crowsbreast and Brien began arguing and when Brien got up to leave, Crowsbreast grabbed her and Brien stumbled backward and fell, breaking the back off a chair. The police were called, but Brien did not want to file a complaint.
A battered women's advocate testified as to the fourth incident of abuse, which occurred on December 31, 1998. Brien recounted the incident to the advocate at a clinic where Brien received treatment for her injuries. Brien said she had been drinking at a friend's house and passed out on the couch. She woke up in Crowsbreast's trailer with no clothes on, and she was in a lot of pain. She then went outside and found Crowsbreast trying to hang himself from a tree. She cut him down and took him inside. He began cutting his wrists saying over and over, "I'm so sorry for what I did to you." Then Crowsbreast started to verbally abuse and physically assault Brien who then left and went to Larry Brien's and Phylliss Little Creek's trailer. When she arrived, Brien had a mouth full of blood, blood on her shirt, and a black eye. She was taken to the clinic a few hours later where she received 15 stitches in her mouth.
The jury found Crowsbreast guilty of first-degree domestic abuse homicide, first-degree premeditated murder, second-degree intentional murder, second-degree felony murder, and first- and second-degree assault. A judgment of conviction was entered on the first-degree domestic abuse homicide charge. In order to convict someone of first-degree domestic abuse homicide under Minn.Stat. § 609.185(6), the state must prove that the defendant: (1) caused the death of another; (2) while committing domestic abuse; (3) under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life; and (4) engaged in a past pattern of domestic abuse upon the victim. Domestic abuse is defined as an act that constitutes one of several forms of assault, criminal sexual conduct, terroristic threats, or similar acts, and is committed against a household or family member. Minn.Stat. § 609.185 (2000).
Crowsbreast first argues that the trial court erred by not instructing the jury that each incident of abuse alleged to comprise the past pattern of domestic abuse must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Although he did not request that instruction, Crowsbreast argues on appeal that a recent United States Supreme Court decision, Richardson v. United States, 526 U.S. 813, 119 S.Ct. 1707, 143 L.Ed.2d 985 (1999), supports his position. Thus, a threshold issue is whether Crowsbreast, by failing to request the instruction, waived his right to raise this issue on appeal.
Rule 26.03, subd. 18(3) of the rules of criminal procedure prohibits a party from "assign[ing] as error any portion of the charge or omission" unless the party objects to the instructions before they are given to the jury. State v. Cross, 577 N.W.2d 721, 726 (Minn.1998). However, even when there was no objection to the jury instructions at trial, we have discretion to consider a claim of error on appeal if there was "plain error affecting substantial rights" or an error of fundamental law in the jury instructions. State v. Malaski, 330 N.W.2d 447, 451 (Minn....
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