State v. Dominguez-Ramirez

• Decision Date: 15 May 1997
• Docket Number: A,DOMINGUEZ-RAMIRE,No. C6-96-907,C6-96-907
• Citation: 563 N.W.2d 245
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Franciscoppellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 245

563 N.W.2d 245

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Francisco DOMINGUEZ-RAMIREZ, Appellant.

No. C6-96-907.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

May 15, 1997.

Syllabus by the Court

District court did not err in determining that a Spanish-speaking defendant validly waived his right against self-incrimination when Spanish-speaking police officers read the defendant his Miranda rights in Spanish three times and the defendant signed a form containing a Spanish version of the Miranda warning.

District court did not err in determining that violations of Minn.Stat. §§ 611.30-.33 (1996) did not warrant suppression of a defendant's statement to police.

District court did not err in determining that there was no evidence that the police used an interrogation technique that was unduly coercive, deceptive, or stress-inducing and did not err in determining that the defendant's statement was voluntary.

The evidence is sufficient to sustain the jury's verdict of guilty of aiding and abetting first-degree murder.

John M. Stuart, Minnesota State Public Defender, Sharon E. Jacks, Assistant State Public Defender, Minneapolis, for Appellant.

Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Minnesota Attorney General, St. Paul, James C. Backstrom, Dakota County Attorney, Phillip D. Prokopowicz, Assistant Dakota County Attorney, Hastings, for Respondent.

Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.

OPINION

ANDERSON, Justice.

On April 24, 1995, Hector Vasquez was found shot to death in West St. Paul, Minnesota. A complaint and warrant were issued for the arrest of appellant Francisco Dominguez-Ramirez, charging him with aiding and abetting Vasquez's murder. Ramirez was arrested in Kansas for Vasquez's murder on July 7, 1995. While in Kansas, Ramirez made an incriminating statement to police in response to custodial interrogation. Prior to trial, Ramirez moved to suppress this statement. The district court denied Ramirez's motion and admitted the statement at trial. A jury found Ramirez guilty of one count of aiding and abetting first-degree murder and three counts of aiding and abetting second-degree murder. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment on the charge of aiding and abetting first-degree murder. Ramirez appeals his conviction, arguing that he did not validly waive his rights against self-incrimination, that his statement was involuntary, and that there is insufficient evidence to sustain the jury's verdict. We affirm.

On April 24, 1995, at about 5:30 p.m., Danny Dugger was working in his garage when he heard a gunshot coming from inside a nearby house located at 246 East Annapolis in West St. Paul. Dugger's 14-year-old son Brandon was in the backyard and heard the same gunshot. Dugger and Brandon agreed that, shortly after the gunshot, two Hispanic men left 246 East Annapolis through the back door and appeared to have trouble closing the door. Brandon believed that the shorter man appeared to be trying to push something inside the door. Brandon had seen the shorter man at 246 East Annapolis on three or four prior occasions. Dugger and Brandon agreed that the two men walked down the sidewalk, got into a gold Malibu, and drove away down the alley. Dugger and Brandon had seen the Malibu at the house on several occasions prior to the shooting. Dugger is employed selling used cars and he gave detailed testimony describing the Malibu.

Dugger called 911 immediately using a portable phone. He then watched the house at 246 East Annapolis until the police came and did not see anyone else come out of the house or see any other vehicles leave the area. Brandon subsequently identified Ramirez from a photographic lineup as the shorter man who was attempting to push something inside the door and as the driver of the Malibu. Brandon was unable to identify Ramirez at trial; he testified that Ramirez "look[ed] to be" about the same as the shorter man, but he was not sure.

Also at about 5:30 p.m., another neighbor, Arlin Bohn, heard "what sounded like bangs" coming from the back of his home and heard another noise shortly thereafter. Bohn looked out a window and saw two Hispanic men walk down the sidewalk in back of 246 East Annapolis, get into a light brown or tan car, and leave. Bohn agreed with Dugger and Brandon that one of the men was taller than the other and agreed with Dugger that the taller man walked in front of the shorter man. He also agreed with Brandon that the shorter man drove the car.

Officers of the West St. Paul Police Department arrived within minutes after the gunshots. While one officer went around to the front of 246 East Annapolis, a second police officer approached from the rear and noticed a fresh trail of blood from the back door of the house to the alley, including a bloody smear on the back door and bloody shoeprints. The word "Reebok" was clearly imprinted in the treadprint on the sidewalk. Additional officers arrived within minutes, and when the officers opened the back door, they saw Vasquez lying on the floor with a large pool of blood near his head. There was a revolver lying on his body. Vasquez had been shot five times--the cause of death was a gunshot to his head. Police noticed what appeared to be vomit on Vasquez's pants leg. When the police entered, no one else was in the house and the front door was locked.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) determined that the revolver found on the body was the murder weapon, that five bullets had been fired, that the bullets recovered from Vasquez and the crime scene were all fired from the revolver, that the serial number had been scratched off the revolver, and that the revolver contained the fingerprint of Alonso Chavez. There was a bloody shoeprint on Vasquez's shirt. The BCA also discovered blood in the hallway of the residence, on the floor atop the basement stairs, and near the body inside the back door. No blood was found in the other rooms on the main floor. There were blood spatters on the exterior of the back door, but no blood spatters on the interior. A forensic scientist for the BCA testified that the blood spatters included a "contact pattern" where a bloody object came into contact with the door. As a result of the blood spatter evidence, the forensic scientist opined that the door was open when the blood was shed.

One of the bullets found at the scene was lodged in the stairway panelling, at the top of the stairs, just inside the basement door. Another bullet was lodged in the ceiling. Although the forensic expert said he could not be certain, he testified that this second bullet appeared to have been fired from the basement stairway. Based upon the location of these two bullets, the forensic scientist opined that one or two shots had been fired from the basement, towards the stairs.

As a result of an investigation involving officers from several police departments, the police believed that a group of Hispanic men staying at the Boyd Motel in Newport, Minnesota may have been involved in Vasquez's murder and that Ramirez was a possible suspect. The manager of the motel told a police officer that a group of four to six Hispanic men had been staying in a room at the motel. The registration card for the room listed the license number of the occupants' vehicle, and the manager remembered that the vehicle was a black Ford Taurus station wagon. The police subsequently learned that the black Taurus belonged to Chavez. The manager identified Ramirez from a photographic lineup and at trial as one of the men he had seen in or around the motel room. The manager testified that he saw Ramirez at the motel about five to ten times--the last time being on April 25 or 26, 1995. The manager also identified Chavez from another photographic lineup and said that he saw Chavez and Ramirez together in and around the motel room. It is not clear when the manager saw Chavez and Ramirez together, but the room had been rented to the group of men from April 14 to 25, 1995.

Ramirez came to the United States in the fall of 1994, when he was 18 years old. Ramirez is a Mexican citizen who speaks very little English. After spending about a week in Kansas, he moved to Minnesota to live with his cousin at 246 East Annapolis. A few days after Ramirez arrived in Minnesota, he and his cousin moved to another residence, but Ramirez subsequently returned to 246 East Annapolis. His cousin continued to pay rent on 246 East Annapolis and Ramirez was expected to clean it. Ramirez had a key to 246 East Annapolis in April 1995.

On May 10, 1995, a complaint and warrant were issued for the arrest of Ramirez, charging him with aiding and abetting murder in the second degree. ¹ Ramirez was arrested on July 7, 1995, in Liberal, Kansas. Jesus Martinez, a Spanish-speaking Liberal police officer, administered a Miranda warning to Ramirez at about 1:20 a.m., at the scene of his arrest. Martinez administered a second warning to Ramirez at the police station. Martinez read each Miranda warning verbatim from a card that contained a Spanish version of the warning. After the second warning, Ramirez signed a form containing a Spanish version of the Miranda warning. Martinez did not take a statement from Ramirez.

The Kansas authorities contacted the Minnesota authorities the day that Ramirez was arrested. Steven Hanson, a sergeant with the West St. Paul Police, and Eugene Leatherman, a special agent with the BCA, flew to Kansas that same day. Hanson and Leatherman knew before the interview that Ramirez did not speak English. Neither Hanson nor Leatherman understands more than a word or phrase of Spanish.

The Kansas police agreed to provide an interpreter for the interrogation of Ramirez. Alejo Lagunas, a Spanish-speaking Liberal police officer, was summoned to the police station to serve as an interpreter. Lagunas had not been involved in the investigation and was told only that some Minnesota officers were working on a homicide case and needed an interpreter. Lagunas informed...