State v. Fields

• Citation: 679 N.W.2d 341
• Decision Date: 20 May 2004
• Docket Number: No. C0-03-163.,C0-03-163.
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Victor Donnell FIELDS, Appellant.
• Court: Supreme Court of Minnesota (US)

679 N.W.2d 341

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Victor Donnell FIELDS, Appellant.

No. C0-03-163.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

May 20, 2004.

Sharon Elizabeth Jacks, Assistant State Public Defender, Minneapolis, MN, for Appellant.

Mike A. Hatch, Minnesota Attorney General, Amy Jean Klobuchar, Hennepin County Attorney, Donna J. Wolfson, Assistant County Attorney, Minneapolis, MN, for Respondent.

Heard, considered and decided by the court en banc.

OPINION

ANDERSON, RUSSELL A., Justice.

Appellant Victor Donnell Fields was convicted and sentenced in Hennepin County District Court for the crimes of first-degree murder, in violation of Minn. Stat. § 609.185(a)(1) (2002), and attempted first-degree murder, in violation of Minn. Stat. §§ 609.185(a)(1) and 609.17, subd. 1 (2002), in connection with the death of LeTerrance Paige and injury to Keinon Love. On appeal, Fields claims that he was denied a fair trial by the admission of various hearsay statements, that the evidence was insufficient to support the convictions and that the calculation of the duration of his sentence was erroneous. We affirm as modified.

On December 6, 2001, at approximately 3:45 in the afternoon, a city bus was picking up passengers at the bus stop located at 63rd and Zane Avenue in Brooklyn Park. As the driver was about to close the doors and leave, a young man leaned in the front door and fired four shots from a semiautomatic pistol into the full bus, killing 22-year-old LeTerrance Paige and critically wounding 21-year-old Keinon Love. The shooter fled, firing four more rounds into the side of the bus, and ran toward the entrance of the Eden Park Apartments complex north of the bus stop.

Law enforcement officers responded within minutes, tending to the victims and securing the scene. Officers from Brooklyn Park, the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department, Metropolitan Transit Commission police, North Hennepin County Drug Task Force and Brooklyn Center collected evidence, including eight spent.45-caliber cartridge casings ejected from the same semiautomatic, and interviewed witnesses who described the shooter as wearing a black "puffy" down jacket, black winter cap and tan boots. Based on information that the shooter had run to apartment 205 in the building located at 6345 Zane in the Eden Park complex, four officers went to that apartment but found no one who matched the description of the shooter. Other officers formed teams to methodically canvass the entire Eden Park complex for witnesses. The following day, officers rode the same bus route looking for witnesses who may have been overlooked or who had not yet come forward.

During the investigation, the police learned that there had been an earlier incident involving Paige that might lead to information concerning the shooting. Shortly after Thanksgiving, about a week before the shooting, three men robbed 16-year-old Dennis Johnson in front of the convenience store near the same bus stop at 63rd and Zane. Johnson was at that location with Fields' cousin, Edward, and when Edward ran, the three men grabbed Johnson. One of the men pistol-whipped Johnson and took his leather coat, house keys and some money. There was testimony that Fields was later overheard saying that he "had something" for the person who "did the robbery".

Based on this lead, police interviewed Johnson, who stated that he was sitting on the bench at the bus stop on the day of the shooting when Edward approached and, referring to Paige who was near the entrance to the Eden Park complex, said "isn't that the guy who stuck us up?" Johnson said he thought so. Edward walked back toward the store. There was evidence that Edward then "rented" a cell phone for 50 cents and placed a call to the phone number listed to Fields in apartment 205. Johnson told police that, as the bus pulled up, Paige and his girlfriend started walking to the front of the bus and they were followed by Fields, who stopped near the bench to ask Edward and Johnson "like, where he at?" According to Johnson's statement, after Edward and Johnson motioned toward Paige, Fields walked to the bus, pulled out a semiautomatic gun and started shooting.

As part of the investigation, the police gathered surveillance videotapes from the Eden Park Apartments complex, a check cashing business at a strip mall immediately south of the bus stop and from the convenience store near the bus stop. The surveillance tapes from the day of the shooting showed Fields running toward the bus stop shortly after the cell phone call that Edward placed to Fields' apartment. The tapes showed the bus arriving, people running from the bus stop and then Fields running through the back door of the apartment building and up the stairway to his apartment. The tapes showed Fields wearing clothing that matched the description of the clothing worn by the shooter.

On December 13, 2001, Fields was charged by complaint for murder and assault, an arrest warrant issued and law enforcement attempted to locate him "absolutely everywhere and anywhere." On January 19, 2002, Fields was apprehended in Chicago Heights, Illinois and was subsequently indicted by a grand jury for first-and second-degree murder in the death of Paige, and attempted first- and second-degree murder and first- and second-degree assault in the injury to Love.

While in jail awaiting trial, Fields' telephone privileges were limited to access to his attorneys after he had made threatening calls to several of the state's witnesses, including a threatening call to Dennis Johnson, to the mother of a 10-year-old witness and to a former Hennepin County jail inmate who overheard Fields talk about shooting someone in Brooklyn Park in retaliation for a pistol whipping. At trial, Fields elected not to testify on his own behalf, and instead elicited the testimony of a witness to the shooting to cast doubt on evidence of identity. The jury found Fields guilty as charged. The district court entered judgments of conviction for the first-degree murder of Paige and the attempted first-degree murder of Love and imposed consecutive sentences. This appeal followed.

I.

Fields initially challenges the admission of the statements to police and the grand jury testimony of Johnson, who refused to testify at trial. Fields asserts that the evidence was inadmissible under the evidentiary rules and was also barred by the Confrontation Clause. At trial Fields had objected to the admission of both Johnson's grand jury testimony and his earlier statements to the police, but he requested that the police statements be admitted if the court admitted the grand jury testimony. Consequently, the focus of his appeal is on the grand jury testimony. Evidentiary rulings are committed to the district court's discretion and will not be reversed absent a clear abuse of that discretion. State v. Litzau, 650 N.W.2d 177, 182 (Minn.2002) (citing State v. Bjork, 610 N.W.2d 632, 636 (Minn.2000)). Although appellate courts review the presence or absence of historical facts for clear error, the surrounding circumstances relevant to a Sixth Amendment determination are reviewed de novo. Lilly v. Virginia, 527 U.S. 116, 136-37, 119 S.Ct. 1887, 144 L.Ed.2d 117 (1999).

Evidentiary Rules

Dennis Johnson testified before the grand jury and repeated some of the information contained in his statements to police. At trial, he testified briefly but refused to continue, stating that he feared reprisals. After hearing evidence that was highly suggestive of threats and intimidating overtures directed toward Johnson by Fields, the district court concluded that the grand jury testimony, which was clearly hearsay, was admissible under Minn. R. Evid. 804(b)(5).

Rule 804 sets out those situations in which hearsay statements can be used when the declarant's in-court testimony is unavailable. The rule includes four traditional exceptions to the hearsay rule and then the so-called "catchall" exception that provides:

Other exceptions. A statement not specifically covered by any of the foregoing exceptions but having equivalent circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness, if the court determines that (A) the statement is offered as evidence of a material fact; (B) the statement is more probative on the point for which it is offered than any other evidence which the proponent can procure through reasonable efforts; and (C) the general purposes of these rules and the interests of justice will best be served by admission of the statement into evidence. However, a statement may not be admitted under this exception unless the proponent of it makes known to the adverse party sufficiently in advance of trial or hearing to provide the adverse party with a fair opportunity to prepare to meet it, the proponent's intention to offer the statement and the particulars of it, including the name, address, and present whereabouts of the declarant.

Minn. R. Evid. 804(b)(5). Here, there is no dispute that Johnson's in-court testimony was unavailable.

To be admissible under Rule 804(b)(5), a statement must have "circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness" equivalent to those inherent in the other four exceptions of Rule 804(b). Such guarantees of trustworthiness must "be drawn from the totality of circumstances that surround the making of the statement and that render the declarant particularly worthy of belief." Idaho v. Wright, 497 U.S. 805, 820, 110 S.Ct. 3139, 111 L.Ed.2d 638 (1990); see 4 Christopher B. Mueller & Laird C. Kirkpatrick, Federal Evidence § 506 (2d ed.1994).

Here, in finding a strong indication of reliability in Johnson's testimony, the district court considered that while Johnson was a reluctant witness, his testimony was ultimately voluntary; that there was no relationship to Fields that would make the testimony suspect; that Johnson was relating facts based on personal knowledge so there was no reliance on possible erroneous secondary information; that the testimony was consistent with...