State v. Griffin, A12–0823.
| Decision Date | 31 July 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. A12–0823.,A12–0823. |
| Parties | STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Derrick Trevor GRIFFIN, Appellant. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Syllabus by the Court
1. The district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that a statement made by appellant's wife was admissible under Minn. R. Evid. 807.
2. Defendant did not meet his burden of establishing a subjective expectation of privacy in cell phone records that police obtained from a cell phone provider without a warrant.
Lori Swanson, Attorney General, Saint Paul, MN; and Michael O. Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney, Linda K. Jenny, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney, Minneapolis, MN, for respondent.
Bruce Rivers, Rivers & Associates P.A., Minneapolis, MN, for appellant.
A jury found appellant Derrick Griffin guilty of first-degree murder by drive-by shooting, in violation of Minn.Stat. §§ 609.185(a)(3), 609.11 (2012), and first-degree premeditated murder, in violation of Minn.Stat. §§ 609.185(a)(1), 609.11, 609.106, subd. 2(1) (2012), in connection with the death of Kristopher Miller. In this direct appeal, Griffin argues that the jury's verdict must be reversed because of the erroneous admission of out-of-court statements made by his wife, Kim Griffin,1 and cell phone records obtained without a warrant. Because we conclude that the district court did not err in admitting the statement or the cell phone records, we affirm. 2
On the night of May 10, 2011, Kristopher Miller was shot to death on the front porch of his home in Minneapolis. At the time of his death, Miller was in a romantic relationship with Griffin's wife, Kim. Prior to the murder, Griffin had discovered sexually explicit text messages on Kim's cell phone and thought Kim was seeing someone who worked at the Elks Club, which is located on Plymouth Avenue in North Minneapolis. On the evening of May 10, 2011, Kim was at the Elks Club with a group that included Miller; Miller's sister, L.M.; and L.M.'s boyfriend, L.B. When the group left the Elks Club at 11:15 p.m., they saw a white four-door Cadillac sedan parked across the street from the front door of the club. After seeing the vehicle, Kim said to the group “[l]ook at my husband over there, stalking me again.” L.M. and L.B. also noticed the white four-door Cadillac but were unable to see if the vehicle was occupied and could not later identify the Cadillac specifically as Griffin's vehicle. After Kim's comment, Miller walked Kim to her car, gave her a hug, got into his truck, and drove away toward his home. L.M. and L.B. also left and none of the witnesses saw the Cadillac move.
Miller's home was “a couple blocks away” from the Elks Club. Three of Miller's neighbors heard gunshots at approximately 11:30 p.m., and two of the neighbors called 911. The same two neighbors saw a light colored large sedan similar to a Cadillac backing down Irving Avenue, the street on which Miller lived. Shortly thereafter, Miller was found dead on the front porch of his duplex. Miller died from multiple gunshot wounds to the back.
Upon arriving at the scene, police and officials from the Minneapolis crime lab searched the area for evidence but did not recover any shell casings or bullets. The lack of shell casings indicated to police that a revolver was most likely the type of gun used in the shooting. Police also spoke with L.M., who told the police she was with L.B., Miller, and Kim at the Elks Club that evening, and that Kim had made a statement that she had a stalker. Police confirmed Kim's identity and also discovered that Griffin was the registered owner of a 1996 white four-door Cadillac Sedan DeVille.3
When police contacted Kim, she gave them the number for a cell phone that was associated with Griffin and indicated that Sprint was the cell phone provider for that phone. Kim also told police that Griffin was aware of her relationship with Miller and that she thought she had seen Griffin at the Elks Club that evening. Additionally, Kim told police that after she left the Elks Club, she made and received calls on her cell phone to and from Griffin at 11:30, 11:46, 11:49, and 11:55 p.m. on May 10, related to why she saw Griffin outside the Elks Club. Kim told police that she did not need to tell Griffin she was on her way home from the Elks Club “because he would have already known that.”
Based on their investigation, police suspected that Griffin was the perpetrator. But police had not recovered the murder weapon, and they did not know if anyone other than Miller was a target. Police therefore focused on trying to ascertain Griffin's location, and faxed an “exigent circumstances request” to Sprint/Nextel at 5:36 a.m. on May 11, 2011. For the phone Griffin was reported to be using, police requested the subscriber information, call detail records with cell-site information for the past week, and information showing the current location of the phone and its location over the past 14 days. To describe the exigent circumstances, police wrote 4
The records police received from Sprint/Nextel revealed that the subscriber for the phone associated with Griffin was Griffin's girlfriend, not Griffin. In fact, Griffin's name was not listed on any of the cell phone records. Additionally, the records showed that the phone “was turned on, it was being used, and that it was hitting off cell site towers that [we]re in the proximity of where the murder happened” at the time the shots were fired. Specifically, a call was made from the phone approximately 25 minutes prior to the shooting that pinged off of a tower across the street from the Elks Club and showed that the phone was 1.88 miles away from the tower.
The Sprint/Nextel records also established that, as of the morning of May 11, the phone was located at Griffin's girlfriend's residence in Columbia Heights. Police arrested Griffin at a gas station in Columbia Heights after observing him leave his girlfriend's residence.
After arresting Griffin, police searched his girlfriend's residence and found a blue .38 caliber revolver fully loaded with five rounds, a 9 millimeter handgun, one copper-jacketed live round lying on the nightstand, a 20–count box of .38 caliber copper-jacketed rounds with five rounds remaining in it, and a title for a white Cadillac showing that the car belonged to Griffin. Additionally, police seized Griffin's white Cadillac and searched the vehicle. They found a box of .38 caliber copper-jacketed ammunition in the center console with five rounds missing. One of the cartridges in the .38 revolver had a fingerprint on it that matched Griffin's fingerprint and records indicated that Griffin had purchased the .38 revolver.
Forensic testing was inconclusive as to whether the .38 revolver found in Griffin's girlfriend's residence was the gun used in the shooting of Miller. The forensic examiner stated that she “could neither say it was the gun and couldn't say it wasn't the gun.” When Griffin was booked into jail, however, police found a .38 caliber silver tipped hollow point round with a disc down the center in the pocket of Griffin's shorts. The bullet recovered from Griffin's pocket had “similar class characteristics” to the bullet the medical examiner recovered from Miller's body. Griffin admitted owning the two guns found in his girlfriend's residence.
When police questioned Griffin, he initially denied being near the Elks Club on the night of the murder. He later admitted to being in North Minneapolis that night to pick up liquor. At trial, testimony was presented that at approximately 8:00 p.m. on the night of the murder, Griffin drove his white four-door Cadillac to the North Minneapolis home of his friend, K.J. K.J. noticed that Griffin seemed out of sorts and “[h]e really wasn't his self.” Griffin commented to K.J. that “if a ni**er come up with any bullshit, he's going to pop a ni**er,” which startled K.J.5
After leaving K.J.'s house, Griffin told police that he returned to his girlfriend's home, where he was living. Griffin told his girlfriend that he was going to a friend's house to pick up liquor. When Griffin left his girlfriend's home, he was driving his white Cadillac. Griffin went to the North Minneapolis apartment of T.L. and picked up a bottle of liquor around 11:00 p.m. Griffin stayed at T.L.'s apartment for a few minutes, leaving after a “short conversation.” According to his girlfriend, Griffin returned to her house between 11:15 and 11:30 p.m. with the bottle of liquor. Griffin told police he initially lied about his location because, as a pastor, he did not want people to know he was “cheating on [his] wife” or “drinking.” Griffin did not admit to being parked outside the Elks Club when his wife, Miller, L.M., and L.B. exited the club on May 10, 2011.
On July 11, 2011, a grand jury indicted Griffin for murder in the first degree in violation of Minn.Stat. §§ 609.185(a)(1), 609.11, 609.106, subd. 2(1) (premeditated murder), and murder in the first degree in violation of Minn.Stat. §§ 609.185(a)(3), 609.11 (). Griffin filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, arguing that there was insufficient evidence to support the charges and that consideration of inadmissible evidence had substantially prejudiced him and biased the grand jury. Among the evidence Griffin alleged was inadmissible was Kim's statement “[l]ook my husband is over there stalking me again.” Griffin argued that Kim's statement was not admissible because his wife could not be called as a witness against him at trial under Minn.Stat. § 595.02, subd. 1(a) (2012).6 Griffin also argued that Kim's out-of-court statement was inadmissible hearsay. The district court denied Griffin's motion, concluding that Kim's statement was admissible because it met the requirements of Minn. R. Evid. 807.
Prior to trial, Griffin moved for reconsideration of the...
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