State v. Grube

• Decision Date: 12 May 1995
• Docket Number: No. C1-94-518,C1-94-518
• Citation: 531 N.W.2d 484
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Keith William GRUBE, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 484

531 N.W.2d 484

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Keith William GRUBE, Appellant.

No. C1-94-518.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

May 12, 1995.

Syllabus by the Court

1. Appellant's rights under the Confrontation Clauses of the United States and

Minnesota Constitutions were not violated by the admission of the murder victim's hearsay statements at trial because the statements bear adequate indicia of reliability.

2. As applied to appellant's conduct, Minn.Stat. § 609.185(6) (1992) is not unconstitutionally vague.

3. Sufficient evidence was presented at trial for the jury to conclude that appellant engaged in a "past pattern of domestic abuse" under Minn.Stat. § 609.185(6).

John M. Stuart, State Public Defender, Lawrence W. Pry, Asst. State Public Defender, St. Paul, for appellant.

Keith William Grube, Stillwater, pro se.

Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Atty. Gen., Mary J. Theisen, St. Paul, and Roger L. Swenson, Lac Qui Parle County Atty., Madison, for respondent.

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

OPINION

PAGE, Justice.

Keith William Grube was convicted by a Lac Qui Parle County jury of first-degree murder under Minn.Stat. § 609.185(6) (1992), ¹ and second-degree murder under Minn.Stat. §§ 609.19(1) and (3) (1994), for the October 26, 1993, strangulation death of his ex-wife, Cindy Grube. ² Grube was acquitted of first-degree murder under Minn.Stat. § 609.185(1) (1994). The trial court sentenced Grube to life imprisonment.

On appeal from his judgment of conviction, Grube argues that: (1) his rights under the Confrontation Clauses of the United States and Minnesota Constitutions were violated when the trial court admitted into evidence hearsay statements made by Cindy Grube; (2) Minn.Stat. § 609.185(6) is unconstitutionally vague; and (3) the evidence introduced at trial is insufficient as a matter of law to sustain his conviction under Minn.Stat. § 609.185(6). By pro se brief, Grube raises four additional issues: (1) whether his rights under the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution were violated by the trial court's failure to give a "third verdict" instruction; (2) whether the trial court erred: (a) by failing to instruct the jury on the "past pattern of domestic abuse" requirement, (b) by admitting evidence of domestic abuse committed out of state, and (c) by failing to follow the requirements of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(6); (3) whether his rights under the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution were violated by the state's submission of multiplicious counts to the jury; and (4) whether he is entitled to a dispositional departure on his sentence. We affirm.

Grube testified at trial and admitted to killing Cindy Grube. According to Grube's testimony, he left Minnesota with two other men on Thursday, October 21, 1993, to construct canopies at out-of-state gas stations. ³ The three men traveled by automobile to Wisconsin and Iowa. After finishing their work in Massena, Iowa, at 8:00 p.m. on Monday, October 25, they began the return trip to Minnesota. During the trip back to Minnesota, Grube consumed 12-15 beers and 10-15 ephedrine "pep" pills. Grube was dropped off at his home in Madison, Minnesota, at approximately 2:30 a.m. on October 26.

After he was dropped off, Grube went into the house and placed a brief telephone call to his parents' farm. When the call ended, Grube left the home and drove to Cindy Grube's home in Appleton, Minnesota. After knocking once, he entered the house through an unlocked door, climbed the stairs, and went into Cindy Grube's bedroom, where she was sleeping. Grube woke her and the two talked for a few minutes. Their discussion turned into an argument. The argument ended when Grube manually strangled Cindy Grube to death. Grube put her body in the trunk of his car and drove to his parents' farm, where he placed her body on the dirt floor of an abandoned shed. He then walked to the farmhouse, got into bed with his girlfriend, Tammy Williamson, and went to sleep. When he awoke later that morning, he returned to the shed, moved Cindy Grube's body to a corner of the building, and covered it with cardboard, old tools, sheet metal, and a five-gallon drum.

Law enforcement officials, working on a tip received by the Lac Qui Parle County Attorney, found Cindy Grube's body at 12:40 a.m. on October 27. Suspicion focused on Grube almost immediately because of the body's location and the fact that Cindy Grube had recently obtained a domestic abuse protection order against Grube. Grube was arrested later that morning.

At a pretrial hearing, Grube moved to dismiss that count of the indictment charging him with first-degree murder under Minn.Stat. § 609.185(6), on grounds that the statute is unconstitutionally vague. The trial court denied that motion. The state moved the court to allow introduction of two domestic abuse Orders for Protection obtained by Cindy Grube against Grube, along with her affidavits and the hearing transcripts supporting those protection orders. The trial court, relying on Minn.R.Evid. 804(b)(5), granted the state's motion. ⁴

At trial, the state sought to establish the "past pattern of domestic abuse" required by Minn.Stat. § 609.185(6) through the admission of the protection order affidavits and the hearing transcripts; through the admission of testimony from witnesses who had seen various marks on Cindy Grube's body, which she had attributed to Grube's abuse; and through the admission of testimony from witnesses to whom Grube had admitted abusing Cindy Grube. A summary of each of the witnesses' testimony is listed below:

(1) Elizabeth Ann Ruth, an acquaintance of Cindy Grube's since 1991, testified she saw red marks on Cindy Grube's neck, upper arm, and leg below her knee during the winter of 1991, and that Cindy Grube told her Grube had pushed her against a wall by her neck and kicked her while she was on the floor, causing the injuries. Ruth also testified she saw a bruise on Cindy Grube's leg, near her calf, in the spring of 1992, and was told by Cindy Grube that Grube had caused it.

(2) Madison, Minnesota Police Officer Gene Sandau testified he saw bruises below the knee on each of Cindy Grube's legs on January 1, 1992, and that Cindy Grube told him Grube had kicked her on December 28, 1991, causing the injuries.

(3) Connie Hiepler, a former co-worker of Cindy Grube's at Sunne's Department Store, testified she saw that Cindy Grube's foot was swollen on January 1 or 2, 1992, and that Cindy Grube told her Grube pushed her, causing the foot injury. Hiepler also testified she recalled seeing two bruises on the sides of Cindy Grube's wrist on a date she could not remember, and that Cindy Grube told her Grube had grabbed her, causing the injuries. In addition, Hiepler also testified she saw a large bruise on Cindy Grube's right buttock on a date she could not remember, and that Cindy Grube either told her Grube had pushed her or kicked her into something.

(4) Susan Leann Stone, a co-worker at the Prairie Correctional Facility, testified she saw: bruises on Cindy Grube's biceps in the winter of 1992, and that Cindy Grube told her Grube had grabbed her arm; blackish, bluish marks on Cindy Grube's neck during the winter of 1992, and that Cindy Grube told her Grube had grabbed her by her neck, pushed her against the wall, and picked her up off the ground, causing the marks; bruises on both sides of Cindy Grube's jaw in the spring of 1993, and that Cindy Grube told her Grube had grabbed her jaw with one hand, the thumb on one side of the mouth and the fingers on the other side; and a lump the size of an egg on the back of Cindy Grube's head in June 1993, and that Cindy Grube told her Grube had dropped her on her head.

(5) Laureen Dvorak, a family friend of the Grube's, testified she saw a bruise on Cindy Grube's right bicep in the spring of 1993, and that Cindy Grube told her Grube had grabbed her by the arm.

(6) Lisa Judovsky, a co-worker at the Prairie Correctional Facility, testified she saw: a bump on the back of Cindy Grube's head during June 1993, but she could not remember if Cindy Grube explained how she received the injury; ⁵ bruises on Cindy Grube's legs during June or July 1993, and that Cindy Grube told her Grube had caused the bruises; a gash on Cindy Grube's hairline in August 1993, and that Cindy Grube told her Grube picked her up and threw her on the floor, causing her to hit her head on a table.

(7) Chris Olson, Cindy Grube's roommate during September and October, 1993, testified he saw a gash on the left side of her head, near her hairline, in mid-July, 1993, and that she later told him Grube had knocked her down, causing the injury.

(8) Judy Thielke, whose daughter sometimes babysat for Cindy Grube, testified she saw a gash along Cindy Grube's hairline in August 1993, and that Cindy Grube told her Grube had dropped her on a table, causing the wound.

(9) Linda Young, who babysat for Cindy Grube, testified she saw a gash toward the side of Cindy Grube's head, near the hairline in August 1993, and that Cindy Grube told her Grube grabbed her by the throat and threw her, causing her to hit her head on a wall.

(10) Brian Schneider, a co-worker at the Prairie Correctional Facility, testified he saw a lump, with a small cut in the middle of the lump, on the left side of Cindy Grube's scalp, under the hairline, in August 1993, and that she told him Grube had picked her up and dropped her, causing her to hit her head on the table.

(11) Jay Oellien, a Madison, Minnesota police officer, testified he saw an inch-long wound toward the top of Cindy Grube's head on August 4, 1993, while he was taking a statement from her for the purpose of obtaining a restraining order, and that Cindy Grube told him that Grube had grabbed her around the neck--choking her, and repeatedly slammed the back of her head into a wall, and then slammed her to the kitchen floor.

(12) Linda Vonderharr, a co-worker at the Prairie...