State v. Hannuksela

• Citation: 452 N.W.2d 668
• Decision Date: 16 March 1990
• Docket Number: No. C4-89-1065,C4-89-1065
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Dennis John HANNUKSELA, Appellant.
• Court: Supreme Court of Minnesota (US)

Page 668

452 N.W.2d 668

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Dennis John HANNUKSELA, Appellant.

No. C4-89-1065.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

March 16, 1990.

Syllabus by the Court

1. Evidence seized pursuant to valid clauses of a search warrant may be admitted over objection that another clause in the warrant fails to meet the Fourth Amendment's particularity requirement provided the evidence, in fact, was seized pursuant to clauses of the warrant which satisfy the particularity requirement.

2. The ex-spouse of an accused may testify at the accused's criminal trial with respect to nonassertive conduct of the accused which she observed during the marriage.

3. Spreigl evidence of prior forgery convictions was admissible when a disputed issue existed as to the validity of the decedent's signature on certain documents.

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

Alan Mitchell, St. Louis County Atty., Duluth, for respondent.

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

KELLEY, Justice.

Appellant Dennis Hannuksela on appeal from his conviction for the first degree murder of Arthur Nelson seeks a new trial for alleged trial court error in: (1) failing to suppress evidence seized by police pursuant to an alleged invalid general warrant, (2) violating his statutory marital communication privilege by permitting his ex-wife to testify about appellant's acts and gestures observed by her during the marriage, and (3) in admitting evidence of two prior aggravated forgeries committed by him. We affirm the conviction.

Arthur Nelson, a retired widower who worked as a seasonal maintenance employee at the Washington County Point Douglas Park, disappeared after last being seen while leaving appellant's home in Prescott, Wisconsin, on September 5, 1987. Nelson's decomposed remains were not discovered until November 1, 1987, along a railroad track right of way a short distance outside the City of Gilbert in St. Louis County, Minnesota.

Arthur Nelson owned a brown 1978 Dodge enclosed pickup truck in which he kept boxes filled with many of his personal possessions. During the latter part of August and the first part of September 1987, appellant performed mechanical work on the truck at Nelson's behest. On September 4, 1987, one of appellant's neighbors saw appellant and Nelson together. In conversation at the time, appellant told the neighbor that he and Nelson were going up north together the next day. On that same date Nelson also told the woman with whom he lived that he was going up north the next day to have the truck painted.

On September 5, 1987, appellant was married to and living with Mary Granthum. In the early morning hours of that day, Mary Granthum observed appellant take a sawed-off shotgun, which had silver duct tape wrapped around the butt, from a storage area; put it and some shotgun shells into a pillow case; stuff the pillow case into the sleeve of his leather jacket; pin the sleeve and carry the jacket and place it in Nelson's truck which was parked on the street in front of the Hannuksela residence. Shortly thereafter she observed the two men depart from the parking lot at which time appellant was driving the truck.

David Homola, who lived with appellant's sister in the Gilbert, Minnesota area, observed appellant around noon of that day in the Gilbert area driving a brown pickup truck. Also, sometime before noon, appellant came to the home of his younger brother Thomas, in McKinley, Minnesota, and was at that time driving a brown Dodge pickup truck. (McKinley is approximately three miles from Gilbert.) ¹

Later that day, at about 4:30 p.m., Mary Granthum again saw appellant, but this time at the K-Mart store in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, where she was employed. At the time appellant was still driving Nelson's truck. The following day she helped appellant unload items belonging to Nelson from the truck.

The neighbor who had seen appellant on September 4, also saw him late in the afternoon of September 5, at which time appellant told him Nelson had given him the truck as payment for the work appellant had done on it and that Nelson himself was purchasing a motor home. During the course of that conversation, appellant also revealed that he had a lot of money which he claimed he had received from his father.

On September 7, 1987, appellant went to Point Douglas Beach, where Nelson had worked, and told employees there he needed to get Nelson's paycheck because Nelson needed it to bail himself out of jail. He did not get the paycheck. However, the following day, appellant purchased a motorcycle and paid for it with a $250 check purportedly signed by Arthur Nelson.

Robert Nelson, Arthur Nelson's brother, on September 10, 1987, was told that his brother's automated bank teller machine access card had been used to make withdrawals since September 6. At trial, testimony of others connected appellant with using a "cash card." Mary Granthum, for example, saw appellant with a "cash card" in his possession which had Arthur Nelson's name on it, and, also observed appellant display an unusual amount of cash.

On the evening of September 11, Granthum accompanied appellant to Point Douglas Park where appellant took keys from the pickup truck and used them to enter into a park building. Upon leaving the building, appellant left the key remaining in the door. Three days later the key was found stuck in the door by park personnel who additionally found two sets of Nelson's keys inside the building.

Over the next few days, Wisconsin and Minnesota police officers concentrated their investigation on appellant's relationship with Nelson; they focussed on appellant's possession of Nelson's pickup, an insurance check endorsement which looked as if it was not Nelson's signature, and a signature on the title card to the truck that appeared to be suspicious. On one occasion after the appellant consented to an inspection of the pickup, he suddenly terminated the inspection, ostensibly to finish his work shift at McDonald's, but then departed leaving the officers standing in the McDonald's parking lot near the abandoned vehicle. Later, on that same day, appellant led the officers on a high speed chase before finally stopping and agreeing to return with them while they continued questioning him concerning documents purportedly executed by Nelson--especially the title card to the truck. ²

On September 24, Mary Granthum accompanied Hannuksela when he drove from their home in Prescott, Wisconsin, to the Gilbert area. A short distance outside of Gilbert appellant turned onto a rough road, parked by some railroad tracks, got out of the vehicle leaving Granthum behind in it, and walked alone down the tracks away from Gilbert. He was gone five or ten minutes before returning to the vehicle.

On September 28, while inspecting mine dumps and tree plantings at an abandoned mine pit near Gilbert, Raymond Svatos came upon several cardboard boxes containing personal items including a Bible, military discharge papers, vehicle title papers, and clothing belonging to Arthur Nelson. He reported his find to the BCA. The following day a BCA agent collected and inventoried 56 items from the dump site. A number of the items found had Arthur Nelson's name on them. ³

While setting traps along railroad tracks in a wooded area near Gilbert on November 1, Mark Samich discovered human remains at the bottom of a steep embankment. The remains consisted of human bones, clothing, eyeglasses with Arthur Nelson's imprinted name on them, and a set of dentures. Nearby he found a human skull and two newspapers dated September 5, 1987. In the same general vicinity, BCA investigators later found a sawed-off shotgun which had been sawed off at the pistol grip area and which had cloth and silver duct tape wrapped around the butt.

Subsequently, Nelson's dentist of 25 years identified the dentures as being Nelson's. Also, the deputy medical examiner identified the jaw bone found as that of Arthur Nelson, and the medical examiner identified some small metal particles inside the brain cavity of the skull as being lead shot consistent with a shotgun pellet from which the medical examiner concluded that Nelson's death had resulted from a shotgun wound. Several weeks later Samich found other papers which had Nelson's name on them near a rock pile in the same general area where the remains had been found. Included were a yellow pad of paper dated September 5, 1987, as well as other items, which were in due course turned over to the investigating officers.

Ultimately a St. Louis County grand jury indicted appellant charging him with two counts of first degree murder: one, a violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(1) (1988) (premeditated murder) and the other, a violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(3) (1988) (intentional killing while committing aggravated robbery). Appellant was subsequently convicted by a St. Louis County petit jury of both counts, but pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 609.035 was sentenced to only one mandatory life imprisonment.

I. The Search Warrant

During the course of the investigation into the death of Arthur Nelson, a Wisconsin police officer applied for and obtained a search warrant from a Wisconsin magistrate. The warrant authorized officers to search appellant's residence for "a brown bi-fold billfold, key ring which has attached to it a four-leaf clover encased in clear plastic, a long gun, or other personal property belonging to Arthur Walter Nelson or other properties which tend to show evidence of crime." (Emphasis added). When the warrant was executed, officers seized ten items ⁴--only six of which were admitted into evidence at trial.

Appellant argues that this search warrant was facially invalid as being a general warrant which failed to describe with particularity the items to be seized as required by Amendment IV to the United States Constitution, ⁵ that the items seized and later at trial admitted in evidence...