State v. Heiges, A09–0300.

• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: ANDERSON
• Citation: State v. Heiges, 806 N.W.2d 1 (Minn. 2011)
• Decision Date: 17 August 2011
• Docket Number: No. A09–0300.,A09–0300.
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Samantha Anne HEIGES, Appellant.

806 N.W.2d 1

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent,

v.Samantha Anne HEIGES, Appellant.

No. A09–0300.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Aug. 17, 2011.

Syllabus by the Court

The scope of the term “confession” in Minn.Stat. § 634.03 (2010) includes statements made to friends and acquaintances after the crime was committed but before the commencement of the police investigation.

The defendant's conviction did not violate Minn.Stat. § 634.03 when the State established the trustworthiness of the defendant's confessions by presenting sufficient evidence to corroborate the attendant facts and circumstances of those confessions.

Minnesota Statutes § 634.051 (2010) requires that the evidence that establishes the death of the victim be independent of the evidence that establishes the killing of the victim by the defendant.

The evidence at trial, including the defendant's confessions, was sufficient to sustain the defendant's conviction for second-degree murder.

Affirmed.

Lori Swanson, Attorney General, St. Paul, MN; and James C. Backstrom, Dakota County Attorney, Scott A. Hersey, Assistant County Attorney, Hastings, MN, for respondent.

Deborah Ellis, Susan Johnson, St. Paul, MN, for appellant.

OPINION

ANDERSON, PAUL H., Justice.

Samantha Heiges was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter for allegedly drowning her baby daughter in a bathtub immediately after the baby was born. A Dakota County jury found Heiges guilty of second-degree murder and the Dakota County District Court convicted Heiges of this offense and sentenced her to 299 months in prison. A divided court of appeals panel affirmed Heiges's conviction. Heiges petitioned our court for the review of several issues. We granted review on two issues relating to her confessions to friends and others after the crime was committed.

The first issue Heiges raises is whether a defendant's inculpatory, postoffense, preinvestigation statement acknowledging guilt to a friend satisfies the requirements for a “confession” sufficient to warrant conviction under Minn.Stat. § 634.03 (2010) (providing that a confession “shall not be sufficient to warrant conviction without evidence that the offense charged [was] committed”). The second issue is whether the facts admitted in a defendant's confession can be used to satisfy Minn.Stat. § 634.051 (2010) (requiring that “[n]o person shall be convicted of murder ... unless the death of the person alleged to have been killed, and the fact of the killing by the defendant ... are each established as independent facts beyond a reasonable doubt”). Because we conclude that Heiges's conviction does not violate section 634.03 or section 634.051, we affirm.

In mid–2004, appellant Samantha Heiges lived in Burnsville, Minnesota, with her boyfriend Erik Matlock. Heiges, who was 19 years old, was taking classes at a local university and was also working at two different jobs. Matlock did not have a job and spent most of his time at the couple's apartment while Heiges was either working or at school. Sometime around July 2004, Heiges became pregnant with Matlock's child. The couple did not plan to have a child and did not realize that Heiges was pregnant until sometime around October 2004.

Heiges's and Matlock's accounts of what transpired after they learned Heiges was pregnant differed significantly. Heiges stated that her relationship with Matlock was an abusive one and that Matlock was physically violent toward her on several occasions. She also stated that she was happy about her pregnancy and wanted to keep the baby. She said that Matlock was initially happy about the pregnancy but subsequently decided that he did not want them to keep the baby. Nevertheless, Matlock refused to consider giving the baby up for adoption because he did not want anybody to know that he was the father of a child. Heiges said that at some point Matlock attempted to abort the baby by punching Heiges in the stomach. Despite her stated desire to keep the baby, Heiges also made attempts to end her pregnancy. She said that she did so by drinking large amounts of alcohol and taking drugs.

Heiges said that in the early morning hours of May 6, 2005, she gave birth to her baby and that the baby was born alive. The birth took place in the bathroom at Heiges's apartment in a bathtub filled with approximately one foot of water. Heiges gave birth while alone in the bathroom, but at the end of the delivery, Matlock entered the bathroom. Matlock told Heiges to hold the baby under water and threatened to injure or kill Heiges and the baby if she refused. Heiges then held the baby under water for around two minutes, until the baby stopped trying to breathe. After remaining in the bathroom for a short period of time, Heiges went to her bedroom to lie down to rest. She said that she slept for a few hours. Then, Heiges took the baby's body and put it in a shoebox, which was left on the bathroom counter. Two or three days after Heiges gave birth, Matlock put the shoebox in a garbage bag and threw it down the garbage chute in the apartment building where they lived.

Heiges said that she felt depressed following the baby's death and a couple of days later she cut her wrists while in the bathtub where the baby was born. Using her own blood, she started to write the word “Sydney” on the walls of the bathroom. “Sydney” was the name she gave to the baby. Matlock claimed that he found Heiges in the bathroom, bandaged her wrists, and helped her to the bed. Heiges and Matlock's relationship lasted until February 2006 when Matlock moved out of the apartment. In November 2006, Heiges began a new relationship with A.B., and moved out of the apartment where she had previously lived with Matlock and where the baby was born.

As previously noted, Matlock's version of the events surrounding the birth and death of the baby differed in several important aspects from that of Heiges. Matlock denied Heiges's allegation that he was abusive toward her, but he said that Heiges was violent toward him. He testified that he was not present when Heiges gave birth to the baby and did not know if the baby was born alive. He claimed that he first found out that the pregnancy had ended when Heiges came into the bedroom, “naked and wet,” and said: “It's done.... You didn't want the baby anyhow....” He also testified that he cleaned up some blood from the bathroom. He denied putting the baby's body down a garbage chute, saying, “I didn't even know we had a garbage chute.”

Heiges Confesses to A.B. That She Drowned Her Baby

On New Year's Day 2006, A.B., who was in a relationship with Heiges at the time, finished work and drove to Heiges's apartment. When he arrived at the apartment around 1:00 a.m., A.B. noticed that Heiges appeared to be “slightly drunk.” A little later, Heiges began to cry uncontrollably. When A.B. asked Heiges what had happened, Heiges replied that she “had had a baby.”

A.B. said he assumed that Heiges was upset because she had given birth to a baby and given it up for adoption. He tried to console Heiges by saying that people who had given children up for adoption could sometimes see their children. Heiges responded: “No, that's not possible. It's dead.” A.B. then assumed that Heiges had aborted her pregnancy, but Heiges told A.B. that she had not had an abortion but had “actually physically killed” the baby. She told A.B. that Matlock, the baby's father and her boyfriend at the time, was angry about the pregnancy and that he did not want to keep the baby. A.B. had learned from previous conversations with Heiges that Matlock was abusive and that Heiges was afraid of him. Heiges told A.B. that Matlock had threatened to kill her if she did not kill the baby.

Heiges then proceeded to tell A.B. that she had given birth to a baby girl at her old apartment and drowned the baby in the bathtub. She said that she subsequently had put the baby's body down the garbage chute. A.B. said that when Heiges told him all of this information, she was “hysterical, crying, and trying to control herself but unable to do so.” A.B. suggested that Heiges call the police and tell them what happened, but Heiges became angry at this suggestion, and she refused to go to the police.

After the foregoing conversation, A.B. left Heiges's apartment. He went to his parents' house to ask for advice. After talking with his parents, A.B. decided to call the police to tell them what he had learned. Before he did so, he talked to Heiges again. Heiges told A.B. that she did not remember telling him anything about the baby, but she confirmed that the information she had given him was true. Later that same day, A.B. related Heiges's story to Detective Jeffrey Pfaff of the Burnsville Police Department.

Initial Police Investigation

After receiving the information from A.B., Pfaff investigated further. He found an address for Heiges through the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), but the address was out of date. The DMV listed Heiges's address as the apartment building where Heiges had lived in May 2005, the time of the alleged incident. Pfaff also used the DMV to identify Matlock, who A.B. had identified as the father of Heiges's baby. Matlock was listed as living at the same address as Heiges. Pfaff then contacted management personnel at the apartment building to verify that Heiges had lived there.

Management personnel at Heiges's old address confirmed that she had lived there. None of the personnel were able to state that they had known for sure that Heiges was pregnant. But the apartment manager testified that when Heiges first moved into the building, she wore “very fitted” clothing, including tank tops and tight t-shirts, and that later Heiges would wear baggy shirts, sweatshirts, and other “very loose fitting” clothing. The manager later testified that she assumed Heiges was pregnant. A staff member who performed maintenance at the apartment also “speculated” that Heiges might be pregnant. The...