State v. HEIGES
| Decision Date | 30 March 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. A09-300.,A09-300. |
| Citation | 779 NW 2d 904 |
| Parties | STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Samantha Anne HEIGES, Appellant. |
| Court | Minnesota Court of Appeals |
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, St. Paul, MN, for appellant.
Considered and decided by MINGE, Presiding Judge; BJORKMAN, Judge; and RANDALL, Judge.
Appellant Samantha Anne Heiges challenges her conviction of second-degree murder for the death of her newborn daughter. Heiges contends that (1) there was insufficient evidence to corroborate her confessions to the police under Minn. Stat. § 634.03; (2) the district court erred in instructing the jury on the burden of proof and duress; (3) the district court erred by allowing testimony of a prosecution witness who was discovered mid-way through the trial; and (4) the district court abused its discretion in imposing a guidelines sentence. We affirm.
Heiges became pregnant in 2004. At that time she was 19 and lived with the father of the child, E.M. Heiges's relationship with E.M. was marked with verbal, emotional, and physical abuse. According to Heiges, E.M. threw beer cans at her, punched the wall of their apartment, and frequently threatened her. Heiges's friends noticed that she occasionally had bruises and scratches. Heiges admitted that she feared E.M., but she always felt that she could take care of herself.
When Heiges learned she was pregnant, E.M. was initially excited, but he soon changed his mind and demanded that she not have the child. Heiges did not wish to abort the child, and E.M. opposed giving the child up for adoption. Heiges continued the pregnancy, but she received no prenatal care and took steps to hide her pregnancy from family and friends. Despite her efforts at concealment, several staff members at her apartment complex and friends learned of the pregnancy.
In April 2005, one of Heiges's classmates, R.C., asked Heiges if she was pregnant. Heiges admitted that she was and said that she and E.M. were trying to induce a miscarriage by having her take drugs, drink alcohol, and starve herself. Heiges further stated that if these efforts to end the pregnancy did not succeed, she and E.M. planned to go up north to a family cabin, deliver the child, and bury it in the woods. R.C. told Heiges that she could live with her and give the child up for adoption or leave it at a hospital. Heiges declined the offer of assistance, stating that she did not want to leave E.M. R.C. reported this information to the Eagan Police Department on April 14, 2005, but the department did not locate Heiges until September, at which time she denied ever being pregnant.
On or about May 5, 2005, Heiges went into labor, drew herself a bath, and delivered a baby girl. Heiges claimed that she was prevented from lifting the child out of the water by E.M., who told her to hold the child under the water and not allow it to breathe. The child appeared to be trying to cry under the surface of the water. Heiges acknowledged that it took a couple of minutes for the infant to drown.
Heiges placed the child's body in a shoebox and went to work. A few days later, Heiges found the shoebox in a garbage bag. She and E.M. placed the bag in the apartment building's garbage chute.
Approximately one week later, E.M. found Heiges in the bathtub with her wrists slit. She had written SYD, the first three letters of the child's intended name, Sydney, in blood on the tiles surrounding the bathtub. E.M. removed Heiges from the bathtub and applied pressure to stop the bleeding. But he did not seek medical assistance for Heiges because he had outstanding arrest warrants. Heiges ended her relationship with E.M. a few months later.
Heiges met A.B. in October 2006. During the early morning of January 1, 2007, A.B. accompanied Heiges to her apartment. After they had sexual intercourse, Heiges began to cry uncontrollably. She told A.B. about her child. A.B. initially assumed that she had given the child up for adoption or had a late-term abortion. But Heiges told him that "she had actually physically killed it." Specifically, she had "drowned it in the bathtub." She also told A.B. that the child's body had been thrown down a garbage chute. Later that day, A.B. met with Detective Jeffrey Pfaff of the Burnsville Police Department and relayed the information Heiges had provided.
On January 30, 2007, Detective Pfaff and another detective interviewed Heiges at her apartment. Detective Pfaff used a hidden device to record the conversation. He used special interviewing techniques to build a rapport with Heiges, never told her that she was a suspect, and led her to believe that E.M. was the focus of the investigation. He also used leading questions based on A.B.'s statement to direct the interview.
Detective Pfaff interviewed Heiges three times over six months. During the first interview, Heiges initially stated that the child wasn't born alive. But when Detective Pfaff indicated that they had heard otherwise, Heiges admitted that the child was born alive. In response to Detective Pfaff's leading questions, Heiges recounted that the child cried "under the water" and that she believed that if she "didn't do it herself that he was going to do something to her." In subsequent recorded conversations, Heiges gave statements consistent with what she had told A.B. and R.C. prior to the beginning of the police investigation: that she had delivered a live baby girl, held her under water in the bathtub until she drowned, and placed the body in a shoebox, and that the shoebox was later dumped in the garbage chute of her apartment building. The details of the account remained the same from the pre-investigation statements to friends through the statements to the police.
Detective Pfaff interviewed other witnesses, including E.M. Detective Pfaff's investigation included contact with the Dakota County Medical Examiner and officials at the landfill that serviced Heiges's apartment complex, to determine whether the child's remains could be located. He learned that because the body would have been compacted and buried in a large section of landfill, it would be virtually impossible to recover any remains.
Investigations discovered small traces of blood on the floor and walls of the bathroom where Heiges delivered the child. When the blood was tested, it proved to contain a mixture of DNA from three or more individuals. The tests revealed that 75.5% of the general population could be excluded as potential sources of the DNA. Neither Heiges nor E.M. could be excluded as potential sources for the DNA. It was also possible that some of the DNA could have come from the child. However, no further conclusions could be drawn from this evidence.
Heiges was charged with second-degree intentional murder under Minn.Stat. § 609.19, subd. 1(1) (2004), and first-degree manslaughter under Minn.Stat. § 609.20(3) (2004).
Prior to trial, Heiges moved to dismiss the charges on the basis that the state did not have sufficient evidence to corroborate her confessions to Detective Pfaff as required by Minn.Stat. § 634.03 and, therefore, could not show probable cause. The district court denied the motion.
The jury trial commenced in September 2008. A.B. testified that Heiges told him that she had killed the child herself, and that he assumed that the child had been born alive and had lived for some time after birth. He testified that Heiges told him, during the early morning hours of January 1, 2007, that she had drowned her child in the bathtub, and that she confirmed this statement in a subsequent telephone conversation with A.B E.M. also testified at trial. He denied any involvement in the child's birth and death, stating that he was not present in the bathroom when Heiges delivered and never saw the child. He testified that Heiges entered their bedroom one night, soaking wet, and said, "It's done, it's done." When he went into the bathroom, he noticed an amount of blood he thought consistent with a miscarriage. Other witnesses, including Heiges's friends and office staff from her apartment, testified to their observations of her pregnancy in early 2005.
During trial, the state first learned about R.C. The district court conducted a one-half day hearing outside the presence of the jury to give the defense the opportunity to investigate and interview R.C. Heiges did not dispute the fact that neither the prosecutor nor the Burnsville Police Department had prior knowledge of R.C. The district court ruled R.C. could testify and gave the defense a two-day continuance in order to fully prepare for her testimony.
When the trial resumed, R.C. testified about her conversation with Heiges prior to the child's birth. R.C. recounted that Heiges said "they were going to go up north somewhere to a cabin or something and have the baby there, and then bury it in the woods." R.C. also testified about a conversation that took place a few days after the child's death in which a distraught Heiges admitted that "they had went through with killing the baby, and she had put it in a shoebox and kept it, and she couldn't find it." R.C. said that Heiges was upset because she could not find the shoebox containing the child's body.
At the close of the state's case and at the conclusion of the trial, Heiges moved the district court for judgment of acquittal based on the lack of evidence corroborating her confessions. See Minn. R.Crim. P. 26.03, subd. 17. The district court denied the motions, finding that the corroborative evidence was sufficient to submit the case to the jury.
The jury found Heiges guilty of second-degree intentional murder but acquitted her on the manslaughter charge. The district court denied Heiges's request for a durational or dispositional departure, and imposed a guidelines sentence of 299 months'...
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