State v. Jones

• Decision Date: 11 March 2004
• Docket Number: No. C6-02-1064., No. C1-02-372
• Citation: 678 N.W.2d 1
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent (C1-02-372), Cross Appellant (C6-02-1064), v. Kent Richard JONES, Appellant (C1-02-372), Cross Respondent (C6-02-1064).
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

678 N.W.2d 1

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent (C1-02-372), Cross Appellant (C6-02-1064), v. Kent Richard JONES, Appellant (C1-02-372), Cross Respondent (C6-02-1064).

Nos. C1-02-372, C6-02-1064.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

March 11, 2004.

Rehearing Denied April 20, 2004.

Office of Minnesota State Public Defender, Ann McCaughan, Assistant State Public Defender, Minneapolis, Kent Richard Jones, Bayport, for Appellant.

Michael A. Hatch, State Attorney General, St. Paul, Kathleen A. Heaney, Sherburne County Attorney, Thomas C. McNinch, Assistant Sherburne County Attorney, Elk River, for Respondent.

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

OPINION

PAUL H. ANDERSON, Justice.

A Sherburne County jury found Kent Richard Jones guilty of killing Linda Jensen. More specifically, the jury found Jones guilty of first-degree murder while committing criminal sexual conduct, second-degree intentional murder, and first-degree criminal sexual conduct. The district court entered a conviction against Jones on the first-degree murder count and sentenced him to life in prison. Jones appealed his conviction, through counsel, on the grounds that the court erred in (1) finding that there was probable cause to support a search warrant; (2) admitting DNA evidence; (3) finding that there was insufficient foundation for the introduction of Jones' alternative perpetrator evidence; and (4) requiring Jones to wear a leg restraint during trial. Jones also claimed there was prosecutorial misconduct during cross-examination and closing argument. Jones made an additional 11 arguments in a pro se brief.

Following Jones' conviction, the victim's sister petitioned for restitution for her lost wages and travel costs for attending the trial. The district court determined that it did not have jurisdiction to award restitution because the sister was not a victim within the meaning of the restitution statute. The state filed a notice of appeal to contest the restitution order and that appeal was consolidated with Jones' direct appeal. We reverse the conviction, but affirm the denial of restitution.

On the morning of Monday, February 24, 1992, Linda Jensen was at home with her infant daughter, Lisa. Charles Jensen, Linda's husband and Lisa's father, had left for work at about 6:45 and Linda's nine-year-old son Joseph left for school around 7:45. Charles called home three times that morning between 9:30 and noon, but his wife never answered or responded to the message he left. Charles returned home from work shortly after 4:00 p.m. and discovered his stepson Joseph sitting at the dining room table and Lisa crying in her playpen. He took Lisa out of the playpen and went to look for his wife in the master bedroom. Upon entering the bedroom, Charles first noticed that the bed had been stripped and eventually found his wife's naked body lying on the floor alongside the bed, covered by a comforter, with a knife protruding from her chest. He then called 911 to report that his wife was dead.

The Sherburne County Sheriff's department responded to the 911 call. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) was then contacted to assist in the investigation of the crime scene. Investigators found no signs of forced entry. Charles Jensen eventually discovered that the queen-size fitted sheet for the bed was missing, as were a condom and his wife's T-shirt and underwear. Investigators gathered forensic evidence from the scene and canvassed the neighborhood. The local postal carrier was among the persons interviewed. The carrier stated that she had arrived at the Jensen home at about 11:30 a.m. that day and had observed a man driving out of the driveway. The carrier said the man was in his 30's or 40's, unkempt, with scraggly long brown hair and a white-flecked beard. She said he had acted strangely and was "crouched down" in his pickup truck. She also noticed that the man had what appeared to be red streaks "like scratch marks" on his hands. She noted her impressions of the man and later worked with investigators to create a composite sketch that was circulated through the media.

Linda Jensen's autopsy revealed that, in addition to the multiple stab wounds, there was evidence of strangulation and other abrasions and contusions. The cause of death was determined to be multiple traumatic injuries as a result of an assault. The time of death was determined to be between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. The autopsy and BCA investigation also revealed that there were sperm cells present in Jensen's vaginal canal and some minimal amount of semen on her ankle. The BCA tested the DNA sample from the vaginal canal against about 80 other DNA samples, including many from potential suspects, but failed to find a match. Despite an ongoing investigation, investigators were unable to ascertain who committed the homicide.

In mid-June 2000, over eight years after Linda Jensen's death, Angela Hennen called the Sherburne County Sheriff's department and made statements connecting appellant Kent Richard Jones to Jensen. Jones and his family lived approximately one-half mile from the Jensens. Hennen stated that she and Jones had an affair before 1992 and were still in limited contact in 1992. She also stated that in March 1992 she had mentioned Jensen's murder and assault to Jones and he had become angry. Jones later admitted to Hennen that Jensen used to jog past his house and they had chatted on occasion. Based on this information, investigators questioned Jones, who had previously been interrogated during the initial investigation. In this second interview, Jones denied knowing Jensen, though he recalled that she had come to his house to discuss Cub Scout activities for her son. When asked if he had an affair with Jensen, Jones became angry. The investigators asked Jones to give a DNA sample, but he refused. The investigators then obtained a warrant based on their discussion with Hennen and their interviews with Jones. Upon presentation of the warrant, Jones provided swabbings for DNA testing.

After obtaining Jones' DNA sample, a BCA technician used the PCR-STR DNA testing method, amplified a sample taken from Linda Jensen's body, ran tests using the Cofiler and Profiler Plus kits, and concluded that the Jones sample and the smear from Jensen's body had the "same DNA types." Jones was then arrested and charged with Jensen's murder. A grand jury indicted Jones on August 16, 2000 for first-degree murder while committing criminal sexual conduct, Minn.Stat. § 609.185(2) (2000), second-degree intentional murder, Minn.Stat. § 609.19(1) (2000), and first-degree criminal sexual conduct, Minn.Stat. § 609.342, subd. 1(e)(i) (2000). This indictment was dismissed due to prosecutorial misconduct. A second indictment for the same offenses was issued on May 31, 2001. Jones moved to dismiss that indictment, but the motion was denied. Jones later moved to suppress the DNA evidence seized under the warrant, and this motion was also denied. The district court determined there was sufficient probable cause to support the issuance of the warrant because there was evidence that Hennen was a credible informant and the totality of the circumstances supported a finding of probable cause.

Jones then requested a Frye-Mack hearing to challenge the admissibility of the DNA evidence, arguing the second prong of the Frye-Mack test, foundational reliability, could not be established.¹ After a four-day hearing, the district court found that the BCA "conducted the DNA tests * * * in accordance with appropriate laboratory standards and controls so as to ensure reliability." The court then concluded that Jones' arguments ultimately went to the weight and not to the admissibility of the evidence and found the DNA evidence to be sufficiently reliable to be admitted at trial.

Jones filed notice of his intent to present evidence of alternative perpetrators. He intended to introduce evidence that Robert Beard, Linda Jensen's former boyfriend and the biological father of her son Joseph, had a propensity for violence, had motive and opportunity to commit the murder, and resembled the sketch based on the postal carrier's description of the man she saw. Jones also intended to present evidence that Beard had warned a girlfriend that if she did not "behave," he would kill her as he had Linda Jensen and that he had described in detail how Linda Jensen was murdered and what the crime scene looked like.

In addition to the evidence about Beard, Jones intended to introduce evidence about another man, Richard Christy, who met Linda Jensen at an athletic club and was allegedly interested in her. Jones alleged that Christy had an opportunity to commit the crime. Jones claimed that Christy called a friend the day of the murder stating that he needed a ride and that he was "in deep shit" because he had "offed" somebody. Christy had allegedly been seen on the day of the murder with blood on his hands and jacket and had fled to Texas shortly after the murder, leaving behind many of his personal belongings. Most of the testimony offered to corroborate the evidence about Christy was to come from a man named Drahota, who claimed to have seen some of Christy's incriminating acts. Drahota also claimed to have spoken with the person Christy allegedly called on the day of the murder—a man named Chandler, who has since died.

The state opposed the admission of this alternative perpetrator evidence. To support its opposition, the state presented evidence that the investigators had considered both Beard and Christy as suspects, but a DNA sample from each was tested and neither sample matched the sample taken from the crime scene. After hearing from both sides, the district court ruled that the alternative perpetrator evidence would not be admissible at trial. The court found there was no direct evidence connecting either Beard or Christy to the scene and the corroborating evidence of Christy's potential guilt was inadmissible hearsay that...