State v. Kinyanjui

• Decision Date: 06 September 2022
• Docket Number: A21-1626
• Parties: State of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Joseph Ndichu Kinyanjui, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals

State of Minnesota, Respondent,
v.
Joseph Ndichu Kinyanjui, Appellant.

No. A21-1626

Court of Appeals of Minnesota

September 6, 2022

This opinion is nonprecedential except as provided by Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 136.01, subd. 1(c).

Olmsted County District Court File No. 55-CR-19-3278

Keith Ellison, Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota; and Mark A. Ostrem, Olmsted County Attorney, James E. Haase, Senior Assistant County Attorney, Rochester, Minnesota (for respondent)

Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Melissa Sheridan, Assistant Public Defender, St. Paul, Minnesota (for appellant)

Considered and decided by Bjorkman, Presiding Judge; Slieter, Judge; and Bryan, Judge.

BJORKMAN, JUDGE

Appellant challenges his conviction for attempted murder of his wife, arguing that the district court (1) abused its discretion by admitting relationship evidence and (2) plainly

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erred by giving the jury a no-adverse-inference instruction without his permission. Because we discern no abuse of discretion and the jury instruction did not affect appellant's substantial rights, we affirm.

FACTS

Appellant Joseph Ndichu Kinyanjui was arrested after severely beating his wife with a hammer. Respondent State of Minnesota charged him with several crimes, including domestic assault and attempted first-degree premeditated murder.

At trial, Kinyanjui's wife and two of his adult children, P.N. and M.N., testified about his prior abusive conduct. Wife testified that Kinyanjui beat her with a belt and was verbally abusive during their marriage. In 2019, Kinyanjui lived with wife, P.N., P.N.'s four-year-old daughter P., and T.N., his adult son. Wife moved out of their shared bedroom in February, but he continued to physically abuse her. P.N. testified that she had "grown up in an abusive family," heard Kinyanjui verbally abuse and threaten to kill wife, and that wife moved out of the shared bedroom to get away from Kinyanjui's continued abuse. M.N. testified that she saw Kinyanjui physically abuse wife many times and heard him threaten to kill her. The district court instructed the jury that this evidence was admitted "for the limited purpose of demonstrating the nature and extent of the relationship" between Kinyanjui and his family and household members, and the jury was "not to convict the defendant on the basis of" that conduct.

On the evening of May 8, wife was at home with Kinyanjui, P.N., and P. Wife testified that she "could see [Kinyanjui] had some anger in him," so she took her dinner to her bedroom and sat down to eat. She then thought she saw something at the bedroom

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door, looked up and saw someone with a hammer, and felt a blow to her head. Wife could not remember what happened next until several days later. P.N. testified that she was folding laundry when wife took her dinner into her bedroom and heard wife say that Kinyanjui was following her. P.N. heard the bedroom door shut and lock and then heard wife scream. P.N. picked up P. from the hallway outside the bedroom, ran outside, and called 911.

The responding police officers entered the house, proceeded upstairs, stopped outside the closed bedroom door, and heard thuds from inside the room. The officers ordered Kinyanjui to open the door; he responded, "No," and "I have not finished my work." One of the officers kicked the door, breaking a hole in the bottom panel. Through the hole, the officer saw wife on the ground with blood on her face and Kinyanjui standing nearby holding a hammer. The officer...