State v. Knight
| Decision Date | 24 March 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. A-19-274.,A-19-274. |
| Parties | STATE OF NEBRASKA, APPELLEE, v. JUSTIN L. KNIGHT, APPELLANT. |
| Court | Nebraska Court of Appeals |
(Memorandum Web Opinion)
Appeal from the District Court for Scotts Bluff County: LEO P. DOBROVOLNY, Judge. Affirmed.
Katy A. Reichert, of Chaloupka, Holyoke, Snyder, Chaloupka & Longoria, P.C., L.L.O., for appellant.
Douglas J. Peterson, Attorney General, and Austin N. Relph for appellee.
Following a jury trial in the Scotts Bluff County District Court, Justin L. Knight was convicted of and sentenced for possession of 190.84 grams of methamphetamine (meth) with intent to distribute, possession of a defaced firearm, and possession of a firearm by a felon. Knight appeals the denial of a motion to suppress and the sufficiency of evidence for his convictions; he also claims his trial counsel was ineffective in several ways. We affirm his convictions.
On January 16, 2018, the State charged Knight in the county court for Scotts Bluff County with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute (more than 140 grams of meth) (Count I), possession of a defaced firearm (Count II), possession of a firearm by a felon (Count III), use of money to violate drug laws (Count IV), and use of a vehicle to violate drug laws (Count V). Finding probable cause for each count, the county court bound the case over to the district court where, on February 1, the State charged Knight as it had in county court.
On March 21, 2018, Knight filed a motion to suppress all evidence seized by law enforcement on or about the date of his offense during an alleged illegal search. On June 28, Knight filed another motion to suppress regarding (1) the initial contact, stop, and/or seizure concerning Knight and his co-defendants, (2) any statements of Knight (to law enforcement) that the State intended to introduce at trial, and (3) all evidence gathered as a result of any contact, stop, seizure, and/or interview obtained by the State. During the September hearing on the motion to suppress, Knight's trial counsel said the challenge was only to "the stop and the search"; evidence was adduced regarding that matter. Near the end of the hearing, the district court asked Knight's counsel if the defense was withdrawing the challenge concerning statements Knight had made. Knight's counsel denied that the defense was withdrawing that part of the (second-filed) motion to suppress. The court asked, "We are just not doing that today?"; Knight's counsel agreed. Knight's motion was later overruled.
A jury trial took place on December 19 and 20, 2018, on Counts I through III (Counts IV and V were later dismissed by the State). The State presented evidence and then rested. The defense rested without offering any evidence. A summary of the relevant evidence follows.
In January 2018, Isaiah Ortgiesen was living in Colorado with Knight, his uncle. Ortgiesen testified that they made an early morning trip to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, that month using Ortgiesen's "red Dodge Ram" truck (red truck); Knight drove. Knight "flat out" told Ortgiesen that the purpose of the trip was to "do a drug run." They stayed at a hotel in Scottsbluff (a hotel receipt shows the stay was from January 9 at 4:54 a.m. to January 11). Knight left the hotel at some point with the red truck; Ortgiesen recalled Knight said something about going to "Misty's trailer" (referring to Misty Yekel, also known as Misty Bailey). Knight returned at "maybe" 10 a.m. and then he and Ortgiesen went to Fort Morgan, Colorado, because Ortgiesen had to go to work there; in the meantime, Knight kept Ortgiesen's red truck.
Yekel testified that she resides in a trailer park in Scottsbluff. She admittedly had been involved with meth for years. Yekel said Knight visited her trailer in January 2018, during the day. Yekel identified exhibits 23 and 24 as text messages between her and Knight on January 9 "in reference to the money." Exhibits 23 and 24 show the text messages were exchanged from about noon to 1 p.m. that day between one cell phone number (Yekel's) and another cell phone number,which a wireless communications company representative said belonged to Knight since 2017. Knight had sent Yekel one photograph message; text messages sent after that from Yekel to Knight included three separate photographs to which Knight responded, "Thank u hun your [sic] amazing."
Yekel's testimony was that the four photographs associated with those text messages were exhibits 25, 26, 27, and 28. Yekel recognized exhibit 25 as a picture Knight had sent her of "somebody" she did not know but was "supposed to send some money to"; exhibit 25 is a picture of Ryan Thomas Kubik's driver's license. Yekel said that Knight "briefly" came over and gave her about $1,300 to wire to Kubik. Because Yekel did not have an "I.D.," she had someone do it for her. Yekel identified exhibit 26 as the picture she sent to Knight of the person who she tasked with sending the money; exhibit 26 is part of a form that lists that person's name. Yekel recognized exhibit 27 as showing the amount of money that was sent; exhibit 27 is part of a form that lists "Ryan Thomas" as "RECEPTOR" of "1100." (We note that Yekel texted Knight that "$1100 is what was sent" and she had his "change.") Yekel said exhibit 28 was a receipt with the "reference number" showing the money had been wired. Yekel claimed she did not know why the money was being sent; on cross-examination she said that Knight had been talking about buying a vehicle.
According to Ortgiesen, after he finished working at 10:30 p.m. on January 9, 2018, Knight arrived in the red truck to pick him up. Another man whom Ortgiesen had never met before was in the front passenger seat; he later learned that man was Kubik. Ortgiesen said Knight "basically" told him: "you can go home or you can come with me up to Scottsbluff on a drug run, your choice, but you are not getting your truck." Ortgiesen went to Scottsbluff "out of fear of something happening." Ortgiesen saw Kubik "slip" a "huge baggie" of meth into his own pocket. They arrived in Scottsbluff at 2 a.m. on January 10 and returned to the hotel room. Ortgiesen remembered Knight had "basically" been telling Kubik they "really need[ed] to find somebody to sell this to." Knight had lived in Scottsbluff before.
At some point, Ortgiesen, Kubik, and Knight went to Yekel's trailer where Knight went inside for "maybe" 20 to 30 minutes while the others remained in the red truck. Upon returning to the hotel room, Knight left and was gone for a few hours. Knight bought a "late 80's, little Chevy half-ton pickup" at some point on January 10, 2018; Ortgiesen indicated Yekel informed Knight about "this guy to go sell dope to" in exchange for the pickup. Ortgiesen recalled seeing the meth at the hotel "shortly" after they "got it" and that Knight and Kubik were weighing it out. Ortgiesen agreed that Knight had packaged the meth and that Knight had, in the prosecutor's words, the "scales" and "baggies."
Ortgiesen said that after he woke up on the morning of January 11, 2018, Kubik got a telephone call from Knight asking them to meet him at Yekel's trailer. Knight had the red truck at the trailer so Ortgiesen and Kubik used Knight's newly acquired pickup to travel there. Ortgiesen said he again observed meth at Yekel's trailer where Knight, Yekel, and Kubik were talking about where to get rid of "this"; Ortgiesen said Knight told Yekel, "[Kubik] had got this from Colorado, like we really need to get rid of this." At some point, a man named Dalton Slunecka arrived and talked to Yekel. Then Knight and Kubik left in the red truck to go "wherever [Yekel] had told them to go."
Ortgiesen saw one exchange of meth between Knight and Yekel at some point; Yekel testified that Knight had come to her trailer with meth sometime after the wire transfer. Ortgiesen said he was also present with Kubik and Knight at a house in Gering, Nebraska, when Knight went to go talk to with a person named "Cat" in a different room; Ortgiesen was "pretty sure that's when the exchange happened between those two." Ortgiesen recalled Yekel driving him, Knight, and Kubik in the red truck to a house south of Mitchell, Nebraska, for what Knight said was "just another person to sell dope to coming from [Yekel]"; Yekel and Knight went inside the house for about 20 minutes and, upon exiting, Knight said he had sold "it." Ortgiesen heard Knight and Kubik talk about "the rest of them" and "had known about a few more exchanges" but did not "physically" see those happen. Yekel admitted she "assisted" Knight in getting rid of the meth. She recalled going with Knight, Ortgiesen, and Kubik to the residence south of Mitchell where the buyer bought "an ounce" from Knight. Later that day, Kubik bought a vehicle from someone Yekel knew.
Ortgiesen said he saw a metal gun "sticking out" from Slunecka's pocket on the night of January 11, 2018, before he, Slunecka, Knight, and Kubik went to a store via the red truck to "find sandpaper." After purchasing the sandpaper, Slunecka was taken home and the others "went to another house that [Knight] had taken [them] to" where they met two individuals, one of whom Knight knew from previously living in Scottsbluff. Ortgiesen saw Knight and Kubik sanding the serial number on the gun that had come from Slunecka. Ortgiesen said exhibit 16 depicted that gun.
At some point in the early morning hours of January 12, 2018, Ortgiesen, Knight, and Kubik were at "Keno," a bar with gambling. Ortgiesen said they were there for "not even five minutes" before law enforcement arrived (Knight had gone inside). Ortgiesen, Knight, and Kubik had...
To continue reading
Request your trial