State v. Krogmann
| Docket Number | 21-1617 |
| Decision Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Parties | STATE OF IOWA, Appellee, v. ROBERT PAUL KROGMANN, Appellant. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
1
STATE OF IOWA, Appellee,
v.
ROBERT PAUL KROGMANN, Appellant.
No. 21-1617
Supreme Court of Iowa
December 1, 2023
Submitted September 13, 2023
On review from the Iowa Court of Appeals.
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Delaware County, Linda M. Fangman, Judge.
The State seeks further review of a court of appeals decision ordering a new trial in an attempted murder case because of an error in the application of the hearsay rule. Decision of Court of Appeals Vacated; District Court Judgment Affirmed; writ of Certiorari Granted and Sustained in part; Remanded for Redetermination of Costs.
Angela Campbell (argued) and Jamie L. Hunter of Dickey, Campbell & Sahag Law Firm, PLC, Des Moines, for appellant.
Brenna Bird, Attorney General, and Martha E. Trout (argued), Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Mansfield, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Christensen, C.J., and Waterman, McDonald, and May, JJ., joined. McDermott, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Oxley, J., joined.
MANSFIELD, JUSTICE
I. Introduction.
Fourteen years ago, Robert Krogmann fired three shots from a .44 Magnum at close range at his former girlfriend, nearly killing her. He was convicted of attempted murder and willful injury causing serious injury. His convictions were affirmed on direct appeal. State v. Krogmann, 804 N.W.2d 518, 527 (Krogmann I) (Iowa 2011).
In 2018, on postconviction relief, we granted Krogmann a new trial because an improper asset freeze had interfered with his defense rights. Krogmann v. State, 914 N.W.2d 293, 326 (Krogmann II) (Iowa 2018). The State retried Krogmann, and in 2021, he was again convicted of attempted murder and willful injury. Krogmann appealed once more, and the court of appeals has now vacated his convictions and ordered a third trial. The court of appeals reasoned that the district court erroneously excluded from evidence a video of Krogmann's interview with law enforcement right after the shooting; Krogmann sought to introduce the video to support his defense of diminished capacity. The court of appeals determined that the interview was not hearsay because it wasn't being used to show the truth of what Krogmann said but to illustrate Krogmann's behavior and demeanor after the shooting.
On further review, we now hold that the court of appeals was right about the legal significance of the interview but wrong about its practical significance. The video was not hearsay: Krogmann's statements were inculpatory, not exculpatory, and the real purpose of using the video was to show Krogmann's mental state during the interview, a subject on which a prosecution witness had already testified. So the video should have been admitted at trial. However, the refusal to admit the video didn't affect Krogmann's substantial rights. All things considered, the video would not have provided meaningful help to Krogmann's
diminished capacity defense. Because we find the error with respect to the video harmless, and we also reject Krogmann's other claims of error, we conclude that Krogmann's convictions and sentence should be affirmed. We do, however, uphold certain objections by Krogmann to the award of costs and remand only for recalculation of those costs.
II. Background Facts and Procedural History.
A. Background Facts.
Robert Krogmann and J.S. began dating in 2007. At the time, both were divorced and in their forties. They had known each other since childhood, having attended the same middle school and high school in Delaware County.
Krogmann had struggled with certain mental health issues over the years and had been diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder. He had been hospitalized for treatment a few times, the most recent being in 2006.
In late January 2009, Krogmann decided to break off the relationship with J.S. Then for a while, the couple got back together. But J.S. noticed that Krogmann was communicating with other women through an online dating site. J.S. decided to end the relationship once and for all. As she put it, "I told him that I wasn't going to do it anymore and that I was done."
Krogmann did not accept that decision. He called and texted J.S. many times a day, brought flowers to her at work, and showed up at her home in Dundee unannounced. J.S. told Krogmann that he needed to move on.
Krogmann worked as a farmer and also as a part-time sales representative at a John Deere farm equipment dealership. On March 12, Krogmann's employer asked him to travel the next day to Sigourney, about two hours away, to pick up a new planter. Krogmann said he could not do that. That evening, Krogmann played cards with his friends and appeared to be acting normally.
On March 13, around 7:40 a.m., Krogmann called the dealership and reiterated that he could not go to Sigourney. However, Krogmann did agree to pick up a check from a dealership customer who lived about twenty minutes away. Krogmann had retrieved the check by about 8:15 a.m. that morning.
That same day, around 8:30 a.m., Krogmann appeared-again without warning-at J.S.'s home. She let him in and they talked for a little while in the kitchen. Krogmann asked if they could get back together and J.S. said no. Krogmann then asked if he could give J.S. a hug and she agreed.
J.S. went to get a cup of coffee. When she turned back around, Krogmann was pointing a handgun at her-a .44 Magnum. Krogmann told J.S. that they were going to die together that day. He added that if he couldn't have her, no one could.
Krogmann fired his first shot, striking J.S. in the stomach. J.S., still standing, asked Krogmann to call 911. Krogmann replied that he had left his phone in his vehicle on purpose so he wouldn't be able to call. He said he was going to kill her and then kill himself. He told her that he was not going to spend the rest of his life in jail.
Krogmann fired a second shot, which went through J.S.'s hand and arm. J.S. again begged Krogmann to call 911, but he repeated that he would not do so. Krogmann also refused to get J.S.'s phone out of the bedroom.
Krogmann fired a third shot, which struck J.S. in the spine and caused her to collapse on the ground. J.S. again asked Krogmann for her phone; he once more declined. Krogmann did agree to get J.S. a pillow and her rosary. While doing so, he told her, "I really didn't think it would take this long for you to die."
Krogmann then retrieved J.S.'s phone from the other room and used it to call his son Jeff. J.S. heard Krogmann say, "I did it. I shot [J.S.]." Jeff had
actually taken some of Krogmann's guns from him two days before the shooting because he was concerned that Krogmann was going to hurt himself.
J.S. believed she was going to die. She wanted to speak to her mother one last time. Krogmann dialed J.S.'s mother on the phone. J.S. told her mother that she loved her. She asked her mother to tell her father and her girls that she loved them as well and to call her brother, M.S.
At this point, Krogmann ended the phone call with J.S.'s mother and used the phone to call 911 himself. Krogmann provided the dispatcher with J.S.'s home address and asked her to send an ambulance because "someone's been shot." The dispatcher asked who had been shot and how they had been shot. Krogmann didn't respond and continued to ask for an ambulance. He then hung up.
The dispatcher called back, told Krogmann that she had paged an ambulance, and asked Krogmann to tell her "what's going on." Krogmann said that J.S. had been shot. He reiterated, "just please hurry." Again, the dispatcher asked, "how did she get shot and where was she shot at." Krogmann responded, "just send an ambulance."
The dispatcher pressed for more information:
911 dispatcher: Please tell me what happened? What happened?
Krogmann: A squabble, a squabble between the two of us.
911 dispatcher: A squabble?
Krogmann: Um-hm.
911 dispatcher: Okay, and where is the gun now?
Krogmann: I have it.
911 dispatcher: You have it?
Krogmann: Um-hm.
911 dispatcher: And how did she get shot?
Krogmann: I shot her.
911 dispatcher: You shot her?
Krogmann: Um-hm.
Krogmann asked the operator to hurry and to "please save her."
Soon thereafter, people began arriving at J.S.'s home. Krogmann's son Jeff came in and took Krogmann's gun away. J.S.'s brother, M.S., showed up and used a broom to chase Krogmann out of the house. Several minutes later, law enforcement and first responders arrived.
When law enforcement reached the scene, Krogmann had already departed, and Jeff was in the process of leaving "in a hurry." Law enforcement followed Jeff to his father's home. Jeff then called his father and asked him to come home. Krogmann drove home as requested by his son and was observed to be driving properly. Krogmann stopped the vehicle at the house, exited on command by law enforcement, and was apprehended. The officers recounted that Krogmann did not seem to be impaired, was calm, and cooperated with their requests. He did not resist. One officer commented that "there was nothing . . . out of the ordinary" about Krogmann's arrest. When placed in the patrol car, Krogmann asked how J.S. was doing.
Krogmann was taken to the Delaware County Sheriff's office, where he was left in the office but placed in a restraint chair that bound him by his shoulders, hands, and feet. Within about an hour, Special Agent Jack Liao of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation arrived and interviewed Krogmann. Krogmann confessed to shooting J.S. and said he had done "a terrible thing." This interview was recorded on video. During the course of the interview, Agent Liao arranged for Krogmann's arm and hand restraints to be removed.
Meanwhile, J.S. was airlifted to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics with life-threatening injuries. She had received a laceration in her liver four inches long...
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