State v. Martin
| Decision Date | 09 December 1977 |
| Docket Number | No. 46680,46680 |
| Citation | 261 N.W.2d 341 |
| Parties | STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Donald Wayne MARTIN, Appellant. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. Photographs of a murder victim's body are admissible where they are accurate and helpful as an aid to a verbal description of objects and conditions which are relevant to a material issue.
2. One who is the lessee of an apartment and an actual inhabitant therein has authority to consent to a search of a fishing tackle box left in the apartment by one staying there as her guest.
3. There was no error in the trial court's instruction defining premeditation where the instruction was based squarely on the statutory definition and this court's holdings in previous cases.
4. There was ample independent factual evidence which confirms the testimony of an accomplice and supports the jury's finding of premeditation.
C. Paul Jones, Public Defender, Gregory A. Gaut, Asst. Public Defender, Minneapolis, for appellant.
Warren Spannaus, Atty. Gen., St. Paul, Gary W. Flakne, County Atty., Vernon E. Bergstrom, Chief, Appellate Division, David W. Larson, Phebe S. Haugen and Lee W. Barry, Asst. County Attys., Minneapolis, for respondent.
Heard before SHERAN, C. J., and PETERSON and TODD, JJ., and considered and decided by the court en banc.
At a jury trial in district court defendant, Donald W. Martin, was convicted of the first-degree murder of Jacqueline Patterson and sentenced to life imprisonment. On appeal from the judgment defendant challenges the admission of certain evidence, the court's instruction to the jury defining premeditation, and the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the jury's finding of premeditation. We reject these challenges and affirm the judgment.
In the early morning of Friday, June 20, 1975, defendant, together with Robert Wright and James Warborg, drove to the Victoria Hotel on 13th and Harmon in Minneapolis. Defendant entered the hotel and emerged with Miss Patterson. With defendant at the wheel, the four drove around the warehouse district near downtown Minneapolis and eventually parked the car by a fence along the west bank of the Mississippi River across from Nicollet Island. Defendant and Miss Patterson walked away from the others to a wooded area along the river bank and returned to the others several minutes later. Wright and Miss Patterson then walked to the wooded area and had sexual relations. When they returned to the car, Warborg declined to "talk" to (meaning, go to the wooded area with) Miss Patterson and the four drove off.
After driving around the immediate vicinity for 15 to 20 minutes, defendant again parked at about the same place near the river bank. Wright testified as to the events which then occurred. Defendant told Miss Patterson "there was something down by the river he wanted to show her to let her know she should keep her mouth shut." Defendant and Wright got out of the car and took Miss Patterson down a slope toward the river; Warborg remained behind. When they reached a flat area near the river, defendant put his arm around Miss Patterson and led her away from Wright. Wright heard Miss Patterson say, After a short conversation, defendant backed away from Miss Patterson and said, Defendant brought a knife up to her throat and stabbed her. Miss Patterson doubled over and fell to the ground. Defendant then "started stabbing her around in the breasts and chest and all around * * *." Wright was about 3 to 6 feet away and some of Miss Patterson's blood splattered on him. Defendant got up, wiped his knife off on his pants, walked over to Wright, and handed him the knife. Defendant returned to Miss Patterson, turned her over on her back, ripped open her blouse, pulled another knife from his boot, and started slashing her. The cutting and slashing continued for 15 to 20 minutes. Wright testified that defendant's motions reminded him of "one of these machines that knows what it's doing and will do it right."
When defendant and Wright returned to the car, Warborg was lying in the back seat. Warborg got up as they entered the car and asked what had happened to the girl. Defendant said, "We knocked her unconscious because the girl did not cooperate," and "We better get out of here." As they drove off Warborg again asked what happened. Wright testified that defendant replied, Warborg testified that Wright "did not want to talk about it."
John Stafford, a friend of defendant's, testified that at 6 o'clock in the morning of Friday, June 20, 1975, he received a telephone call from defendant. Defendant told him, "Johnny, I just killed a girl." Stafford asked, "What did you say?" Defendant replied, "I just killed a black chick down by the river." Stafford asked, "What do you mean?" Defendant replied, "You know the hunting knife I use when we go fishing?" Stafford said he did. Defendant said, Stafford turned on his television, but the news was not being shown. Defendant then said, They then discussed their planned fishing trip the next day, and the conversation ended with defendant saying he was going to bed.
Defendant was then residing at an apartment leased by Miss Irene Gunlogson. Miss Gunlogson returned to her apartment from work at about 7:20 a. m. that morning (June 20). Defendant was there and she testified, " * * * right away he told me he had some clothes for me to wash." She washed a shirt, slacks, handkerchief, and boots which were spotted with blood. Miss Gunlogson asked what had happened, but defendant refused to tell her anything.
At about 12:20 p. m. that day (June 20) Miss Patterson's body was found by a man taking a walk through the area. Defendant later told Miss Gunlogson that he and Wright had taken a woman down to the Mississippi River and killed her. Defendant said he killed her because she owed him $150 but didn't have the money to repay him and was going to report him to the police for rape.
Between the evening of June 20, and the early morning of June 22, defendant spoke at various times to his friends, James Delles and Kevin Owens, and his former girl friend, Delores Dillworth. Defendant returned to the scene of the crime while Owens and Delles stood on a nearby hill. Owens, Delles, and Miss Dillworth all testified that during this period defendant told them he had killed a woman down by the river. Defendant showed Owens a hunting knife which was in a fishing tackle box at the Gunlogson apartment and told Owens, "This is the knife I used." Some time on June 22 Owens and defendant left for Kansas City. They returned to Minneapolis several days later and defendant was arrested.
At defendant's trial the deputy medical examiner testified that he found 12 or 13 wounds on Miss Patterson's body. The principal neck wound was an irregular, jagged cut from a point an inch below one ear to a point an inch below the other ear. There were several wounds on her chest and a vertical wound 8 inches in length on her abdomen. This abdominal wound and two wounds near her left breast did not show bleeding. The medical examiner testified that in his opinion this lack of bleeding indicated that the wounds were inflicted after the decedent's heart had stopped beating, i. e., after the time of death.
1. We first consider defendant's argument that the trial court erred in admitting several photographs of the victim's body. Two photographs showed Miss Patterson's body as it was found at the scene of the crime. These were introduced at the beginning of trial through the testimony of the man who found the body and the police officer who was called to the scene. The other photographs (and two slides) were taken at the morgue and were introduced through the medical examiner in conjunction with his testimony as to the nature and extent of the knife wounds.
There is no dispute as to the accuracy of any photograph. Defendant argues, in essence that because of the grisly nature of the photographs their probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfairly prejudicing the jury.
The admission of photographs of a homicide victim's body is governed by the standard enunciated in State v. DeZeler, 230 Minn. 39, 41 N.W.2d 313, 15 A.L.R.2d 1137 (1950). There this court held that such photographs are admissible where they are (1) accurate and (2) helpful as an aid to a verbal description of objects and conditions which are relevant to some material issue. When photographs of the victim meet these conditions they "are not rendered inadmissible merely because they vividly bring to jurors the details of a shocking crime or incidentally tend to arouse passion or prejudice." 230 Minn. 47, 41 N.W.2d 319, 15 A.L.R. 1147. 1
The photographs in the present case meet the...
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