State v. Miller

• Decision Date: 15 January 1998
• Docket Number: No. CX-96-2434,CX-96-2434
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Lawrence Burton MILLER, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 661

573 N.W.2d 661

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Lawrence Burton MILLER, Appellant.

No. CX-96-2434.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Jan. 15, 1998.

Syllabus by the Court

1. The district court did not err in concluding that defendant was not in custody and thus not entitled to a Miranda warning when defendant asked and was told he was not under arrest, asked and was permitted to leave the police station, and then prolonged the encounter by asking the police officers questions about their investigation.

2. The district court did not err in concluding that defendant invoked and then voluntarily waived his right to counsel under the Fifth Amendment when the police treated his mention of an attorney as an invocation of his right to counsel, the defendant sought to reinitiate conversation, and then the police repeatedly questioned the defendant to ensure that he understood his rights and was waiving them voluntarily.

3. The district court did not err in admitting defendant's statements to the police when there was no evidence of police coercion, the police repeatedly questioned defendant to ensure he was speaking voluntarily, and defendant had a high school education and significant earlier contact with the criminal justice system.

4. The district court did not err in admitting testimony about the unrecorded portion of defendant's interrogation when the failure to record resulted from a misunderstanding of the recording equipment, and the unrecorded portion contained no information about Miranda rights, waivers, or inculpatory or exculpatory evidence.

5. The district court did not err in admitting testimony about the likelihood the defendant killed his mother and his bad acts when defense counsel did not object to the testimony and admission of the evidence was not plain error.

6. The district court did not err in failing to grant defense counsel's motion for a mistrial after a witness mentioned on defense cross-examination that the defendant had previous felonies when the court immediately John M. Stuart, State Public Defender, Patricia P. Rettler, Sp. Asst. State Public Defender, Minneapolis, for appellant.

instructed the jury to disregard the testimony.

Hubert H. Humphrey, Atty. Gen., Susan Gaertner, Ramsey County Atty., Mark Nathan Lystig, Asst. Ramsey County Atty., Karen A. MacLaughlin, Certified Student Atty., St. Paul, for respondent.

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

OPINION

ANDERSON, Justice.

On May 10, 1996, the body of 73-year-old Lorraine Miller was found on the bathroom floor of her St. Paul, Minnesota home. She had been shot twice in the head. Three days later, appellant Lawrence (Larry) Burton Miller, Lorraine Miller's 42-year-old son, was arrested for the murder of his mother. Both before and after he was arrested, Miller gave statements to St. Paul police officers. Although he initially denied having anything to do with his mother's death, Miller ultimately admitted that he was present when she was shot. He claimed that he had given a .22-caliber pistol to his mother because she wanted to commit suicide. Miller claimed that, while at her home, he found the pistol on the floor of her bedroom and that, when he picked it up, the pistol accidentally discharged and shot his mother in the back of the head.

Miller sought to have all of his statements to the police suppressed, claiming that the police obtained them in violation of his Miranda rights. The Ramsey County District Court ordered all of the statements admitted. During trial, a witness mentioned on defense cross-examination that Miller had prior felonies. The court sustained defense counsel's objection to the testimony and instructed the jury to disregard the statement, but denied defense counsel's motion for a mistrial. Two other witnesses testified without objection that their first reaction to the news of Ms. Miller's death was to believe that Miller had killed her. The jury found Miller guilty of first-degree murder, and the court sentenced him to life imprisonment.

On appeal, Miller raises two grounds for reversal. He first contends that the statements he made to the police should have been suppressed because they were obtained in part in violation of his Miranda rights and in part in violation of the recording requirement of State v. Scales ¹. Second, he asserts that the district court erroneously admitted certain witness testimony regarding the likelihood that he killed his mother, his bad acts, and his prior felonies, thus denying him a fair trial. Because we find no grounds for reversal, we affirm.

Miller's childhood was far from ideal; his parents fought with each other and belittled him. Nonetheless, Miller maintained regular contact with his mother and visited her weekly to run errands and help with chores. He and his sister Leslie Miller received monthly payments from a family trust fund until March 1996, when the payments to Miller stopped. At the time of the murder, Miller was working as the assistant manager of the Subway sandwich shop in the Har Mar Mall in Roseville. He had also owned and operated a gun store in the past.

Likewise, Miller's criminal history provides necessary context for the investigation of his mother's murder and his trial. By 1996, Miller had had significant contact with the criminal justice system. In 1984, he had been convicted of third- and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and served time in prison. He had also been arrested at least three other times. In addition, he had been brought in for police questioning about several other crimes.

On the morning of Friday, May 10, 1996, Ms. Miller's house-cleaner found her body on the floor of her bathroom. Ms. Miller had been shot twice in the head. The shot that killed her entered at the nape of her neck. She also had a graze along the right side of her head. At about 6:00 p.m. that same day, Miller drove up to his mother's house. A uniformed Neighborhood Assistance Officer was on duty and asked Miller where he was going. Miller replied that he was going inside to see his mother. The officer told him that his mother was dead and that he could not enter her house. The officer then suggested that Miller contact Sgt. Robert Weston of the St. Paul Police Department, who would provide more information about his mother's death.

Soon thereafter, Miller called Sgt. Weston, who invited Miller to come to police headquarters to discuss his mother's death. Miller agreed to talk to Weston and arrived at the station with his wife Mary Ann at about 7:30 p.m. Weston met with Miller and his wife for about an hour and a half. At this time, the police had no suspects and did not record the interview. Miller informed Weston that he owned a 12-gauge shotgun, and Mary Ann added that her 13-year-old son, who lived with them in West St. Paul, owned a .22-caliber rifle that he used for Boy Scouts. At trial, Weston described Miller's mood that evening as "inquisitive and jovial at times."

Two days later, on Sunday, May 12, Sgt. Weston called Miller at work and asked him if he could come again to the police station to discuss his mother's death. Miller agreed, and later admitted at the Rasmussen hearing that he went to the station of his own free will. Weston asked a fellow homicide investigator, Sgt. Neil Nelson, to assist in the investigation. Miller was at the police station from about 12:45 p.m. until about 4:30 p.m., and Sgt. Nelson tape-recorded the entire interview. Although Miller became a suspect during the May 12 interview, at no point that day did he receive a Miranda warning.

At the beginning of the May 12 interview, Miller asked Sgt. Weston whether he was under arrest. Weston told him he was not, adding, "[i]f you were, I'd have given you your rights." Before Weston asked Miller any substantive questions, he gave Miller a questionnaire to fill out. Weston explained at trial that this questionnaire was designed to "detect deceit" by asking Miller about his knowledge of and involvement in his mother's death. Miller testified at the Rasmussen hearing that he felt compelled to fill out the questionnaire because Weston had given him a "strong impression" that he had to comply, even though Weston told him that skipping a question was not a "strike" against him. Miller also testified that he did not feel free to leave at any time, in part because the officers went to great lengths to make him feel comfortable by bringing him cans of pop and allowing him to smoke. Miller was allowed to use the restroom several times and was also permitted to call his wife twice.

Miller took over an hour to complete the questionnaire. After he finished, he spontaneously explained to the two officers where he had been on Wednesday evening, May 8. He told them that after work, he dropped off a co-worker at the co-worker's home, shopped for a day planner, picked up his wife, and then went shopping with her. He initially maintained that he had not seen his mother at all during the week before her death. Later in the interview, though, he revealed that he had been at his mother's house on Tuesday evening, May 7. Miller stated that on the 7th, he entered the house and called out to his mother. Not hearing any response, he looked around the house and discovered her lying motionless on the bathroom floor. He immediately fled the house in panic. Miller repeatedly rejected the officers' suggestions that his mother had committed suicide and said the odds of her having committed suicide were "slim to none."

Miller never requested or attempted to leave the police station during the May 12 interview, although he and Sgt. Nelson discussed how long the interview would last. Nelson first mentioned the issue, asking how Miller was doing "timewise." Miller responded by asking how much longer the interview would last. Nelson then told him they were "[g]etting close to being done." Later, after Miller had admitted that he had been in his mother's house and had seen...