State v. Mills

• Decision Date: 10 April 1997
• Docket Number: No. C4-96-1327,C4-96-1327
• Citation: 562 N.W.2d 276
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Maime Hernandez MILLS, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 276

562 N.W.2d 276

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Maime Hernandez MILLS, Appellant.

No. C4-96-1327.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

April 10, 1997.

Syllabus by the Court

1. The trial court did not err in concluding that appellant was competent to stand trial for murder where the expert witnesses agreed that appellant did not suffer from a defect of reason but disagreed as to whether she suffered from a personality disorder that would prevent her from effectively participating in her defense.

2. Appellant's statements and waiver of Miranda rights were voluntary and admissible where they were not the result of coercive police activity.

3. Admission of evidence that appellant had previously tried to poison the murder victim was not an abuse of discretion where the evidence was relevant to show the strained relationship between appellant and the victim, and its probative value was not outweighed by its potential for creating unfair prejudice.

4. Exclusion of evidence of appellant's history of mental illness was not an abuse of discretion where appellant did not assert an insanity defense and the admission of such evidence would therefore have created a substantial danger of confusing the issues or misleading the jury.

5. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to admit statements of appellant under the "rule of completeness" where such statements constituted self-serving hearsay and could have caused confusion on the part of the jury.

6. Exclusion of videotaped interrogation did not violate "rule of completeness" or appellant's Sixth Amendment right to present evidence bearing on the credibility of statements made during interrogation where the tape consisted of self-serving hearsay and irrelevant evidence regarding appellant's mental health history.

Steven P. Russett, Asst. State Public Defender, St. Paul, for appellant.

Hubert H. Humphrey III, State Atty. Gen., St. Paul, Michael O. Freeman, Hennepin County Atty., Jean Burdorf, Asst. County Atty., Minneapolis, for respondent.

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

OPINION

STRINGER, Justice.

Appellant Maime Hernandez Mills was convicted of aiding and abetting the first-degree murder of her husband, Theotis Mills. On appeal, appellant asserts that the trial court committed reversible error in concluding that she was competent to stand trial, denying defense motions to exclude various statements of appellant as being made involuntarily and in violation of her Miranda rights, refusing to exclude testimony of appellant's accomplice and the investigating officers as prejudicial character evidence, and granting state motions to exclude testimony regarding appellant's psychiatric history and a videotape of appellant's interrogation by investigating officers. We hold that the trial court properly determined that appellant was competent to stand trial and that none of its evidentiary rulings constituted an abuse of discretion. We therefore affirm.

At approximately 2:45 p.m. on February 6, 1995, police responded to a 911 call reporting a burglary and shooting at 2719 Upton Avenue North in Minneapolis. Present at the house at the time of the police officers' arrival were appellant and her son, Nathan Wayne Lattu ("Lattu"). In their investigation, the officers noted that a closet in the downstairs bedroom was open and several drawers had been pulled out of a dresser next to the bed, tipped over, and emptied onto the floor. The officers then proceeded upstairs where they found the body of Theotis Mills lying face down on a bed and bleeding from a large gunshot to the right side of his head. Lattu, who had followed the officers upstairs, directed their attention to a typewritten note lying next to the body which read: "this is for our bud that you sent to jail mother fucker rest in peace." ¹ Later, Lattu was adamant about showing the officers a note he had been given by an administrator at the Fort Snelling V.A. hospital indicating that Lattu had been at the hospital from 1:15 to 2:00 that afternoon to pick up an I.D. card. He also insisted that the officers check the caller I.D. feature of their telephone, stating that he and appellant had called the victim from the V.A. hospital to let him know they had made it there safely.

After police secured the crime scene, both appellant and Lattu were transported to the Minneapolis Police Department to be interviewed. The interview of appellant was conducted by Officer Jim DeConcini who later testified that, at that point, he had no information that would lead him to believe that appellant was involved in the crime. Rather, the purpose of the interview was to gather information about the crime scene and what had happened that day to aid the officers in their investigation. In a recorded question and answer session, appellant told Officer DeConcini that the victim arrived home from working the overnight shift at Shamrock Industrial at about 7:20 that morning, fixed breakfast, and watched some television. It was his habit to watch television until about 2:00 in the afternoon and then go to bed. Appellant stated that she and Lattu left home at about 12:15 p.m., drove to a nearby Super Valu store to cash a personal check, and then went to the V.A. hospital to pick up Lattu's I.D. card. She further stated that, while they were at the hospital, she called home twice because the victim had a rule that whenever appellant went somewhere she had to call when she got there to let him know she had arrived safely. Appellant said the victim did not answer either of her calls. Then, appellant stated, she and Lattu left the hospital, drove home, and, when they arrived at the house at about 4:00 p.m., they noticed that the window in the back door was broken, the drawers from the dresser next to the bed were overturned and the victim was lying in bed covered in blood.

Detectives David Palmer and Robert Krebs were assigned to investigate the case and, the day after the murder, Detective Palmer again interviewed appellant and Lattu. ² During that interview with appellant, Palmer learned that appellant had been married to the victim for fourteen years, that the victim had hired a private investigator in 1993 to help find Lattu, that appellant and Lattu were reunited in December of 1993, and that Lattu came to live in the Mills home in October 1994.

While the detectives initially considered the possibility that the killing was the result of a burglary or was motivated by revenge for the Lopez incident, Detective Krebs testified that several factors led them to suspect the involvement of appellant and Lattu. The officers believed that the burglary seemed staged and that Lattu's behavior during the 911 call and at the scene of the initial investigation was not consistent with what would normally be expected from someone who had just found a loved one dead. Furthermore, when the broken back door window was checked for fingerprints, the only prints found were in the area of the break and a latent print matching those of Lattu was found on the fracture line of the plexiglass. While the half of the print on one side of the fracture line was clearly identifiable as that of Lattu, the half of the print on the other side of the line was smudged, indicating that the print was made at the time the glass was fractured.

Detectives Palmer and Krebs interviewed Lattu and appellant again on February 16, 1995. Because appellant and Lattu were now the primary suspects in the murder, they were apprised of their Miranda rights prior to the interviews and the interviews were videotaped. Upon being confronted with the fingerprint evidence, Lattu broke down and told the detectives that he had handwritten the words that appeared on the note found near the victim's body on a torn envelope, given the handwritten note to appellant, and left the rest of the torn envelope in the victim's Chevrolet Blazer. He further admitted that he and appellant had written the note, faked the burglary, and that appellant had shot and killed the victim with the victim's shotgun as he slept. ³

The detectives then confronted appellant with the information obtained from Lattu. During the Mirandized, videotaped interview, appellant emphatically denied that she had anything to do with the victim's murder. Appellant stated, however, that the victim did in fact own a large hunting-type gun and demonstrated that she knew how to use it in a manner that suggested it was a bolt action weapon. She also told the detectives that one of her "personalities" had once tried to poison the victim. ⁴ Appellant was arrested at the close of the interview.

The following day Detectives Krebs and Palmer went to the home of Brice Jermain. Appellant had told the detectives that she was employed by Jermain as a housecleaner and, during his confession, Lattu gave the officers information concerning the authoring of the note left at the murder scene which led them to believe that it had been typed at Jermain's house. Jermain directed the detectives to his typewriter which they took and turned over to Karen Runyon, the document examiner for the Minneapolis Police. Upon examining the typewriter ribbon, Runyon determined that, after two to four attempts by the typist, the phrase from the note found at the murder scene had in fact been typed on Jermain's typewriter. A comparison of the paper fibers found on the typewriter ribbon with those of the note from the murder scene confirmed that the note was typed on Jermain's machine.

At trial, the various officers and investigators who had worked on the case testified as to the investigation they had conducted, the evidence they had obtained, and the statements made by appellant and Lattu. Lattu also testified on behalf of the state. Lattu testified that he and appellant had a sexual relationship and that they had killed the victim "for sex and money." He stated that, four days before the murder, he wrote out the message...