State v. Minkler
| Decision Date | 22 November 2022 |
| Docket Number | 55375-9-II,55385-6-II |
| Parties | STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. MILES JOSEPH MINKLER, Appellant. STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent, v. RYAN JAMES RODRIGUEZ, Appellant. |
| Court | Washington Court of Appeals |
UNPUBLISHED OPINION
Ryan James Rodriguez and Miles Joseph Minkler were convicted of first degree robbery, first degree burglary, second degree assault, and first degree attempted kidnapping for robbing and assaulting Edward Matheson at his house. Their accomplice, Michael Fischer, testified against them at their joint jury trial.
In this consolidated appeal, Rodriguez argues his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective, and Minkler argues Rodriguez's counsel deprived him of a fair trial. We conclude that Rodriguez's counsel performed deficiently and that his deficient performance prejudiced Rodriguez requiring reversal of Rodriguez's convictions and a new trial. Minkler was not deprived of a fair trial, however. We affirm Minkler's convictions.
Minkler also challenges his sentence. He argues his assault conviction elevated his robbery conviction to the first degree, so it must be vacated on double jeopardy grounds, and the State concedes that the trial court intended to merge these offenses. Because the basis for elevating Minkler's robbery conviction to the first degree was ambiguous, we accept the State's concession and remand for the trial court to merge Minkler's assault conviction. Minkler was also sentenced with an incorrect offender score, so the trial court will resentence him on remand and strike witness fees and mileage costs.
Edward Matheson lived alone in rural Washougal, Washington. The area was secluded and wooded. During summer 2019, Matheson hired Rodriguez to pressure wash his house. Matheson later recalled that while Rodriguez was working, Matheson heard the window next to his computer "crack open." 2 Verbatim Report of Proceedings (VRP) at 572.
Matheson thought Rodriguez did an "awesome" job. Id. at 576. Matheson knew that Rodriguez's girlfriend was pregnant and he needed money, so Matheson later texted Rodriguez about the possibility of Rodriguez painting the house. Rodriguez then asked whether Matheson wanted him to install "security lights," but Matheson declined. Id. at 577. At the time, Matheson had some old motion sensor lights, some of which were broken. Rodriguez did not end up doing any additional work on Matheson's house.
In the evening on November 12, 2019, Matheson came downstairs to play video games and "saw that there was no computer and the window was wide open." Id. at 579-80. The computer monitor was still there, so Matheson assumed whoever had taken the computer tower was still on the property and he began yelling. He went outside and continued to yell, and he saw his computer and camera tripod on the ground at the corner of the house.
Someone "jumped out and said [']don't move, I'll f[***]ing shoot you right now[']" while pointing a gun at Matheson's face. Id. at 585. Matheson ducked his head and charged into the person. The motion sensor lights at his home had been unscrewed, except for one over the front porch that was more difficult to reach. Matheson testified that he could not see the person who approached him with the gun or make out any of their features. He thought they were "kind of a little tall," or at least taller than he was at approximately "5' 9" and a half." Id. at 578 600. And he thought they were wearing gloves.
Someone hit him in the back of the head several times as Matheson fell to his knees, and then someone grabbed Matheson around the neck. Other people approached Matheson, and the first person "started yelling [']kick the s[***] out of him.[']" Id. at 589. The assailants kicked Matheson numerous times. He "couldn't make anything out at that point" about what the people looked like. Id. at 590. He thought that there were four people involved and that they were likely young, either teenagers or in their 20s. Matheson testified, "They just kept kicking until I went limp . . . and then I came back to [consciousness] and no one was around me." Id. at 592.
Matheson went into his house and found an old shotgun. There was a pickup truck leaving his driveway, and he shot toward the front of the truck at its "bumper, radiator area." Id. at 596. Matheson thought it was either a Toyota Tundra or Toyota Tacoma and that it was either black or dark blue. The truck sped off toward Washougal. Matheson went back into his house and called 911. He told the operator he thought three or four people were involved, but he was not able to give a physical description of anybody, except that the first person was "taller." Id. at 605.
Responding officers collected an air pistol, "a CO2-powered BB gun of sorts," from Matheson's front yard that "looked fairly realistic," as well as "a multi-tool," and they collected a black nitrile glove from the driveway. Id. at 690; 3 VRP at 1240, 1243. Matheson had a four-centimeter laceration on his head that required six staples, a fractured forearm, and "some mild discomfort on his right lower quadrant of his abdomen." 2 VRP at 768.
On the night of the offense, a maroon Toyota truck was parked at Fern Prairie Market with its hood open and two men near it. Fern Prairie Market is a popular convenience store near Washougal with a gas station, but it was closed at the time. Law enforcement created a bulletin with still frame pictures from the market's security footage "attempt[ing] to identify" a subject getting out of the truck. Id. at 887. An officer who was familiar with Minkler was "[a] hundred percent certain" the person in the picture from Fern Prairie's security footage was Minkler. Id. at 914.
The officer who recognized Minkler went to Minkler's home and saw a maroon Toyota truck parked outside. The truck was registered to Lyndon Fischer, Michael Fischer's father. Detective Jeremy Schultz inspected the front of the truck and noted "damage which was consistent with birdshot or a shotgun shot type damage." 3 VRP at 1183. Schultz sealed the truck and towed it as evidence. A black glove similar to the one found in Matheson's driveway was found in the back seat of the truck.
There was also a BMW parked outside Minkler's home that was registered to Lyndon Fischer. "Looking through the windows of the BMW from the outside, [Schultz] could see in the back passenger seat, directly behind the driver's seat, there was a computer." Id. at 1184. Schultz did not seize the BMW, but he was later able to confirm that this was Matheson's computer. Police eventually found the computer at Fischer's parents' house, where Fischer was also living. Fischer had sold some of its parts.
Minkler and Fischer were arrested. Fischer decided to explore a plea deal. As part of his negotiations with the State, Fischer told law enforcement about Rodriguez's involvement in the crime. Matheson had also told law enforcement that he was suspicious of Rodriguez. And police were aware that Rodriguez knew Minkler.
Rodriguez was arrested and joined as a codefendant with Minkler. Minkler and Rodriguez were charged as accomplices with first degree robbery, first degree burglary, second degree assault, and first degree attempted kidnapping. The State waited to finalize the charges against Fischer until after he testified against Minkler and Rodriguez.
After Minkler was arrested, Matheson found a connection between Minkler and Rodriguez "through his research on social media." 1 VRP at 283-84. But the trial court excluded "any reference that [Matheson] looked at social media and determined that [Minkler and Rodriguez] were associated together," based on hearsay and a lack of foundation. Id. at 289.
The State moved in limine to admit a prior conviction for burglary in order to impeach Rodriguez's credibility if he testified. The trial court ruled that Rodriguez's prior conviction for burglary was a crime involving dishonesty that could be introduced for impeachment purposes because the criminal intent underlying the burglary was to commit theft. Although Rodriguez also had a prior conviction for arson that was "part of the same . . . criminal incident," the State and the trial court agreed that Rodriguez's arson conviction would remain inadmissible. Id. at 292. Addressing how the impeachment process would work, the trial court explained that if Rodriguez admitted to the burglary conviction, "the issue [would be] essentially over." Id. If he denied the conviction, the State could introduce the judgment and sentence with the arson conviction redacted. The trial court reiterated this ruling when it reviewed Rodriguez's motions in limine.
After receiving notice of a potential character witness, the State also moved to exclude any witness's personal opinion of Rodriguez's character. The trial court did not make a specific ruling but reminded Rodriguez's counsel that character evidence "is just generally not admissible at all" unless it is pertinent to the specific crime charged and admonished that during trial, "we don't get into . . . this is a good person and this is a bad person." Id. at 348-49. Rodriguez's counsel did not confirm what specific character trait the potential witness would testify to but suggested the witness would testify that Rodriguez "has a good reputation with the community." Id. at 353.
Rodriguez's counsel emphasized several points during his opening statement, including that Rodriguez had an alibi and "was not at the scene" of the crime, that Rodriguez "had a pretty difficult life," and that he had a felony burglary conviction from when he was 18 years old. 2 VRP at 554. Counsel continu...
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