State v. Mitchell

• Decision Date: 16 April 1998
• Docket Number: No. C0-97-136,C0-97-136
• Citation: 577 N.W.2d 481
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Eric William MITCHELL, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 481

577 N.W.2d 481

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Eric William MITCHELL, Appellant.

No. C0-97-136.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

April 16, 1998.

Syllabus by the Court

A sentence of life imprisonment for a minimum of 30 years imposed upon a 15-year-old child convicted of first-degree murder does not violate article 1, section 5 of the Minnesota Constitution prohibiting cruel or unusual punishment.

The wide disparity in punishment for first-degree murder for adults versus children does not violate the substantive due process rights of a 15-year-old child certified to stand trial as an adult, because there is no fundamental right involved, and the child did receive a hearing at which age was considered.

Sentencing a 15-year-old child certified to stand trial as an adult without considering age does not violate the child's procedural due process rights because the courts did consider the child's age in the certification process.

The adult sentence of life imprisonment for a minimum of 30 years as applied to a 15-year-old child certified to stand trial as an adult does not violate the child's equal protection rights because the child is being treated as all persons convicted of first-degree murder in adult court.

The district court correctly concluded that it lacked the inherent judicial power to depart from the mandatory life sentence when sentencing a 15-year-old child who was certified to stand trial as an adult and was subsequently convicted of first-degree murder.

Robert M. Speeter, Speeter, Johnson, Hamilton & Wurst, Minneapolis, Alan D. Margoles, St. Paul, for appellant.

Hubert H. Humphrey III, Atty. Gen., Michael K. Junge, McLeod County Atty., Jody L. Winters, Asst. McLeod County Atty., Glencoe, for respondent.

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

OPINION

ANDERSON, Justice.

In November 1994, 15-year-old Eric William Mitchell participated in a convenience store robbery in Hutchinson, Minnesota during which he shot and killed the 19-year-old store clerk. Mitchell was charged with the murder and was certified to stand trial as an adult. A jury found him guilty of intentional first-degree murder during an aggravated robbery. The district court sentenced Mitchell to the mandatory adult sentence--life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for a minimum of 30 years. On appeal, Mitchell challenges the life sentence as applied to a 15-year-old, arguing that it is cruel or unusual punishment under the Minnesota Constitution; it violates his rights to substantive due process, procedural due process, and equal protection; and the district court incorrectly concluded that it lacked the inherent authority to depart from the mandatory adult sentence. Mitchell also argues that the court erred in its failure to give the jury instructions that he requested. We affirm Mitchell's conviction and sentence.

School let out early in Hutchinson on November 17, 1994, and several high school students and other young people "hung out" and listened to music at Jeffrey Meidl's apartment. Early that evening, 19-year-old Meidl, 20-year-old Jason Walters, 17-year-old Harley Hildenbrand, and 15-year-old Mitchell gathered in the back bedroom of Meidl's apartment. Mitchell was the youngest boy and the newest member to the group. Hildenbrand testified that although he was "not really good friends" with Mitchell, he had known him for about a year prior to the murder; Walters testified that he had known Mitchell for only a few weeks.

Walters told the other members of the group that he needed money, showed them his gun, an Intertech .22 semi-automatic, and asked if they knew of anyone who would buy it from him. When they could not find a buyer, they formulated another plan. Hildenbrand and Mitchell, the two minors of the group, would rob a convenience store. Meidl would provide them with a car, and Walters would let them use his gun. Walters, the oldest member of the group, made a list telling the two younger boys what to do during the robbery. Walters then loaded the gun and handed it to Mitchell.

Hildenbrand and Mitchell took Meidl's car, drove around Hutchinson for a while, and then drove to George's Food and Fuel at 600 Adams Street. They parked the car and separately entered and exited the store at least two times. They returned to the store, where surveillance cameras recorded on videotape aspects of the shooting that followed. The videotape shows that Mitchell entered the store at 9:37:39 p.m. and confronted the cashier, Mickey Wilfert. Although Wilfert appeared to offer no resistance to the robbery, within 12 seconds, he was shot in the face. The force of the bullet pushed Wilfert back, and he fell to the floor. Mitchell then came around the counter and pointed the gun at Wilfert again. Unknown to Mitchell at the time, his wallet fell out of his pocket and onto the floor below the cash register. Mitchell then kicked at Wilfert with his right leg. He kicked so hard that his hand, which was on the open drawer of the cash register, caused the register to rock back and forth. The videotape showed that Hildenbrand was also in the store about this time. However, Hildenbrand testified at trial that he was not in the store when Wilfert was shot, but instead was outside operating as the lookout. Hildenbrand stated that he ran into the store after hearing a gunshot. After the shooting, Mitchell took the money from the cash register, Hildenbrand grabbed several packs of cigarettes, and the two boys ran from the store.

After they left the store, the videotape shows that Wilfert struggled to pull himself up. He pushed the burglar alarm button and then fell back to the floor. Minutes later, the police arrived and provided medical assistance. Wilfert was rushed to the hospital where the doctors tried to resuscitate him, but, at 10:30 p.m., Wilfert died from the gunshot wound to his head. At about the time Wilfert died, three police officers were at his parents' home to notify them of the shooting of their son.

At the Food and Fuel, the police recovered Mitchell's wallet from behind the counter and the videotape of the robbery from the store's surveillance cameras. The police soon ascertained that Hildenbrand and Mitchell were their prime suspects. The police obtained a description of the car that Hildenbrand and Mitchell were driving, and soon thereafter arrested the boys traveling west on Highway 19 in Sibley County between Gaylord and Winthrop. Mitchell and Hildenbrand were arrested at around 1:00 a.m., less than four hours after the murder. When arrested, Mitchell had blood stains on his tennis shoes and his right pants leg.

The police took Hildenbrand and Mitchell to the Sibley County Sheriff's Office. Shortly thereafter, the police concluded that Meidl and Walters were also involved in the crime. In the early morning hours of the next day, the police went to Meidl's apartment, and Meidl gave his consent for the police to search his apartment. In the apartment, the police found a jacket similar to the one Mitchell was wearing on the videotape. The police then went to Walters' home, and Walters led them to his pickup truck where the Intertech .22 was in a plastic case inside a nylon bag.

Later that same day, the McLeod County Attorney filed a delinquency petition against Mitchell in juvenile court, charging him with first-degree murder. The county attorney also requested that the juvenile court refer the matter to adult district court. The reference hearing began in February 1995, but was not completed until March due to the need for psychological evaluations. On May 5, 1995, the juvenile court signed an order referring the matter to adult district court. Mitchell appealed from this order. The Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed in February 1996, concluding that the evidence amply supported the juvenile court's conclusion that Mitchell was not suitable for treatment within the juvenile system and that public safety would not be served under the juvenile court provisions. In re E.W.M., C5-95-1214 1996 WL 70977, at *1-2 (Minn.App.1996) (unpublished opinion), pet. for rev. denied (Minn., Mar. 28, 1996). This court denied Mitchell's petition for review of the reference decision. Id.

Because of the abundance of adverse media attention about the murder in Hutchinson, the McLeod County district court granted a change of venue to Mitchell. The trial began in Dakota County with jury selection on August 26, 1996. After jury selection was completed, Mitchell's attorney made a motion to stay the proceedings, alleging that Mitchell was incompetent to stand trial because, as the psychologist testified, Mitchell went "into trance states or dissociative states" during jury selection. The court granted the motion, held a competency hearing on September 3, and determined that Mitchell was competent to stand trial.

Testimony in the trial began on September 5 and continued through September 10. At trial, Mitchell maintained that Hildenbrand had shot Wilfert. In support of this position, he presented the testimony of George Hecker, a fellow prisoner of Hildenbrand and Mitchell. Hecker testified that after attending a jail Bible class, Hildenbrand had confessed to him that he was the one who shot Wilfert and that he had thrown the gun in the river after the shooting. Hildenbrand denied confessing to Hecker. However, part of Hecker's testimony was consistent with an earlier statement Hildenbrand had made to the police that he had thrown the weapon off a bridge in New Ulm. A forensic scientist from the firearms section of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension testified that the bullet fragments found in Wilfert's head may have come from Walter's Intertech .22, but also stated that they may have come from another gun. The record does not indicate that the police looked for a second weapon.

Both at the beginning and the end of trial, the district court instructed the jury on the relevant law. Throughout the...