State v. Opsahl, C8-93-67

• Decision Date: 11 March 1994
• Docket Number: No. C8-93-67,C8-93-67
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Darby Jon OPSAHL, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 249

513 N.W.2d 249

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Darby Jon OPSAHL, Appellant.

No. C8-93-67.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

March 11, 1994.

Syllabus by the Court

1. A grand jury indictment will stand when the grand jury hears sufficient admissible evidence to establish probable cause, even though jurors also heard inadmissible and inaccurate statements concerning a polygraph test taken by the accused where the County Attorney did not solicit those statements 2. Admission at trial of hearsay statements made by co-defendant did not violate federal or state Confrontation Clauses, U.S. Const. amend. VI; Minn. Const. art. I, Sec. 6, where co-defendant was unavailable to testify and the statements bore significant indicia of reliability.

and gave adequate cautionary instructions.

3. Incarcerating a duly tried and convicted quadriplegic is not cruel or unusual punishment under Minn. Const. art. I, Sec. 5.

Steven A. Pihlaja, Minneapolis, for appellant.

Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Atty. Gen., St. Paul, Michael Junge, McCleod County Atty., Jody Winters, Asst. County Atty., Glencoe, for respondent.

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

OPINION

PAGE, Justice.

Darby Jon Opsahl appeals his 1992 convictions by a McLeod County jury for one count of murder in the first degree and two counts of murder in the second degree for the October 14, 1986, burglary and murder of Margaret Rehmann. ¹ He was tried in the court of the Honorable LeRoy W. Yost and sentenced to life imprisonment on the first degree murder conviction.

Opsahl raises four issues on appeal: (1) whether his indictment should be dismissed because the grand jury heard inaccurate testimony concerning the results of a polygraph test that he had taken; (2) whether out-of-court statements allegedly made by a co-defendant who was not available at trial were admitted in violation of his right to confront witnesses against him; (3) whether the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to convict him; and (4) whether his incarceration at Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights (MCF-OPH) constitutes cruel and unusual punishment because he is a quadriplegic.

The crimes for which Opsahl was convicted took place on the afternoon of October 14, 1986. Late that afternoon, Irvin Rehmann returned to his farm home at approximately 5:45 p.m. from a day of working at his son's farm, to find Margaret Rehmann, his wife of 43 1/2 years, dead on the kitchen floor. Mrs. Rehmann had been shot once with a bullet that entered her forearm and chest, traveled through her right lung, her spinal cord, her left lung, and lodged in her chest wall. The Rehmanns lived in rural Lester Prairie. Mr. Rehmann had last seen his wife alive at lunch that afternoon. That morning, the couple had butchered some chickens and then Mr. Rehmann left to help out at his son's farm, located 1/2 mile away. Mr. Rehmann returned at noon for lunch and left again to work at his son's farm at approximately 1:00 p.m.

Investigators found that the door between the Rehmann's garage and kitchen had been kicked open, cracking the doorjamb, thus suggesting a forced entry. Nothing in the house appeared to have been disturbed, however, and Mr. Rehmann could not determine that anything had been taken. Mr. Rehmann kept a tin can with half-dollar pieces in it in the laundry room which was near the garage and kitchen, but he did not know whether any coins had been taken. Investigators found a shoe print, fingerprints, and a palm print at the scene, but failed to identify any of them. Mrs. Rehmann was killed by a bullet consistent in appearance, dimension, and weight with that fired by a .44 caliber handgun. The murder weapon was never located.

The initial investigation of the crime failed to produce any suspects. On September 21, 1987, Jeff Olson, a friend of Opsahl's, told Carver County Sheriff's Deputy Larry Wittsack that Opsahl might know something about the murder and wanted to talk. On September 22, 1987, Deputy Wittsack, Deputy Richard Waage, from the Hutchinson Police Department, and Investigator Wayne Vinkemeier, from the McLeod County Sheriff's Department, met with Opsahl and Olson. At that meeting, Opsahl stated that he and John Kanniainen had been committing burglaries in the Lester Prairie area about the time of the Rehmann murder, and that Kanniainen had in his possession a .44 caliber handgun. Opsahl told the investigators about the burglary of one farmhouse, which, by his description, matched the Rehmann residence fairly accurately. Opsahl stated that he remained in his car and worked on the car radio while Kanniainen went to the front door. Opsahl recalled seeing a woman with brown hair, wearing red, at the door. He also noticed some chickens. While Kanniainen was inside the house, Opsahl heard a shot. On returning to the car, Kanniainen claimed to have shot someone inside. Opsahl recalled that Kanniainen then showed him some half-dollar coins. Photos taken at the crime scene show Margaret Rehmann was wearing a blue smock over a pink blouse.

After Opsahl made these statements, Deputy Wittsack, Investigator Vinkemeier, and Deputy Waage drove Opsahl and Olson to Lester Prairie, hoping that Opsahl would be able to identify the residence. On seeing the Rehmann house, Opsahl reacted visibly and acknowledged that it could have been the place he and Kanniainen had burglarized.

The investigation continued and the police determined that Kanniainen had been in New Jersey the entire month of October, 1986, and so could not have been in Lester Prairie on the day of Mrs. Rehmann's murder. In April, 1988, the police informed Opsahl that Kanniainen could not have burglarized the Rehmann residence, and Opsahl responded that if Kanniainen had not done it, then he was not involved either.

Sometime during April of 1988, Opsahl took a polygraph test. The test indicated that Opsahl had responded truthfully to the examiner's questions. The record does not reflect, however, what questions Opsahl was asked.

In June of 1989, investigators took another statement from Opsahl. He again stated that Kanniainen had in his possession a .44 caliber handgun. He also made conflicting statements as to Kanniainen's presence in Minnesota in October of 1986. In conjunction with giving the statements, Opsahl accompanied the investigators to a store where he was shown a line-up of handguns. Of the weapons presented, Opsahl identified a .44 caliber Magnum as the kind of weapon Kanniainen had during the 1986 burglary.

In April of 1990, Opsahl again spoke with police investigators. This time he told them that Olson detested Kanniainen and suggested to Opsahl that they blame Kanniainen for the Rehmann murder. Opsahl said that he and Olson both knew that Kanniainen had been charged with a capital murder in Florida and was in jail when Opsahl first met with police in 1987.

In September of 1990, Opsahl was severely injured in an automobile accident and left a quadriplegic. The following month Opsahl recanted all his prior statements. Again Opsahl claimed that if Kanniainen had not done the killing, then he had no involvement either.

The McLeod County Attorney convened a grand jury in April, 1992, to determine whether to indict Opsahl for the crime. The grand jury heard testimony from many witnesses. One witness, Tim Efteland, told the grand jury three times during his testimony that Opsahl had taken and failed a lie detector test. The grand jury also saw three statements by Efteland and one by Jeff Olson referring to Opsahl having taken, and failed, a lie detector test. One grand juror asked Deputy Vinkemeier whether Opsahl had taken a lie detector test. The County Attorney instructed Vinkemeier not to answer that question and cautioned the jury about the inadmissibility of polygraph results. At the time of Efteland's testimony, and again at the conclusion of the State's evidence, the County Attorney gave the jurors cautionary instructions on the inadmissibility of polygraph evidence and the use they could make of Efteland's statements.

At Opsahl's trial in October of 1992, a number of Opsahl's friends and acquaintances testified to conversations they had had with either Opsahl and Olson together, or with Opsahl or Olson individually, where Opsahl and Olson had made comments implicating themselves in the Rehmann murder. At Opsal's trial, Olson exercised his right not to testify. The jury found Opsahl guilty of one count of first degree murder and two counts of second degree murder.

Opsahl claims the grand jury indictment was fatally flawed because, although the jurors heard Efteland testify that Opsahl had failed a lie detector test and were given statements by Efteland and Olson in which they referred to Opsahl taking a lie detector test, they were not told that Opsahl had actually passed the test. Opsahl cites in support of his claim certain well-established principles of our criminal law. Results of polygraph tests, as well as evidence that a defendant took, or refused to take such a test, are not admissible in Minnesota in either criminal or civil trials. State v. Anderson, 379 N.W.2d 70, 79 (Minn.1985), cert. denied 476 U.S. 1141, 106 S.Ct. 2248, 90 L.Ed.2d 694 (1986). Minn.R.Crim.P. 18.06, subd. 1 (1992), states that "[a]n indictment shall be based on evidence that would be admissible at trial * * *." Minn.R.Crim.P. 17.06 (1992) provides for a motion to attack an indictment when:

Subd. 2(1)(a). The evidence admissible before the grand jury was not sufficient as required by these rules to establish the offense charged or any lesser or other included offense or any offense of a lesser degree; * * * [or]

Subd. 2(2)(a). The indictment * * * does not substantially comply with the requirements prescribed by law to the prejudice of the substantial rights of the defendant.

We have observed that prosecutors "must exercise extreme caution to ensure that the grand jury retains its independent role in our legal...