State v. Pederson, No. C0-99-450.

• Decision Date: 20 July 2000
• Docket Number: No. C0-99-450.
• Citation: 614 N.W.2d 724
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Ryan Michael PEDERSON, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

614 N.W.2d 724

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Ryan Michael PEDERSON, Appellant.

No. C0-99-450.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

July 20, 2000.

Deborah K. Ellis, St. Paul, for appellant.

Michael A. Hatch, St. Paul, Robert M. A. Johnson, Marcy S. Crain, Anoka, for respondent.

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

OPINION

BLATZ, Chief Justice.

This case comes to us on direct appeal of appellant Ryan Michael Pederson's convictions for first-degree murder committed in the course of a burglary and second-degree murder. Appellant appeals his convictions on two grounds. First he claims that a juror's responses to a post-trial jury questionnaire demonstrate that she did not accord him the presumption of innocence and that she lied during voir dire when she stated that she would uphold the law. Second, appellant argues that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions. In particular, he contends that uncorroborated accomplice testimony provided the only evidence of an entry for the purpose of committing a burglary, and the only evidence that appellant participated in the murder. Because we hold that the juror's post-trial statements are inadmissible under Minn. R. Evid. 606(b), and the accomplice testimony was corroborated by other witness testimony and the physical evidence, we affirm appellant's convictions.

Robert Anderson, a 32-year-old man, was found dead by his best friend on the evening of August 20, 1997, after the friend made numerous attempts to contact him that day. Officers called to the scene found Anderson lying face down on the floor of his mobile home in a pool of blood, partially covered by a blanket. His injuries were consistent with being repeatedly beaten with a blunt object, kicked, stomped, and stabbed. He had no defensive wounds, a blood alcohol level of .18, and tested positive for recent marijuana use.

Anderson's poodle, found guarding the body, had a bruised abdomen. Also near the body were the broken pieces of a long-barreled rifle, blood spatter, the handle of a steak knife, and two sets of bloody shoe prints. One of the prints, which had an athletic tread design consisting of a uniformly spaced and linear dot pattern, was similar to a print found by the medical examiner on the victim's back. Blood from the victim was found on the sofa, under the counter, on the walls, and on the ceiling. The mobile home was in disarray, but that was characteristic of the way the victim lived. No identifiable fingerprints were found in the home.

Six days later, the police responded to a report that someone was breaking into Anderson's mobile home, which was still posted as a crime scene. The arriving officer observed a man carrying a chair between Anderson's home and a mobile home next door owned by Stephen Dean. The officer pursued the man into Dean's mobile home where he found appellant, Dean, Anthony Moses, and three others who admitted they had been peeking into Anderson's mobile home. Everyone was arrested and taken to the station where the officer noticed that both appellant and Dean were wearing new tennis shoes.

As a result of these arrests, the police obtained statements from Moses and Dean implicating Dean and appellant in the murder. Investigators also searched Dean's home and conducted luminol testing for the presence of trace blood. Two of the four sites that tested positive for blood had a dot-pattern shoe print consistent with that observed at the crime scene.

On May 14, 1998, a grand jury indicted appellant and Dean on three counts of murder in the first degree and aiding and abetting murder in the first degree. Subsequently, Dean entered into a plea agreement with the state. Dean agreed to testify at appellant's trial and in return, Dean was allowed to plead guilty to burglary in the first degree and to aiding and abetting intentional second-degree murder for his role in Anderson's murder.¹

At appellant's trial, the testimony established the following facts. On August 19, 1997, appellant, who was 17 years old, attended a party at Dean's mobile home to celebrate Moses' 18th birthday. The party came to an end, and with the departure of Moses, only Dean, appellant, and another friend, Joe Brown, remained. Appellant and Dean wanted to smoke marijuana, so the three men went next door to see if Dean's neighbor, Anderson, had some. Anderson recognized Dean and admitted them. Anderson brought out some marijuana, and they sat in the living room talking, drinking, and smoking.

Dean testified that after some time, he, appellant, and Brown all left Anderson's together. Brown went to his car and left; Dean and appellant returned to Dean's mobile home and watched television. Dean told appellant that he wished he had a bigger television and commented how easy it would be to steal Anderson's television. These musings eventually became a plan by Dean and appellant to steal Anderson's television, video cassette recorder (VCR), and other valuables. Dean testified that they also discussed they might have to knock Anderson out or even kill him. Prior to leaving Dean's mobile home at about 2:30 a.m., Dean placed socks over his hands and appellant wrapped a white T-shirt around his hands to avoid leaving fingerprints at Anderson's home.

According to Dean, he and appellant entered Anderson's home without knocking. Startled, Anderson got up from the couch. Appellant asked Anderson for some pop, and when he turned to get it, appellant swung a bottle at his head. The bottle slipped from appellant's hand and hit the wall, causing Anderson to turn and look at appellant. Appellant told Anderson that the bottle slipped, but Anderson did not believe him and looked scared. Anderson told them to take the pop and leave as he returned to the couch.

Dean testified that instead of leaving, he and appellant crowded next to Anderson on the couch and appellant began elbowing Anderson. Appellant eventually pushed Anderson to the ground and wrestled him until he had pinned Anderson face down on the floor, with his knee in Anderson's back. Appellant then punched and kicked Anderson in the head until he was unconscious, whereupon appellant and Dean began searching the home for items to steal.

While Dean searched the back bedroom, Anderson regained consciousness. Appellant began kicking Anderson in the ribs and face. When Dean returned to the living room, appellant asked Dean to help him so Dean held Anderson's legs while appellant stomped on Anderson's head. Anderson became unconscious again, and Dean and appellant decided they had to kill him or they "would both be told on." Using a rifle found by Dean, appellant hit Anderson in the stomach, ribs, and head, causing blood to spatter appellant's clothes and forehead. Sickened by the site of the blood, Dean vomited. Dean heard Anderson's dog yelp, and as he turned to see what happened, he saw the dog hit the wall.

At appellant's instruction, Dean continued searching the mobile home for goods to steal and found $400 between two books in a closet. Appellant walked around and touched various things, and Dean followed, wiping items off with the socks on his hands. Then, to make sure Anderson was dead, appellant stabbed him with a knife found in the mobile home. Dean grabbed the TV, VCR, and a video game, and took the items to his place. Upon returning to Anderson's, Dean saw appellant stab Anderson in the throat; appellant later showed Dean the handle of a knife and told him the knife had broken while he was stabbing Anderson.

Dean and appellant left Anderson's mobile home between five and six in the morning and returned to Dean's mobile home, both in shock. Appellant washed the blood off his face and hands, and changed out of his blood-spattered clothes while Dean paged Moses. They put appellant's clothes, the white T-shirt and socks they wore on their hands, Dean's socks, and their shoes in a garbage bag. Moses called Dean's phone number in response to the pages he had received, and Dean answered. Moses testified that Dean told him in a hurried and frightened voice that they had killed Anderson and needed Moses to help them get rid of some stolen items. During the phone conversation with Dean, Moses heard appellant in the background saying, "Get me some clothes, Steve," in a loud and hurried voice. Dean ended the phone call by saying he needed to get out of his clothes, and hung up. In disbelief as to what he had heard, Moses called back and this time appellant answered the phone. Moses asked him "Did you guys really do it?" and appellant responded "Yeah, the neighbor is dead." They talked a little longer, and then appellant said "I got to get out of these clothes," and hung up.

After talking with Moses, appellant and Dean put the bag of clothes in Dean's car, and went out for breakfast. After making some other stops, they went to a mall where they each purchased a new pair of shoes with the money stolen from Anderson. Upon returning to Dean's mobile home, they found Moses and another friend, Alexander Lundeen, waiting for them. Moses asked Dean and appellant if they really did it, and Dean told him to look at the bag in the back seat, which appeared to Moses to contain clothes. Lundeen testified that Dean excitedly described how he "whacked" Anderson, and made motions with his hands and kicked his feet as he described the beating. Lundeen testified that while Dean explained what happened, appellant did not confirm or deny the characterization. Instead, appellant just put his head down and occasionally made affirmative sounds. Moses offered to dispose of the bag containing the clothes and asked appellant if he could have appellant's discarded black tennis shoes.

Moses and Lundeen left and drove to a nearby lake where Moses, according to his testimony, opened the bag and saw a blood-spattered white T-shirt and two pairs of pants, as well as two pairs of shoes—he recognized one pair as belonging to Dean and the other as belonging to appe...