State v. Richards

• Decision Date: 01 June 1990
• Docket Number: No. C8-89-744,C8-89-744
• Citation: 456 N.W.2d 260
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Leonard RICHARDS, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 260

456 N.W.2d 260

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Leonard RICHARDS, Appellant.

No. C8-89-744.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

June 1, 1990.

Syllabus by the Court

Violation of defendant's constitutional right to represent himself requires a new trial.

Leonard Richards, Stillwater, pro se.

Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Atty. Gen., St. Paul, and Thomas L. Johnson, Hennepin County Atty., Lee W. Barry, Sr. Asst. County Atty., Appellate Section, Minneapolis, for respondent.

John M. Stuart, State Public Defender, Susan K. Maki, Asst. State Public Defender, Minneapolis, for amicus.

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

SIMONETT, Justice.

After a jury trial, defendant Leonard Joseph Richards was convicted of the first-degree premeditated murder of Robert Stratton and sentenced to life in prison. ¹ On appeal, we conclude that defendant's constitutional right of self-representation secured by Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975), was violated. We reverse, therefore, and grant a new trial.

Robert Stratton, the murder victim, was an attorney who knew defendant socially and professionally. Prior to his death, Stratton was representing defendant in federal court tax litigation in several states. In the Minnesota litigation, Stratton filed two affidavits to support petitions to quash summonses issued to appellant, who was listed as a director of three entities subject to the local investigation. These affidavits, apparently drafted by defendant, were fraudulent. The affiants did not exist. In December 1986 the federal district court denied the petitions to quash and issued an order making Stratton and the three entities jointly and severally liable for about $12,000 in costs and penalties.

Soon thereafter, the federal agent assigned to investigate defendant's taxes learned that Stratton was the guarantor of a trust in which defendant was the beneficiary. Part of the trust corpus consisted of stock donated by Stratton from a corporation formed by Stratton and the defendant. The agent issued a summons directing Stratton to appear before him on February 25, 1987, with all information he possessed relating to the trust and the corporation.

On February 23, 1987, 2 days before the scheduled meeting, Stratton left his law office with defendant Richards to go to lunch. Stratton never returned. The next day the police found his corpse in the house where defendant was living with Linda Winbush and her young children. Stratton had died from a close-range gunshot wound to the back of his head.

Defendant had been living in the Winbush home for about 11 months. A week or so before February 23, defendant told Linda to clean the basement so he could use it as an office for his paralegal work. Defendant said that he needed the office for a meeting with "clients" on February 19. A few days later defendant advised Linda that the meeting with the clients had been postponed until Monday, February 23, and that he wanted her and the children out of the house on that day. On the 22nd, defendant spray-painted the basement windows, installed latches, and covered the windows with contact paper.

On the 23rd, the day he was to meet with the "clients" and the day Stratton did not return from lunch, defendant drove Linda to her niece's house in Blaine, where the children had been staying. He returned to pick them up at about 11:00 p.m. that night. On the way home defendant told Linda and the children not to go into the basement because an electrician had been there and there were dangerous, exposed wires. Linda noticed dark stains on defendant's jeans, which defendant said were spots of paint. The basement door was barricaded when they arrived home.

The following day, February 24, defendant again insisted that Linda and the children leave the house. Linda had noticed what she thought was blood on a bar of soap and in the bathtub on the second floor, and fearing something terrible had happened, she put some of the blood-like substance on a tissue and took it to the police. After the police confirmed that the substance was blood, Linda told the officers about her fears and gave consent to a search of her home.

The police soon arrived at the house and, after kicking a door open to gain entry, found defendant inside. In the basement, the officers found the nude body of Robert Stratton. Defendant was arrested. There were numerous blood stains in the house, including spots on the stairway to the second floor, on the kitchen and dining room floors, and on the basement stairs. Some of the stains had recently been scrubbed methodically with a cleanser. The police recovered the jeans and shirt defendant had worn the previous night. The spots Linda had noticed on the jeans proved to be blood stains. Subsequently, the police found a recently fired gun and an expended bullet in a second floor room; both were consistent with the victim's fatal gunshot injury. The police also recovered a 90-plus-page affidavit of Robert Stratton, partially typed, partially handwritten, and signed by Stratton. The evidence at trial showed that defendant had drafted both parts of the affidavit, which recited at great length defendant's business transactions giving rise to his tax problems and put the blame for those problems on others. While there is additional inculpatory physical and testimonial evidence, it need not be discussed in light of the disposition of this appeal. Suffice it to say that the evidence at trial was ample to sustain the conviction.

We must now, however, outline some of the procedural history that occurred after defendant's arrest on February 24, 1987, and his trial 25 months later, as this information is pertinent to the dispositive issue.

Defendant, who was unable to post bail, was represented by a succession of attorneys. Except for his first attorney (who was on the case for only a week) and his third attorney (with no criminal law experience), defendant found fault with the attorneys appointed to represent him. His request for funds to hire his own attorney was denied. At least twice he asked to be designated "co-counsel" with his appointed counsel.

On May 11, 1988, appellant filed a pro se motion requesting a hearing to remove his attorney, then Phillip Villaume, "for cause." Citing Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975), appellant asserted his right of self-representation in the event the court did not consider his motion. No hearing was held.

On June 30, attorney Villaume's motion requesting the appointment of standby counsel was heard. Villaume referred to defendant's May 11 motion and asked the court to be appointed standby counsel. After a brief in-camera hearing, the motion was denied from the bench.

On July 5, defendant submitted another pro se motion, again citing Faretta and stating he was asserting his self-representation right "unconditionally." During a court appearance on July 26 on other matters relating to the case, Villaume told the court that defendant was again asserting his right to self-representation. At the same appearance, the prosecutor told the court that he thought defendant's July 5 assertion was unequivocal.

On August 16, the court held an in-camera hearing on Villaume's motion for an evidentiary hearing on the issue of appellant's pro se representation. The prosecutor submitted a memorandum outlining pertinent case law, citing again Faretta. Defendant told the court that he was asserting his right of self-representation to obtain "an overall managerial role in my case" and because "I don't feel that Mr. Villaume could represent me properly." Villaume added that he believed defendant was able to represent himself. The court noted, too, that a previous attorney who had represented defendant briefly thought defendant was "more competent to defend his case than 90% of the lawyers in the state." The court also had before it the report of a psychologist who had examined defendant pursuant to Minn.R.Crim.P. 20, which concluded that defendant, 46 years old, was "obviously intelligent, educated, and articulate" and spoke in a rational and organized manner. On August 17, the trial court issued its order finding that defendant did not knowingly and intelligently waive his right to counsel. Defendant's request to proceed pro se was denied.

The case then proceeded through trial with Villaume as counsel. In April 1989, after a 2-week trial, the jury found defendant guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. Defendant now appeals, contending his conviction must be set aside because he was denied his constitutional right of self-representation.

I.

The United States Supreme Court has recognized that the sixth and fourteenth amendments to the federal constitution grant criminal defendants a right to represent themselves in state criminal proceedings. Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975). This important right "must be honored out of 'that respect for the individual which is the lifeblood of the law.' " Id. at 834, 95 S.Ct. at 2541 (citation omitted). Indeed, the self-representation right embodies such bedrock concepts of individualism and personal autonomy that its deprivation is not amenable to harmless error analysis. "Obtaining reversal for violation of such a right does not require a showing of prejudice to the defense, since the right reflects constitutional protection of the defendant's free choice independent of concern for the objective fairness of the proceeding." Flanagan v. United States, 465 U.S. 259, 268, 104 S.Ct. 1051, 1056, 79 L.Ed.2d 288 (1984); McKaskle v. Wiggins, 465 U.S. 168, 177 n. 8, 104 S.Ct. 944, 950 n. 8, 79 L.Ed.2d 122 (1984). As a corollary, however, a defendant who exercises his right to proceed pro se "cannot thereafter complain that the quality of his own defense amounted to a denial of 'effective assistance of counsel.' " Faretta, 422 U.S. at 835 n. 46, 95 S.Ct. at...