State v. Robinson

• Decision Date: 13 January 2000
• Docket Number: No. C6-98-1849.,C6-98-1849.
• Citation: 604 N.W.2d 355
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Dameion ROBINSON, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

604 N.W.2d 355

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Dameion ROBINSON, Appellant.

No. C6-98-1849.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

January 13, 2000.

John M. Stewart, Minnesota State Public Defender, Michael F. Cromett, Assistant Public Defender, Roseville, for appellant.

Dameion Robinson, pro se.

Michael A. Hatch, Minnesota Attorney General, St. Paul, Amy Klobuchar, Hennepin County Attorney, Michael J. Richardson, Assistant County Attorney, Minneapolis, for respondent.

Considered and decided by the court en banc.

OPINION

STRINGER, Justice.

On August 24, 1997, Derangle Riley was shot to death by a single .25 caliber gunshot wound to the head from close range. Following a jury trial in Hennepin County District Court Dameion Robinson (appellant) was convicted of first-degree murder of Riley in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(3) (intentional during aggravated robbery) and murder in the second degree in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.19(1) (intentional). The trial court sentenced appellant to life imprisonment. On review he argues that prosecutorial misconduct deprived him of his constitutional right to a fair trial, the court erred in admitting Spreigl evidence, the court erred in denying appellant's motion to dismiss the indictment and the circumstantial evidence was insufficient, as a matter of law, to sustain the first-degree murder conviction. We affirm.

Derangle Riley's body was found in the driver's seat of his car in the St. Thomas Episcopal Church parking lot at 4400 Fourth Avenue South, Minneapolis around 7:30 a.m. on August 24. Riley was last seen at approximately 12:30 a.m. that day and an autopsy determined that the shooting occurred before 3:30 a.m. Gunshot wounds indicated that the gun was fired at close range from the passenger side of the front seat of his car and blood splatter was found on the inside of the car windshield. Riley's front pants pocket was pulled out and turned inside out and although he had no drugs or money when his body was found, he was wearing a gold ring with diamonds and had a crack pipe in his possession.

Riley's friend Saint Slaughter found Riley's body as Slaughter returned home after spending the night with his girlfriend Letrice Stanley. Upon finding the body Slaughter went to his house at 4440 Clinton Avenue South, Minneapolis ("Slaughter house"), where he lived with Alayna Hanson, another girlfriend, and called 911 to report the death. Because Slaughter did not want Hanson to know he had been with Stanley, he told the 911 dispatch that he had gotten off a bus shortly before finding Riley's body.

Derangle Riley was a Minneapolis drug dealer. When last seen at Slaughter's house with appellant and many others in the evening of August 23, several witnesses testified that appellant had a pistol that later turned out to be the murder weapon. Alayna Hanson saw appellant with a pink pearl-handled .25 caliber pistol that either he or Slaughter put in appellant's jacket pocket and Slaughter also saw appellant with a pink pearl-handled .25 caliber pistol. Traviore Gaston, also at the Slaughter house that evening, saw appellant with a pistol appellant later described to Gaston as a "deuce 5" and witnessed appellant shooting off the pistol that evening in front of the house.

Several witnesses testified that they saw appellant attempt to buy drugs from Riley. Alayna Hanson heard appellant and Riley having a conversation where appellant offered to buy crack but Riley refused to sell at the price offered. Gaston also saw drug negotiations between appellant and Riley and after negotiations failed, Gaston's wife Melissa saw appellant attempt to open Riley's car door.

Several witnesses observed appellant with Riley when he was last seen alive. Around midnight Riley went outside the Slaughter house to meet Jeffrey Carberry to sell him drugs. Carberry, who came in another car with his friend Jody Gronlund, got into the passenger front seat of Riley's car and caught a glimpse of another individual who got into the back seat. Carberry did not know who this was at the time but later identified two people from a photographic lineup as resembling the man in the backseat. One was appellant. Traviore Gaston also saw appellant get into the back seat of Riley's car. Carberry purchased twenty dollars worth of cocaine from Riley for Gronlund while she waited in her car parked right behind Riley's car. When he left Riley's car, Carberry noticed the person in the backseat get out, walk around and get into the passenger side front seat. Jody Gronlund went over to Riley's car to speak with him and while there saw a person with braided hair, whom she described as looking like Snoop Doggy Dog, get out of the backseat and into the passenger side front seat. Gronlund noticed that Riley had drugs, in the form of rocks, packaged in a torn sandwich bag. After their exchange both cars drove away. Letrice Stanley testified that the previous afternoon she braided appellant's hair and while there, he showed her a small caliber pink pearl-handled pistol.

Approximately fifteen to twenty minutes after Riley drove off with appellant, Hanson saw appellant return to the Slaughter house and then leave with appellant's brother Danny. Around 1:30 a.m. appellant and his brother went next door to 4444 Clinton Avenue South and then to Jody Gronlund's house where appellant provided crack for Jody, Jill and Danny. Jody noticed that appellant, the person she previously described as "Snoop Doggy Dog," had what appeared to be the same crack in quantity and packaging as Riley had when she saw him in his car earlier in the evening. She later identified two men out of a photographic lineup as resembling the appellant, expressing a preference for number six, the appellant.

Appellant returned to the Slaughter house later in the morning of August 24 and when Hanson told him about Riley's death, he showed no reaction. Hanson also mistakenly pointed in the wrong direction to indicate where Riley's body was found but when appellant later referred to Riley's body he pointed in the correct direction.

Appellant's theory at trial was that Slaughter committed the murder. Slaughter originally told the police that he was with Letrice Stanley from 5:30 p.m. on August 23 to 6:00 a.m. on August 24. At trial however, Slaughter said he did not go to Stanley's house until between 10:15 and 10:45 p.m. Stanley confirms he was with her estimating his arrival at about 10:30 p.m., and testified that he then spent the night with her and left around 7:00 a.m. Slaughter also told police that appellant fired the .25 caliber handgun in his front yard on August 23. On August 27, the police searched the yard and found no .25 caliber shell casings, but when the police returned the next day a shell casing was found in a bare spot in the yard. The state conceded during its closing argument that the casing was obviously planted. Appellant claims the planted casing was further evidence of Slaughter's effort to frame appellant for the Riley murder.

Appellant admitted to police that he asked Riley for a ride that evening but claims he never got into Riley's car and that he had gone to another friend's house to buy crack when the shooting occurred. Appellant denied killing Riley.

The Spreigl evidence concerned another robbery shooting in the evening of August 24, 1997. At around 9:00 p.m. Johnny Edwards, accompanied by appellant, went to Evelyn Dawson's residence at 23rd Avenue and 4th Street in North Minneapolis to sell two guns to Dawson's boyfriend Devin Mosley, who then would sell them to Jeffrey Morris and Troy Jackson. Mosley and Jackson testified that shortly after Edwards and appellant entered the apartment appellant flashed a .25 caliber gun with a pinkish pearl-handle and ordered Mosley and Jackson to go into the bathroom. Jackson testified that when he headed for a bedroom appellant shot him in the leg. Morris testified that he was shot in the chest by appellant. Ballistic analysis indicated that the bullet from the Jackson shooting was fired from the same gun that killed Riley. In a lineup Dawson, Jackson and Morris each identified appellant as Edward's companion in the robbery shooting incident.

Appellant was indicted on September 30 for two counts of first-degree murder (premeditation and intentional while committing aggravated robbery) in connection with Riley's death. The indictment was dismissed on the basis of prosecutorial misconduct at the grand jury proceeding,¹ but appellant was re-indicted on the same two counts on April 21, 1998. He again moved to dismiss the indictment, this time claiming that the grand jury inappropriately heard a summary of the police investigation. On the basis of the trial court's review of the testimony of various grand jury witnesses, it determined there was sufficient evidence to support the indictment and appellant's dismissal motion was denied. The court also rejected appellant's claim that the state had an obligation to call additional exculpatory witnesses.

At trial the court admitted as Spreigl evidence the August 24, 1997 robbery and shooting of Mosley and Jackson. The court found the witnesses credible and noted the similarity of the crimes in time and location, that appellant was identified as Edward's accomplice and that the same gun was used in both crimes. The court concluded there was clear and convincing evidence of appellant's involvement in the Mosley and Jackson robbery shooting.

After a day of deliberation the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first-degree in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(3) (intentional during aggravated robbery) and murder in the second degree in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.19(1) (intentional). Appellant challenges his conviction on four grounds: prosecutorial misconduct deprived him of a fair trial, the trial court improperly admitted Spreigl evidence, the trial court erred in upholding the second indictment and there was insufficient evidence...