State v. Sanders

• Decision Date: 18 October 1985
• Docket Number: No. C0-83-1812,C0-83-1812
• Citation: 376 N.W.2d 196
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Lonnie Dale SANDERS, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 196

376 N.W.2d 196

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Lonnie Dale SANDERS, Appellant.

No. C0-83-1812.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Oct. 18, 1985.

Syllabus by the Court

Defendant received a fair trial and was properly found guilty of second-degree felony murder; trial court's decision to allow jurors to separate during overnight recess in deliberations did not create a presumption of prejudice.

C. Paul Jones, Minnesota State Public Defender by Mollie G. Raskind, Deputy State Public Defender, Minneapolis, for appellant.

Hubert H. Humphrey, III, Atty. Gen., Janet A. Newberg, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Paul, Michael T. Milligan, Cass County Atty., Walker, for respondent.

Considered and decided by the court en banc without oral argument.

COYNE, Justice.

Defendant, Lonnie Dale Sanders, was found guilty by a district court jury of second-degree felony murder, Minn.Stat. § 609.19(2) (1984), ¹ for the stabbing death of his brother and was sentenced by the trial court to an executed prison term of 116 months. Defendant appealed to the Court of Appeals, contending (1) that his conviction should be reversed outright because the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the killing was unjustified or (2) that he should be given a new trial because the trial court erroneously admitted certain autopsy photographs, gave inadequate and misleading instructions on self-defense, and improperly coerced defendant into agreeing to the trial court's sending the jurors home for the night after they had begun their deliberations. The Court of Appeals granted defendant a new trial, concluding that the trial court coerced defendant into agreeing to send the jurors home for the night, that this created a presumption of prejudice, and that a new trial was therefore necessary. State v. Sanders, 355 N.W.2d 200 (Minn.App.1984). Concluding otherwise, we hold that defendant received a fair trial and was properly found guilty of second-degree felony murder. Accordingly, we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and reinstate the judgment of conviction.

At 1:32 a.m. on January 22, 1983, the dispatcher for the Cass County Sheriff's Office received a call from a woman who did not identify herself asking how long it would take for an ambulance to get to Whipholt. After receiving the information, the woman said she would call back if an ambulance was needed. At 1:44 a.m. the dispatcher received another call, this one asking that an ambulance be sent to the Sanders' residence in Whipholt because someone had been cut. The dispatcher paged the ambulance personnel in Walker, which is 11 miles from Whipholt, and they left at 1:54 a.m., arriving at 2:05 a.m. They were directed into the residence of defendant, where they found the victim, 25-year-old Lew Sanders, lying dead on his back on the living room floor.

The ambulance attendants found a small amount of blood on the left side of the victim's back. An autopsy would later show that the victim had a blood alcohol concentration of .20 at the time of his death and that he died from a single 4 inch deep stab wound in the back below the shoulder blade, a wound that lacerated the left lung. Neither the attendants nor the investigators who arrived on the scene saw any knife in the house.

The victim's wife, Sheryl Sanders, told the investigators, and later testified at trial, that the victim was in "good spirits" when he left their place for defendant's place around 12:30 a.m. The husband of one of the sisters of defendant and the victim said, and later testified, that the victim had pounded on his door on the way to defendant's place at 12:30 a.m.

The sheriff talked with defendant in defendant's parents' house later in the day. Defendant said that the victim and he had spent the previous day together and finally returned to their respective residences in Whipholt sometime between 11:30 p.m. and midnight. He said that a short time later the victim "came barging in," picked up a knife from the kitchen table, and said he was going to kill defendant. Defendant said that he knocked the knife out of the victim's hand and they started wrestling. He said that during the fight the victim picked up the knife and that the next thing he knew the victim "was cut and just laid back."

Defendant accompanied the sheriff to Walker and gave a taped statement. After giving the statement, defendant told the sheriff that his mother had told him to get rid of the knife and that he would find it for the sheriff. Later defendant and the sheriff drove to defendant's place, where the sheriff found the knife in the snow 70 to 80 feet from the house. The knife was a large one with an 8-inch blade, the point of which was missing. Asked what happened to the point, defendant said that after he stabbed the victim, he pulled the knife out of his body and stabbed it into the floor. The sheriff and defendant then found the missing point, which was 3/4 inches long, and removed it from the floor with pliers. An expert from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension subsequently examined the knife, finding blood of the victim's type on the blade and blood of defendant's type on the handle.

Defendant's trial testimony mirrored his statement to the sheriff. He testified that he had no recollection of actually pushing the knife into the victim. He admitted, however, that he "must have stabbed" the victim and he claimed that he was justified in doing so because "I was fighting for my life." Defendant's general credibility was impeached by a prior conviction for aggravated robbery.

Defendant's girl friend, Ruth Spencer, who was the only other person present in the house at the time of the killing, corroborated defendant's testimony that the victim barged in to the house and said he was going to kill defendant. She also claimed that she saw the victim standing in the living room holding a knife. She testified, as did defendant, that defendant then told her to go back into the bedroom because he did not want her involved and that he would take care of the matter. She testified that defendant and the victim fought for 5 to 10 minutes, after which defendant told her that he had stabbed the victim and that she should call an ambulance. Spencer's credibility was significantly impeached by her admission that she had lied under oath on another occasion.

1. Defendant's first contention in the Court of Appeals was that his conviction should be reversed outright because the evidence was insufficient to establish that the killing was not in self-defense. The Court of Appeals rejected this contention, holding that the evidence was sufficient. We agree.

Defendant, although denying any memory of the actual stabbing, claimed that the victim unjustifiably attacked him with the knife and that he had no choice but to defend himself against the victim. Defendant contended that he was justified in stabbing the victim. Defendant's girl friend, although claiming that she remained in the bedroom during the entire fight, corroborated defendant's testimony that the victim was the aggressor.

The jury, however, was not obliged to credit the testimony of defendant and his girl friend but was free to consider and weigh all the evidence, and to draw reasonable inferences therefrom, in reconstructing the incident and in determining whether defendant acted reasonably. Significant facts on which the jury could rely in ultimately concluding that defendant did not act in self-defense include the fact that (a) the victim was in "good spirits" when he left his own house; (b) the victim was the same size as defendant; (c) the victim was severely intoxicated, whereas defendant apparently was not; (d) the victim was unarmed when defendant stabbed him; (e) defendant stabbed the victim in the back; (f) defendant stabbed the victim with such force that the knife penetrated the victim's back by 4 inches; (g) after stabbing the victim, defendant removed the knife and stabbed it into the floor with apparent significant force; and (h) before the police arrived defendant removed the knife from the floor and, either then or later, threw the knife into the snow 70 to 80 feet from his house. We believe that these and other facts, when considered together, provided sufficient evidentiary support for the jury's determination that the stabbing was unnecessary and unjustified.

2. Defendant's alternative contention in the Court of Appeals was that he should be given a new trial because the trial court erroneously admitted certain autopsy photographs, gave inadequate and misleading instructions on self-defense, and improperly coerced defendant into agreeing to the trial court's sending the jurors home during an overnight recess in their deliberations. We address these issues in the order in which the alleged errors occurred, reserving until last the issue on which the Court of Appeals based its award of a new trial.

(a) Approximately 85 photographic slides were taken during the autopsy. Eighteen of these were admitted into evidence to illustrate the testimony of the pathologist who conducted the autopsy. Of the 18, some showed the stab wound from different angles, some showed internal damage caused by the stabbing, some showed bruises and teeth marks on the victim's arm and some showed bruises on the inside of the victim's scalp. Defense counsel objected to 11 of the 18. The trial court overruled the objections.

Defendant argues that the slides lacked probative value on the issue of self-defense, which he maintained was the only real issue for the jury. He argues further that any probative value was outweighed by the potential of the slides for creating undue prejudice, and that pursuant to Minn.R.Evid. 403 the trial court should have excluded the pictures. The Court of Appeals noted the possible prejudicial effect of the autopsy slides, especially where many of the slides may be duplicative and merely cumulative and suggested reference to Rule 403 of the...