State v. Slaughter

• Decision Date: 27 January 2005
• Docket Number: No. A03-601.,A03-601.
• Citation: 691 N.W.2d 70
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Billy Dawson SLAUGHTER, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

691 N.W.2d 70

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Billy Dawson SLAUGHTER, Appellant.

No. A03-601.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

January 27, 2005.

John Stuart, State Public Defender, Sara Lynne Martin, Assistant State Public Defender, Minneapolis, MN, for Appellant.

Mike Hatch, Attorney General, St. Paul, MN; and Amy Klobuchar, David Craig Brown, Hennepin County Attorney Office, Minneapolis, MN, for Respondent.

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

OPINION

HANSON, Justice.

Appellant Billy Dawson Slaughter was charged with two counts of aggravated robbery under Minn.Stat. § 609.245, subd. 1 (2004) and one count of simple robbery under Minn.Stat. § 609.24 (2004). After Slaughter waived his right to a jury trial, the district court acquitted him of the charged robbery offenses, but convicted him of the uncharged lesser-included offense of felony theft under Minn.Stat. § 609.52, subd. 2(1) (2004).¹ The court of appeals affirmed the conviction. State v. Slaughter, No. A03-601, 2004 WL 615042 (Minn.App. March 30, 2004). We granted further review to consider Slaughter's arguments that (1) the district court improperly denied his motion for judgment of acquittal, (2) the court improperly raised and considered the lesser-included offense of theft, and (3) there was insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction of theft. We affirm.

At 12:51 a.m. on September 8, 2002, Minneapolis Police Officers Jarrod Roering and Nicholas Antila were dispatched to 610 Penn Avenue North. When the officers arrived, Stacy Love was standing at the base of the steps leading to the porch, approximately 6 to 8 feet from Slaughter. Love told the officers that Slaughter had just snatched several gold chains from her neck, and that he had a knife.

Before the officers searched Slaughter, he told them that he had a knife in his pocket. Antila searched Slaughter and found a folded silver-bladed knife with a multi-colored handle. Antila's report stated that the knife was wrapped in a plastic bag, but Antila could not recall exactly how the bag was wrapped around the knife. The officers did not find any jewelry on Slaughter's person or within his reach.

While speaking with Love, Roering noticed some scratches on her neck. Love said the scratches felt "like skin burn." Roering searched the area and found a small piece of a gold necklace in the grass along a sidewalk near 610 Penn. He also found a piece of a necklace dangling off a fence and another piece in the grass near 620 Penn.

Slaughter was charged with two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of simple robbery. He waived his right to a jury trial and the case proceeded to trial before the court.

Love testified for the state. She stated that on the night of September 7, 2002, she was gambling at a friend's house until the friend's son told her that Slaughter wanted to see her. When she went outside to talk to Slaughter, he asked her for "[his] 10 dollars" but she did not know what he was talking about. Nonetheless, she walked with Slaughter to a neighbor's house to find the person who was supposed to have given her Slaughter's $10.

She stated that after she knocked on the door, and her boyfriend Leroy Jackson came to open it, Slaughter snatched her necklaces from behind and took off running. Love and Jackson chased Slaughter to 610 Penn, where Slaughter ran up on the porch and banged on the door to the house. Love testified that she saw Slaughter holding an object with a "sharp twinkling like a blade or something" in front of him. She thought the object was "a knife or blade or something." She decided not to approach him and instead called the police on her cell phone and blocked Slaughter from leaving.

Jackson also testified for the state. Jackson admitted to smoking crack and having an altercation with Love earlier that day. He said that he was gambling in the basement of 620 Penn that evening when Love came over. When he went upstairs and opened the door, Love said "he snatched my chains," and pointed at Slaughter. Jackson thought she looked stunned and shocked. He confirmed Love's testimony that the two of them chased Slaughter to the porch at 610 Penn. Jackson testified that Slaughter pulled "something shiny" out of his pocket and held it in his hand, and Jackson told Love to call the police.

Alvin Harris, a resident of 610 Penn, also testified for the state. He stated that he opened the door upon hearing the doorbell, and saw Slaughter standing on his porch and a man and woman standing in his yard. Slaughter told Harris to call the police. Harris testified that the woman in the yard said "he snatched my chains," and Slaughter said that she took off with his $10. Harris went back in the house and his wife called the police. Harris returned to the front door after about 5 minutes. Harris testified that he did not see a knife in Slaughter's hands, and he did not find any necklaces on his porch. The next morning, he found a necklace on the walkway near his porch.

Slaughter moved for acquittal on all three charges at the close of the state's case, arguing that the state's witnesses were not sufficiently credible and that the state had not presented sufficient evidence to prove that Slaughter committed the offenses of simple robbery or aggravated robbery.² The district court denied Slaughter's motion, stating:

I'm going to deny the motion at this time. Denying that, I'm not making any comment on the overall weight and credibility of the evidence which I'm left to judge at the end of the case. But at this time I'm going to deny it.

When court resumed the next morning, the judge told the parties: "from what I have seen from the prosecution's case, I[am] inclined to offera — include a lesser-included offense of theft from person." The defense objected. The judge responded that he had the right to take into account a lesser-included offense over the defense objection, and that he would reserve final ruling on the lesser-included offense until the close of all testimony.

Slaughter then testified. He stated that on the day of the incident, he was going to his friend's duplex at 620 Penn when he met Love, who asked him for change for a 10-dollar bill. He said that when he gave her two 5s, she took off running. Slaughter chased her, and she ran into a house three doors down. He waited about 20 minutes for Love to come back outside, and then asked her for the $10. She said that she did not have the money, and that she was going to call the police and tell them that he had robbed her.

Slaughter said that he then went to 610 Penn to call the police. He knocked on the door, and Harris answered. Slaughter told Harris that Love had taken $10 from him, and asked Harris to call the police. Slaughter testified that Jackson, swinging a weighted sock, approached him from the sidewalk. Slaughter said "well, I got a knife in my front pocket and if you assault me or attack me, I'm going to use it," and then Jackson retreated.

Slaughter also offered the statement of an investigator who had interviewed Greg Lavell Thomas, who was unavailable as a witness during the trial. According to the investigator's statement, Thomas had known Love for 12 years and was acquainted with Slaughter. Thomas was at 620 Penn on the day of the incident and witnessed a heated argument between Love and Jackson, during which Love accused Jackson of taking money from her. Thomas also saw Slaughter ask Love for the $10 that she owed him. Love yelled at Slaughter, at which point Thomas went back into the house. Thomas' statement concluded that he "seriously doubts" that Slaughter would try to rob Love, that Love is argumentative and has been "know[n] to make up stories in the past[,]" and "probably made up the robbery story to get [Slaughter] in trouble."

The court acquitted Slaughter of the two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of simple robbery, having found that the state had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Slaughter was armed with a dangerous weapon at the time of the robbery or that force or the threat of imminent force was used during the robbery. The court considered the uncharged theft offense "more problematic." The court found no witness was particularly credible, but stated: "in areas where there was hard evidence that supported testimony, I am finding it to be credible to an exten[t]." The court considered the recovery of the broken necklaces and scratches on Love's neck as "absolutely consistent with the testimony that the necklaces were snatched off her neck rather than voluntarily being taken off by her." Because there was no testimony regarding value, the court valued the necklaces at less than $500. The court found beyond a reasonable doubt that Slaughter "took jewelry from the neck of Stacy Love[,]" and found Slaughter guilty of felony theft.

The court of appeals affirmed Slaughter's conviction and sentence. We granted review of the conviction but declined review of the sentence.

I.

We first consider the issue of whether the district court erred by denying Slaughter's motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of the state's case-in-chief. Minnesota Rule of Criminal Procedure 26.03, subdivision 17(1), provides that a court "shall order the entry of a judgment of acquittal of one or more offenses charged in the tab charge, indictment, or complaint if the evidence is insufficient to sustain a conviction of such offense or offenses."

A motion for acquittal is procedurally equivalent to a motion for a directed verdict. The test for granting a motion for a directed verdict is whether the evidence is sufficient to present a fact question for the jury's determination, after viewing the evidence and all resulting inferences in favor of the state. Paradise v. City of Minneapolis, 297 N.W.2d 152, 155 (Minn.1980). The Eighth Circuit has adopted a similar approach for motions to acquit. United States v. Richards, 967 F.2d 1189, 1196 (8th Cir.1992) ("[a] motion for...