State v. Stein, No. A06-1848.

• Decision Date: 07 January 2010
• Docket Number: No. A06-1848.
• Citation: 776 N.W.2d 709
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Jeffrey Brian Alphonse STEIN, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

776 N.W.2d 709

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Jeffrey Brian Alphonse STEIN, Appellant.

No. A06-1848.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

January 7, 2010.

Lori Swanson, Attorney General, St. Paul, MN; and Michael O. Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney, David C. Brown, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney, Minneapolis, MN, for respondent.

Shane C. Perry, Minneapolis, MN, for appellant.

OPINION

MAGNUSON, Chief Justice.

In the early morning hours of June 2, 2005, a young white man entered three homes in Mound, Minnesota. In each home, the burglar choked a female victim in her bed before running away. Police arrested appellant Jeffrey Brian Alphonse Stein later that day. Appellant was charged with three counts of first-degree burglary, Minn.Stat. § 609.582, subd. 1(c) (2008). The jury found appellant guilty of one count of first-degree burglary, but failed to reach a verdict on the other two counts. The court of appeals affirmed appellant's conviction. We granted review on the single issue of "whether there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict" of guilty on one count of first-degree burglary. Because we conclude that the reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the circumstances proved are consistent with the hypothesis that appellant is guilty of the charged offense and inconsistent with any rational hypothesis other than guilt, we affirm.

During the evening of June 1, 2005, several people gathered for a party at the home of brothers J.B. and M.B. In addition to J.B. and M.B., J.K. and appellant attended the party. Appellant's brother P.S. gave appellant a ride to the party because appellant did not have a car. P.S. testified that appellant was wearing jean shorts and a black T-shirt over a white undershirt.

On the way to the party, appellant and his brother stopped at a Wells Fargo Bank so appellant could use the ATM. Surveillance video obtained from Wells Fargo showed appellant wearing a black crew-neck T-shirt with a small white tag on the bottom of the shirt above his left leg and a breast pocket on the left side. The video also showed appellant wearing a tan baseball hat and jeans. No undershirt was visible in the surveillance video. Bank records confirmed that appellant made a balance inquiry on his bank account at 10:08 p.m.

J.B. testified that appellant arrived at the party around 9:30 or 10 p.m. and wore a black Dickies work shirt. A.N., who also attended the party, testified that appellant wore jeans and a dark blue or black shirt. J.K. testified that appellant wore blue jeans and a black shirt to the party. M.B. testified that appellant wore a button-up shirt and jeans. Appellant drank beer and smoked cigarettes at the party.

According to testimony from both J.B. and his girlfriend, at some point between midnight and 2 a.m., the couple went to bed for the night. They did not get up until around 9 a.m. M.B. testified that he and appellant talked in M.B.'s basement bedroom during the party. M.B. further testified that appellant stayed in M.B.'s room until M.B. fell asleep around 4 or 4:30 a.m.

According to J.K., around 3:30 a.m., J.K., A.N., S.S., and appellant left the party in J.K.'s truck. First, J.K. dropped off A.N. and S.S. at S.S.'s home. According to J.K., he dropped appellant off on a street corner about 50 feet away from S.S.'s home because J.K. did not wish to drive across town to appellant's home. J.K. testified that after dropping off appellant, he drove home and went to bed.

In the early morning hours of July 2, 2005, P.B. woke up in her bed to a strange noise. She saw an unidentified man in her bedroom crouched down holding something in his hand. The intruder jumped on P.B.'s bed, put something over P.B.'s face, and began choking her. P.B. yelled for her son to call 911. P.B.'s son called the police, who received the call at 3:59 a.m. After P.B. forced the intruder off of her, the burglar ran down the stairs and out of the house. P.B. described the intruder as a young, lean, white male wearing a light-colored baseball hat and shorts that were dark plaid.

The police arrived at P.B.'s home within 2 minutes of receiving the 911 call. P.B. told a police officer that the intruder had run into the woods adjacent to P.B.'s house. The police called for other officers to set up a perimeter around the area of P.B.'s home. While the police were interviewing P.B., they received a call reporting a second home invasion.

J.B., who lived approximately a quarter-mile from P.B.'s house, woke up in her home to a loud noise. J.B.'s 11-year-old daughter told J.B. that a man had entered her room and choked her. After observing red marks on her daughter's neck, J.B. called the police. The police received J.B.'s call at 4:17 a.m. J.B.'s daughter testified that the intruder was a white teenage man wearing jean shorts with visible blue plaid boxer shorts underneath. J.B.'s daughter also testified that the intruder was shirtless.

After receiving the second call, the police drove to J.B.'s home. On the way, the police widened the perimeter to include the area around J.B.'s home.

Officer Andy Lamers of the New Hope Police Department K-9 unit also arrived at J.B.'s home, where Officer Lamers and his dog tried to track the intruder. Officer Lamers' dog followed a scent until the dog eventually lost the trail.

Around 5:00 a.m., D.B. woke up at home to a strange man in her bed. D.B. lived approximately three-quarters of a mile from J.B.'s home. The intruder straddled D.B. in her bed, choked her, and punched her in the face several times. D.B. fought back, attempting to strike the intruder in the head and eventually knocking the intruder off her bed by kicking him in the torso. D.B. then jumped off her bed and grabbed the intruder by the shirt. The intruder "pulled himself out of his shirt" leaving the shirt in D.B.'s hand. D.B. chased the man, who exited through a sliding glass door on the lower level of her house. She locked the door, and then ran upstairs to check the locks on the other doors. From upstairs, she saw the man return to the door he had exited and try to get back in. She yelled at him to go away. Eventually the intruder fled. D.B. saw the intruder jump over her fence and run away between two neighbors' houses.

D.B. testified that her attacker was a white male in his late teens or early twenties, wearing pants with boxer shorts sticking out of his pants. D.B. also testified that the intruder's breath smelled of cigarettes. Police later recovered a hair from D.B.'s bed. The police concluded that the hair was not appellant's. The intruder's shirt recovered at D.B.'s house was a black Dickies crew neck T-shirt with a left breast pocket and a small, white Dickies tag on the lower front left of the shirt.

The K-9 unit tracked a scent trail from a location near D.B.'s home to the shoreline of a nearby lake. An officer thought he saw someone swimming in the lake.

Around 6:10 a.m., a Mound resident living north of the lake and a few blocks from the first victim's home opened the blinds in her home and saw an unidentified man approaching her house. The resident testified that the man appeared to be in his late teens or early twenties, and was wearing no shirt, wet jeans with plaid boxers visible, and a baseball hat. The resident called 911.

Around 6:30 a.m., a Minnetrista resident observed a man running outside her home. According to the resident, the man was wearing a baseball cap and loose shorts with darker underwear exposed. The resident thought the sight of the man running outside her home was unusual, but did not call the police until the resident's son informed her that police were conducting a manhunt in the area.

At approximately 7 a.m., a third resident testified that he saw a young, shirtless white man run across his yard. Appellant's home is only a few blocks away from the home of the third resident.

On June 2, 2005, appellant lived with his brothers R.S. and J.S. at their house in Mound. Appellant usually slept on the couch. R.S. testified that on the morning of June 2, 2005, he got up at 5:30 a.m. and left for work around 6:15 or 6:30 a.m. R.S. did not see appellant that morning. J.S. testified that he got up around 6 a.m. and left for work around 6:15 a.m. on June 2, 2005. J.S. also did not see appellant that morning.

Police interviewed J.B., the host of the gathering appellant attended the previous night, on the morning of June 2, 2005. J.B. matched the physical description of the burglar and agreed to speak to the police. Based on Detective Dan Niccum's conversation with J.B., police went to appellant's workplace to speak to appellant.

Detective Niccum arrived at appellant's workplace at about 11:15 a.m. on June 2, 2005. Niccum observed scratches on appellant's body. Photos taken of appellant showed scratches on his neck, torso, back, arms, and legs. Appellant told Detective Niccum that he (appellant) wore a white T-shirt on June 1, 2005, and was at home on the couch when the assaults took place. Police later searched appellant's home but found no wet clothing or other evidence linking appellant to the crimes.

The State conducted a DNA analysis of the black T-shirt recovered at victim D.B.'s house. The State's DNA expert testified that the DNA profile generated from the T-shirt showed a mixture of DNA from two or more individuals, but with the "predominate profile" in the mixture matching the known DNA sample taken from appellant. The State's expert estimated the probability of a random person's DNA profile matching the predominate profile found on the shirt at one in 58 trillion. Appellant's DNA expert interpreted the same data and concluded that the probability of a random match was one in 644,000.

The State charged appellant with three counts of first-degree burglary, Minn.Stat. § 609.582, subd. 1(c) (2008).¹ The jury found appellant guilty of one count of first-degree burglary for the incident involving D.B. (the victim who ripped the shirt off of the...