State v. Stewart

• Decision Date: 09 May 2002
• Docket Number: No. C6-01-177.,C6-01-177.
• Citation: 643 N.W.2d 281
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Dale Allen STEWART, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

643 N.W.2d 281

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Dale Allen STEWART, Appellant.

No. C6-01-177.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

May 9, 2002.

Lawrence W. Pry (# 144514), Assistant State Public Defender, Minneapolis, MN, for Appellant.

Michael A. Hatch, Attorney General, State of Minnesota, Susan Gaertner, Ramsey County Attorney, Mark Nathan Lystig (# 65730), Assistant Ramsey County Attorney, St. Paul, MN, for Respondent's.

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

OPINION

GILBERT, Justice.

Appellant Dale Allen Stewart was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and the lesser-included offense of second-degree murder for shooting bicyclist Anthony Basta in the back on April 26, 2000. Appellant appeals his conviction and requests a new trial on the grounds that the district court erred in admitting (1) a computerized animation of the shooting to aid the testimony of the medical examiner and (2) other crimes evidence that appellant entered into a conspiracy to commit a murder for hire. For the reasons stated below, we affirm.

On April 26, 2000, at about 9:30 p.m., 17-year old Anthony Basta told his mother that he was going out for a bicycle ride. At about 10:00 p.m., Charles Joy was riding his bicycle in the northbound lane on Mississippi River Boulevard in St. Paul and noticed an individual later identified as Basta riding his bicycle southbound in the bike lane. Joy observed a car approaching Basta from behind. When the car was next to Basta, Joy heard a "popping" sound and heard Basta say "ow." He then saw Basta ride forward on his bicycle for about another 10 feet and fall off the bicycle. Joy was unable to see the car's license plate or anyone in the car. Paramedics arrived at the scene at 10:12 p.m. and brought Basta to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, where he died at 10:26 p.m.

Investigators found no physical evidence or witnesses to the shooting other than Joy. On May 3, investigators received information that Victoria Ernst had heard someone at a party admit to the shooting. Ernst was at a party on April 30 with her boyfriend Brad Bassett and met a person whom she later identified as appellant. According to Ernst, appellant said that he and some friends were driving around, saw a "kid" riding a bike, and thought it would be funny to scare the kid. Appellant explained that he was sitting in the back of the car when he shot the gun out the window; he saw the kid fall off his bicycle, got scared, and left right away. Appellant said that he did not intend to kill the kid; he only wanted to scare him. Appellant signed a crime prevention petition "against people who do that kind of stuff" and visited the memorial for Basta.¹ Ernst believed that appellant "seemed sad" that he shot Basta. According to Bassett, appellant said that he returned to the scene of the shooting, signed some kind of crime prevention statement, and thought this was funny. Appellant also said that when he and his two companions left the scene of the shooting, they planned to try killing someone again.

The police determined that appellant was the person to whom Ernst and Bassett had been speaking at the party. After locating appellant, Sergeant Younghans conducted three tape-recorded interviews of appellant. The first and second interviews took place at the homicide office on May 9. At the time of the first two interviews, appellant was not under arrest. According to Sergeant Younghans, appellant denied any involvement in the shooting at the first interview. Appellant said that he, Daniel Angus, and Jonathan McNeill drove to Northeast Minneapolis to look for two friends. They drove around for 4 hours before returning around 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. Sergeant Younghans asked appellant if he knew anything about the murder of Tony Basta and he said he did not. Sergeant Younghans also asked appellant if he had ever handled a gun and appellant answered that he had only handled a pellet gun. Sergeant Younghans then asked appellant if he had ever been on Mississippi River Boulevard and he responded that he had never been there. Sergeant Younghans told appellant what the police had learned from Ernst and Bassett. Appellant then said that he was at the party but that Ernst and Bassett were lying. Appellant also said that he was on probation, he was not the type of person that would do this, and he could never kill anybody.

Sergeant Younghans left the interview room and learned from other investigators that a gun had been seen at appellant's Bloomington apartment before the shooting. Sergeant Younghans then initiated a second interview with appellant. Sergeant Younghans asked appellant about the gun and suggested several possible scenarios of how the shooting occurred. According to Sergeant Younghans, appellant eventually cried and told Sergeant Younghans that he, Angus, and McNeill were driving along Mississippi River Boulevard on the night of the shooting. McNeill was driving, appellant was in the front passenger seat, and Angus was in the back. McNeill or Angus told appellant that there was a gun under the front seat. Appellant picked up the gun and then, being stupid and careless, stuck the gun out the window and pulled the trigger. He stated that he did not see Basta as he pulled the trigger. Appellant kept the shell casing from the fatal shot because it jammed the gun. He told Sergeant Younghans where the casings were located. Sergeant Younghans then placed appellant under arrest.

Investigators later recovered the shell casings from appellant's residence and a 9-mm semiautomatic handgun from McNeill's apartment. Ballistics tests confirmed that Basta had been shot with this gun.

On May 10, Sergeant Younghans conducted a third interview with appellant. At that third interview, Sergeant Younghans told appellant that based on what Angus and McNeill had told police, he believed that the shooting was not an accident. According to Sergeant Younghans, appellant then stated that the gun belonged to Angus. Appellant also explained that during the weeks preceding the shooting, appellant, Angus, and McNeill had discussed using Angus's gun to rob people and that it was Angus's idea to rob people. In the days preceding the shooting, the three of them had gone to Mississippi River Boulevard on several occasions with a loaded gun. Although they picked out individuals as targets, they did not follow through and rob them. Appellant told Sergeant Younghans that McNeill later suggested that they kill their targets instead of robbing them and they agreed to this new plan. Angus used the term "first blood" to refer to the first person of the group who killed someone. Appellant said that he gave Angus and McNeill the impression that he was a willing participant in the scheme, but that he had no intention to rob or kill someone. Appellant only pretended to go along because he feared he would be rejected by his friends if he did not.

During this third interview, appellant also told Sergeant Younghans about the events leading up to the shooting and the shooting itself. According to Sergeant Younghans, appellant said that he, Angus, and McNeill drove to Mississippi River Boulevard on the night of April 26 with the purpose of killing someone just to see if they could do it. Someone spotted Basta and McNeill turned the car around to follow Basta. Appellant explained that he had the gun in his right hand by the door and, as they came up on Basta, he stuck his hand out the window and he pulled the trigger. Appellant told Sergeant Younghans that Angus and McNeill intended that appellant kill Basta, but that appellant's subjective intent was only to scare Basta. Appellant saw Basta grab his left side and heard him say "ouch." Appellant told Sergeant Younghans that the three of them laughed as they drove away, but appellant only laughed because the others did. Appellant said that later that night, they had a joke between themselves that involved saying "ouch." He also said that the three of them headed toward Roseville after the shooting because Angus wanted to shoot someone. They ended up driving back to St. Paul without shooting anyone else. After stopping to meet Angus's girlfriend, Jeanne Tromp, they returned to the scene of the shooting, but left because the street was blocked off by police. On June 14, 2000, appellant was indicted for first-degree murder. On August 4, 2000, the state filed a Spreigl² notice indicating that it might offer at appellant's trial evidence that appellant and Angus had previously participated in a burglary and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.³ At a pretrial hearing on October 12, 2000, the court indicated that it would wait until the close of the state's case to make the ruling on the admissibility of the Spreigl evidence. At that same hearing, the state provided notice that one of the exhibits it would seek to present at the trial was a computerized animation prepared by Dan Davis, an assistant Hennepin County medical examiner, to aid the testimony of Dr. Susan Roe, an assistant medical examiner for Ramsey and Washington Counties, regarding Basta's internal injuries. The state said that the exhibit would help the medical examiner explain the autopsy findings because the exhibit illustrated the bullet path. The state explained that the bullet path was not readily understandable due to the fact that the shot came from a moving vehicle and Basta was on a moving bicycle when he was shot.

Following the state's argument in favor of admissibility, the appellant stated that the animation was the subject of a motion in limine filed by appellant. The animation was presented to the district court judge by use of Microsoft Power Point. The animation consists of four sequences.⁴ In the first sequence, Basta is facing the viewer and is bicycling on the side of the road. A car moves up from behind Basta and, as it moves toward Basta, the passenger in the front seat, who is holding a gun, takes his arm and places it...