State v. Waiters, A18-1116

• Decision Date: 26 June 2019
• Docket Number: A18-1116
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Ricky Darnell WAITERS, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

929 N.W.2d 895

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent,
v.
Ricky Darnell WAITERS, Appellant.

A18-1116

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Filed: June 26, 2019

Keith Ellison, Attorney General, Saint Paul, Minnesota; Karin Sonneman, Winona County Attorney, Winona, Minnesota; and Scott A. Hersey, Special Assistant Winona County Attorney, Saint Paul, Minnesota, for respondent.

Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Leslie J. Rosenberg, Assistant Public Defender, Saint Paul, Minnesota, for appellant.

OPINION

HUDSON, Justice.

929 N.W.2d 897

Appellant Ricky Darnell Waiters shot two customers in a bar parking lot, killing one and wounding the other. He was charged and convicted of several offenses, including first-degree felony murder, attempted first-degree felony murder, and drive-by shooting (the underlying felony). On appeal, Waiters argues that the evidence was insufficient to prove that he discharged a firearm "at or toward" a building or vehicle—a necessary element of drive-by shooting. He also argues that the prosecutor engaged in prosecutorial misconduct when she argued during her rebuttal that Waiters’s closing argument was trying to play on the jury’s emotions. Finally, Waiters raises three additional arguments in his pro se supplemental brief. We conclude that there is sufficient evidence in the record for a reasonable jury to find that Waiters discharged a firearm "toward" a building, the prosecutor did not commit prosecutorial misconduct, and Waiters’s pro se arguments are without merit. Accordingly, we affirm.

FACTS

The facts of this case center on a bar parking lot located in Winona and depicted below:¹

929 N.W.2d 898

Six features of the parking lot are relevant here: (1) on the north side of E.B.’s Corner Bar is a door facing the lot; (2) on the western edge of the lot is a house with a privacy fence that separates the house from the parking lot; (3) on the northern edge of the lot is an alley that provides access into the parking lot; (4) on the eastern edge of the lot is a semitrailer that is parked parallel to Ewing Street; (5) an approximately 9-foot gap exists between the front of the semitrailer and the rear wall of the bar; and (6) two covered picnic tables are located near the back door of the bar, which is approximately 18 feet from Ewing Street.

With this scene in mind, we turn to the events of the early morning of July 27, 2016. At approximately 1:00 a.m., Waiters pulled into the parking lot of E.B.’s Corner Bar using the alley entrance on the northern edge of the lot. As Waiters parked his car, two of the bar’s customers approached Waiters’s vehicle and told him he was parked the wrong way.² Waiters then put his car in reverse, pulled back into the alley, and turned right onto Ewing Street. After driving a few yards, Waiters stopped his car at the 9-foot gap between the semitrailer and the bar. According to several eyewitnesses, when Waiters reached the

929 N.W.2d 899

gap, he pulled out a gun, and, sweeping from left to right, fired six shots toward two groups of bar customers. The first group was standing at the back door of the bar and the second group was standing by the picnic tables. Waiters then fled the scene, driving down Ewing Street and then turning east onto West Fifth Street.

Two of Waiters’s bullets hit a customer who was standing by the picnic tables; two bullets hit a customer who was standing by the back door of the bar. The former survived, but the latter died. Of the six bullets fired by Waiters, only two were found; one was found in the body of the deceased customer, and the other was found in the driveway of the house on the western edge of the parking lot. Forensic testing, however, showed that, in addition to the bullet found in the driveway, at least one more bullet passed through the privacy fence that separated the house from the parking lot.

Waiters was arrested and ultimately charged with several offenses, including first-degree felony murder, Minn. Stat. § 609.185(a)(3) (2018), attempted first-degree felony murder, Minn. Stat. § 609.17 (2018) ; see Minn. Stat. § 609.185(a)(3), and drive-by shooting, Minn. Stat. § 609.66, subd. 1e (2018). Waiters pleaded not guilty and demanded a jury trial.

At trial, Waiters admitted to shooting the two customers, but claimed he did so in self-defense. More specifically, Waiters claimed that, when he pulled into the parking lot, he saw two customers wrestling in the middle of the lot. Despite their assertions to the contrary, Waiters testified that the two customers did not simply tell him that his car was parked the wrong way. Instead, one of the customers ran over to his vehicle and tried to punch him through the open driver-side window. At that point, Waiters recognized the customer as an acquaintance from work, whom Waiters claimed had previously told Waiters stories about how it was "the neatest thing in the world to be just out of control" and about getting into fights. Waiters backed up out of the parking lot into the alley, but the wrestling customers kept running toward his car. Waiters then turned south onto Ewing Street. Waiters claimed he did not turn north onto Ewing (the direction away from the bar) because he was unfamiliar with the back streets of Winona.

Waiters claimed that he had to stop his car next to the 9-foot gap between the semitrailer and bar because there was another vehicle on the roadway in front of him. Before he could drive away, one of the bar customers stepped out of the gap between the trailer and the bar and stood in front of Waiters’s car, holding a knife. According to Waiters, the two wrestling customers also approached Waiters’s vehicle. Afraid for his life, Waiters pulled out his gun, loaded it with a clip, and—when the knife-wielding customer tried to leap through the open passenger window—pulled the trigger. Because people were still coming at him, he continued firing. He then fled the scene, driving south down Ewing Street and turning east onto West Fifth Street.

The jury found Waiters guilty of all charges. The district court convicted him of first-degree felony murder and attempted first-degree felony murder. Waiters appeals his convictions.

ANALYSIS

I.

Waiters argues that his convictions must be reversed because the State presented insufficient evidence to prove that he recklessly discharged a firearm at or toward a building—a necessary element of drive-by shooting. Specifically, he contends that because he was aiming at the people standing

929 N.W.2d 900

in the gap between the bar and the trailer, he did not recklessly discharge his firearm at or toward a building . Instead, he simply...