State v. Wright

• Decision Date: 25 January 2007
• Docket Number: No. A03-1197.,A03-1197.
• Citation: 726 N.W.2d 464
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. David Eugene WRIGHT, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 464

726 N.W.2d 464

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. David Eugene WRIGHT, Appellant.

No. A03-1197.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

January 25, 2007.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

John Stuart, State Public Defender, Leslie J. Rosenberg, Assistant State Public Defender, Minneapolis, MN, for Appellant.

Lori Swanson, Minnesota State Attorney General, St. Paul, MN, Michael O. Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney, David C.

Brown, Assistant County Attorney, Minneapolis, MN, for Respondent.

Beverly Balos, University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, MN, for Amicus Curiae, MN Coalition for Battered Women.

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

OPINION

ANDERSON, PAUL H., Justice.

David Eugene Wright was charged in Hennepin County with two counts of second-degree assault and one count of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm. The assault charges stemmed from an incident in which Wright allegedly pointed a firearm at his then-girlfriend and her sister. Shortly before Wright's trial was to begin, the district court determined that the girlfriend and her sister were unavailable witnesses, and ruled that statements the two women made to a 911 operator and to police officers during an initial on-scene investigation were admissible as excited utterances.

Following his conviction on all three counts, Wright appealed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, arguing that the district court abused its discretion by admitting the statements. State v. Wright (Wright I), 686 N.W.2d 295, 298 (Minn. App.2004). While Wright's appeal was pending, the United States Supreme Court decided Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004) (holding that the Confrontation Clause bars the admission of "testimonial statements" of a witness, with certain limited exceptions). Applying Crawford, the court of appeals concluded that the statements the girlfriend and her sister made to the 911 operator were nontestimonial and were therefore admissible. Wright I, 686 N.W.2d at 302. The court did not reach the issue of whether the women's statements to the police were testimonial, having decided that if the district court committed error by admitting these statements, the error was harmless. Id. at 305.

Wright appealed to our court and we affirmed the court of appeals, but on slightly different grounds. State v. Wright (Wright II), 701 N.W.2d 802 (Minn.2005). Wright then petitioned the United States Supreme Court for writ of certiorari. While Wright's petition was pending, the Court decided Davis v. Washington, 547 U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 2266, 165 L.Ed.2d 224 (2006) (holding that witness statements made during a police interrogation are testimonial, unless the purpose of the interrogation is to meet an ongoing emergency). Shortly thereafter, the Court granted Wright's petition, vacated our judgment, and remanded Wright's case for further consideration in light of Davis. Wright v. Minnesota, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 2979, 165 L.Ed.2d 985 (2006). After further consideration, we remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

On November 24, 2002, appellant David Eugene Wright was living with his girlfriend, R.R., in an apartment on Oak Grove Street in Minneapolis.¹ At about 3 a.m., a Minneapolis 911 operator received a hang-up call originating from R.R.'s apartment at the Oak Grove Street address. The operator dispatched police officer Mark Lanasa to that address. While Lanasa was en route, the 911 operator received a second call from the same location, during which R.R. told the operator that Wright had "pulled a gun on me and my little sister." In response to the operator's questioning, R.R. provided Wright's name and a physical description of him. She also told the operator that Wright had keys to her apartment, and that she was worried he might return. R.R. told the operator: "I'm so scared right now, ma'am. I'm sorry I don't want to talk too loud." The operator assured R.R. that the police were en route to her apartment building, and asked a number of questions about how the officers could gain entrance to the building once they arrived. Shortly thereafter, the operator said, "You know what [R.R.], the police are there now, ok?"

R.R. then put her sister on the phone. After a brief exchange between the operator and the sister, the operator instructed the women to "stay in that apartment" and said, "The police are following him outside. Ok? So he's not in the building." After another brief exchange in which the operator asked where R.R. and her sister were in the apartment building, the operator said, "Ok. You know what? I believe that they have him right now, ok?" The operator proceeded to comfort and reassure the sister, then stated, "They do have him in custody." The operator told the sister that the police would be coming back to the apartment to talk to R.R. and her sister. The sister asked if the police could get R.R.'s keys from Wright, and the operator replied, "They'll end up taking everything off of him."

At some point during the 911 call, the operator relayed to Officer Lanasa the information provided by R.R., including a physical description of Wright. As Lanasa was receiving the information from the 911 operator, he noticed a man matching Wright's description on the sidewalk west of LaSalle Street on Oak Grove. Lanasa turned his car around to face the direction that the man was walking. He then yelled at the man to stop and to raise his hands, but the man took off running. Wright, who was the man Lanasa spotted, testified that he ran because it was late at night and he was scared and uncertain about what would happen.

Lanasa testified that as he followed Wright in the squad car, he noticed Wright holding a black, semi-automatic handgun in his right hand. Wright turned into an alley and was traveling through the alley when Lanasa came around the corner and noticed that Wright's hands were empty. Wright then climbed over an eight-foot high chain link fence. Lanasa again yelled at Wright to stop and threatened to release a police dog if Wright did not stop. Lanasa testified that Wright continued running, but Wright testified that at this point he stopped and put his hands in the air.

Lanasa testified that he traveled around the block, positioned his squad car beside Wright, and pushed a button to open the door that released the police dog, which pursued Wright. The dog caught up to Wright and grabbed him by the right leg. Lanasa, who continued to pursue Wright, jumped out of his car with his gun drawn, forced Wright to the ground, and told Wright to show his hands. Wright kicked at the dog while the dog bit him, and Lanasa then took action to subdue Wright. Lanasa testified that Wright subsequently put out his hands and said, "I don't have the gun anymore." Lanasa then handcuffed Wright. At trial, Wright denied having had a gun in his hands while Lanasa chased him. Wright also testified that he did not say that he no longer had a gun because there was no reason for him to make such a statement.

A police officer who arrived to assist Lanasa searched the scene and found a gun under a parked car in a lot near the alley that Wright traveled through as Lanasa was chasing him. The gun was a Smith & Wesson, 915 semi-automatic. Lanasa testified that this gun appeared to be the same weapon he saw Wright holding in his right hand, but there were no fingerprints matching Wright's on the gun.

Meanwhile, at 3:13 a.m., Officer Heidi Weeks and her partner were dispatched to the Oak Grove address to begin an initial, on-scene field investigation. While en route, the officers heard Lanasa broadcast over the police radio that he had been chasing Wright. Weeks and her partner went to assist Lanasa, and when they arrived at the scene of the arrest, they placed Wright in the back seat of their squad car. Weeks and another officer, Adam Lewis, then walked to R.R.'s apartment.

When Weeks and Lewis arrived at the apartment building around 3:45 a.m., they observed that R.R. was crying and shaking uncontrollably, and trying to take deep breaths to calm herself. R.R. was having a hard time talking to the officers, and told the officers that she was really scared. Lewis asked R.R. if they could go up to her apartment to take her statement because the apartment building doorway was small and there was no place to sit. When the officers arrived at the apartment, R.R.'s sister was sitting on the sofa, crying.

Weeks spoke to R.R. for about a half hour. Weeks testified that throughout their conversation, R.R.'s demeanor did not change—"[s]he continued to cry and sob and have a hard time breathing in talking to us throughout the time that I was speaking with her." R.R. said she was concerned about whether Wright was in custody and whether he might be released. While Weeks talked with R.R., Lewis talked with R.R.'s sister, who described the events in a manner consistent with R.R.'s description. R.R.'s sister also told Lewis that she was "scared to death," and that she believed Wright would return and shoot her. R.R. and her sister then continued to recount the evening's events to the officers.

R.R. and her sister did not testify at Wright's trial, but their descriptions of the evening's events were introduced through the police officers' testimony. Wright's testimony concerning the events was largely consistent with the descriptions from R.R. and her sister, with some minor exceptions and one significant exception: his denial that he was pointing a gun at R.R. and her sister—the act that gave rise to the felony assault charges. Unless otherwise noted, the facts recited below are consistent with both versions of the events.

During the field investigation interview at her apartment, R.R. told Weeks that she had lived in the apartment since the beginning of the month, and Wright had moved in with her about two weeks later. Wright testified that at the time of the incident, his relationship with...