Harris v. State

399 N.W.2d 690, 1987 Minn. App. LEXIS 4012
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedFebruary 3, 1987
DocketNo. C1-86-1543
StatusPublished

This text of 399 N.W.2d 690 (Harris v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harris v. State, 399 N.W.2d 690, 1987 Minn. App. LEXIS 4012 (Mich. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

NIERENGARTEN, Judge.

This is an appeal from an order denying Lloyd Anthony Harris’ petition for post-conviction relief. We affirm.

FACTS

During the early morning hours S.C. was awakened in her apartment by a gloved hand around her face. She was pulled from her bed as a knife was held to her throat and was told to keep quiet or both she and her three year old daughter would be killed. The apartment was dark and S.C. could not see the assailant. Her hands were tied behind her and parts of her clothing were torn or cut from her body and tied over her face and she was raped. After the assailant left, S.C. went to an upstairs apartment and told her boyfriend’s niece that she had been raped. The police were dispatched to the scene at 4:47 a.m.

S.C. told the investigating officers that the attack lasted from forty to forty-five minutes and later testified at trial that when she looked at the clock in the niece’s apartment it was about 4:00 a.m. She told the officers that she smelled a gasoline odor on the glove that covered her face and smelled alcohol on the assailant’s breath. She said she identified the assailant as “Tony” Harris because she recognized his voice. Although the assailant was behind her, she said she also recognized him because of his height and a limp.

The niece told the officers that approximately fifteen minutes before S.C. came to her door, she looked out the window and saw a car with a dark bottom and a beige top leaving the lot. She said S.C. was shaking badly when she came to the apartment.

One of the officers testified that she noticed a wet shoe print on the front concrete step to the Harris apartment which could have been made by a tennis shoe, but the print had evaporated ten or fifteen [692]*692minutes later. The officers later took a pair of damp tennis shoes from Harris’ apartment. One of the officers testified that he detected “a slight odor of alcohol” on Harris’ breath.

Officers accompanied Harris to his car which one officer described as “a white over maroon Dodge,” and another described as “white over brown.” Two officers examined the engine and air cleaner about 5:15 or 5:30 a.m. and noted that they were warm, although Harris had said the car had been parked since about 12:00 a.m. One of the officers who felt the engine and who testified to having worked on cars stated that, based on the warmth of the engine, she did not believe the ear had been parked earlier than about 4:00 a.m.

The officer who first searched the inside of the car said he noticed a gasoline odor and smelled a slight gasoline odor on Harris’ hands. The car subsequently was impounded by the police who recovered two pairs of gloves, some tissues, a towel, and a knife from the car. A small pocket-sized knife also was found in one of Harris’ pockets during a patdown search.

At about 6:00 a.m., S.C. had been taken to the hospital for a medical examination where the treating physician noticed scratches on her neck which were compatible with knife scratches and bruises on one of S.C.’s knees; attending nurses noticed bruises on S.C.’s wrists. A social worker who talked to S.C. at the hospital stated that she was very upset and frightened like many of the rape victims he has interviewed at the hospital. At the hospital, S.C. positively identified Tony Harris as the person who had assaulted her. The police testified that S.C. was shaken and frightened when she saw Harris at the hospital and that she later was crying when she was making a telephone call.

Tests conducted by a hospital physician indicated that the fluids from a vaginal swab contained nonmotile (nonmoving) sperm and seminal fluid, and estimated that they had been introduced into S.C. sometime after midnight. The doctor stated that the results of his analyses were consistent with vaginal penetration within approximately three to four hours of the examination.

The vaginal swab subsequently was analyzed by lab technicians at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The technicians also analyzed blood, hair, and saliva samples from S.C., Harris, and S.C.’s boyfriend, with whom S.C. last had sexual relations on the preceding Friday. Although the lab tests could not positively identify the donor of the fluids in the vaginal fluid specimen, neither Harris nor S.C.’s boyfriend could be eliminated as possible donors.

The evidence on how Harris entered the apartment was inconclusive. The police did discover shoe marks with traces of mud in the snow beneath the bedroom window, but no mud was found on the outside wall of the building or in S.C.’s apartment. Harris admitted at trial that the shoe marks probably were his and said he had met S.C. secretly on at least three occasions and had rapped on her bedroom window a few days before the assault.

S.C. and Harris were well-acquainted and Harris sometimes went out with S.C. and her boyfriend. S.C. told the police officers that she recognized her assailant’s voice as that of Harris because she remembered his voice and certain words he used while playing with his children.

Harris says that he engaged in sexual relations with S.C. on at least two prior occasions and last entered S.C.’s apartment two days before the alleged assault by way of a window because he was told someone was watching S.C.’s apartment. S.C. denies the allegations.

Harris testified that on the night of the assault, he left work at 11:00, stopped at a gas station for gas and oil, and then went to a bar and had a couple of drinks. Although he told police on the morning of the assault that he arrived home about 12:00, he testified at trial that he arrived at his home after 1:30.

The jury returned a guilty verdict and Harris was sentenced to concurrent terms [693]*693of sixty-five months for the first degree criminal sexual conduct offense and forty-one months for the first degree burglary offense. Harris filed a petition for post-conviction relief contending that the evidence was insufficient to support the convictions for burglary and criminal sexual conduct, and that he was denied a fair trial when the prosecutor inquired about prior convictions during cross examination. He appeals from the order denying relief.

ISSUES

1. Was the evidence sufficient to support Harris’ conviction for burglary and criminal sexual conduct?

2. Was Harris denied a fair trial when the prosecutor questioned him about prior convictions during cross examination?

ANALYSIS

1. Sufficiency of the Evidence

A conviction may be upheld and the verdict will not be disturbed on appeal if there is sufficient evidence in the record to support the postconviction court’s order denying relief. See Doughman v. State, 351 N.W.2d 671, 674 (Minn.Ct.App.1984).

The jury reasonably could conclude from the evidence that S.C. was assaulted and raped on the morning of April 2, 1985. See State v. Reinke, 343 N.W.2d 660, 662 (Minn.1984) (discussing similar facts supporting an allegation of rape). The jury reasonably could conclude from the evidence that Harris was the person who assaulted and raped S.C. Although S.C. never saw her assailant, S.C. identified Harris’ voice, based upon her prior acquaintance with him. See State v. Otten, 292 Minn.

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Related

Hanson v. State
344 N.W.2d 420 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1984)
Doughman v. State
351 N.W.2d 671 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1984)
State v. Beard
380 N.W.2d 537 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1986)
State v. Otten
195 N.W.2d 590 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1972)
State v. Reinke
343 N.W.2d 660 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1984)
State v. Brouillette
286 N.W.2d 702 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1979)
State v. Reichenberger
182 N.W.2d 692 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1970)

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Bluebook (online)
399 N.W.2d 690, 1987 Minn. App. LEXIS 4012, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harris-v-state-minnctapp-1987.