State v. Guzman

892 N.W.2d 801, 2017 WL 1349520, 2017 Minn. LEXIS 194
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedApril 12, 2017
DocketA15-1773
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 892 N.W.2d 801 (State v. Guzman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Guzman, 892 N.W.2d 801, 2017 WL 1349520, 2017 Minn. LEXIS 194 (Mich. 2017).

Opinion

[805]*805OPINION

ANDERSON, Justice.

A Hennepin County grand jury indicted appellant Manuel Guzman for first-degree premeditated murder, Minn. Stat. § 609.185(a)(1) (2016), for the fatal shooting of Rufino Clara-Rendon. Appellant filed several pretrial motions, including motions to quash the indictment, to compel production of the entire grand jury transcript, and to exclude recorded jail calls between appellant and his girlfriend. The district court denied each of appellant’s pretrial motions and the matter was scheduled for a jury trial. During the trial, the court made a number of evidentiary rulings that appellant now challenges on appeal. The jury found appellant guilty as charged and the court sentenced him to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. On appeal, appellant contends that the district court committed reversible error in its pretrial and evidentiary rulings, as well as in its instructions to the jury. Because the court did not commit reversible error, we affirm.

FACTS

The events that led to the fatal shooting of Rufino1 began in spring 2014, when appellant and several other men, including Hector Lopez Rios, Guillermo Ayala-Enri-quez, and J.A.E., robbed Rufino’s friend, J.R.2 Several months later, on August 7, 2014, appellant and Guillermo called Rufi-no a “snitch” in a face-to-face confrontation that occurred at appellant’s home. The confrontation was witnessed by several people, including A.J., who was at appellant’s home to repay a debt.

At trial, A.J.’s testimony provided the following outline of events. Appellant, Guillermo, Rufino, Hector, A.J., and appellant’s roommate were in the yard outside of appellant’s home. Appellant told Rufino that he had 10 minutes to explain himself, and A.J. heard appellant and Guillermo say the word “snitch” throughout the conversation. At one point, Hector told appellant and Guillermo to “beat his *ss already,” but Guillermo responded that “he wanted' blood” and that he would “dump [Rufino] over the Minnehaha River.” Later, the men went inside appellant’s home, and appellant held a gun to Rufino’s forehead. Rufino was “stuttering,” his “hand movements were everywhere,” and “[h]e was basically trying to explain himself, trying to basically beg for his life.” A few minutes later, appellant, who was still holding the gun, told Rufino to follow him and Guillermo from the kitchen down the hallway that led to the bathroom. Shortly thereafter, Hector said, “F*ck it,” and followed the three men down the hallway. “Almost instantly” after Hector went down the hallway, A.J. heard a gunshot.3 When Hector came back to the kitchen, he had a look of “regret,” “[a]s if he shouldn’t have saw what he saw.” Guillermo had a “[satisfied grin, almost,” and appellant “didn’t have an expression at all.” A.J. heard appellant tell Guillermo: “It had to be done. He was a liability.” A.J. immediately left [806]*806appellant’s home after telling appellant and Guillermo, “I wasn’t here. I didn’t see anything. I didn’t hear anything.”

A.J.’s testimony - largely corroborated Hector’s testimony. Hector testified as follows. When the men were outside of appellant’s home, Guillermo made Rufino call J.R. twice, and during the second call, Guillermo took the phone and left a voice-mail saying: “Hey, b*tch. I got your friend kidnapped. Call me at this number.” After Guillermo left the voicemail, the men went inside appellant’s home. Hector claimed that he did not go down the hall to the bathroom until after he heard the gunshot. When Hector entered the bathroom, he started to panic and go “into shock” because he saw Rufino in the bathtub with a “hole” in his forehead. Meanwhile, appellant and Guillermo started making plans to dispose of the body. Appellant and Guillermo took a mattress from the living room, Guillermo cut a hole in it, and then appellant and Guillermo put Rufino’s body into the mattress. Guillermo used bleach to clean up the bathroom. Guillermo later drove his Chrysler Pacifica to the front door of the house where appellant and Guillermo put the mattress inside the SUV. Guillermo then drove appellant and Hector to a gas station, where appellant and Guillermo discussed buying gas to dispose of the evidence. After appellant purchased the gasoline, Guillermo drove the men to the “back of some apartments,” near East 39th Street and Snelling Avenue in Minneapolis. Hector testified that he remained in the car while appellant and Guillermo attempted to put the whole mattress in a dumpster. As the two men lifted the mattress into the dumpster, Rufino’s body fell out. Leaving the body where it fell, appellant poured gasoline on the body and the mattress and set both on fire. According to Hector, appellant and Guillermo told him not to talk to anyone about what he had seen.

Firefighters and police officers responded to the dumpster fire on the night.of August 7, 2014. When they arrived, the fire was burning in the dumpster, and Rufino’s burned body was on the ground next to the dumpster. The medical examiner determined that Rufino was already dead at the time he was burned because there was no soot in his airways. The medical examiner also determined that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and that the manner of death was homicide.

Sergeant Charles Green was assigned to the investigation. Rufino’s body was so badly burned that initially it could not be identified. However, the medical examiner located a tattoo on Rufino’s arm during the autopsy. Therefore, as part of Sgt. Green’s investigation into the homicide, a depiction of Rufino’s tattoo was released to the media. Two hours later, Sgt. Green had a telephone conversation with a caller who reported that Rufino had a similar tattoo and had been missing since August 7. Sgt. Green subsequently interviewed J.R., who disclosed that he had received a voicemail indicating that Rufino had been kidnapped. J.R. told Sgt. Green that he listened to the voicemail on the Sunday following the murder and did not recognize the caller’s voice.

Sergeant Luis Porras assisted in the investigation. In speaking with Rufino’s brother and cousin, Sgt. Porras learned that Hector was the last person they saw with Rufino. Hector talked to the police with his attorney present roughly one week after Rufino’s death. During the interview, Hector told Sgt. Porras that appellant and Guillermo were involved in Ru-fino’s murder, that the murder occurred at appellant’s home, and where the gas used to burn Rufino’s body was purchased. The next day, Hector also provided addresses [807]*807for appellant and Guillermo and identified Guillermo as the driver of a Chrysler Paci-fica. Sgt. Porras obtained the surveillance video from the gas station and determined that appellant was holding two gas cans in the footage. Still photographs also showed appellant purchasing two gas cans and $10 in gasoline. Sgt. Porras learned from the manager at the gas station that only two gas cans had been purchased that day. After obtaining search warrants, police executed simultaneous searches of the homes of appellant and Guillermo to avoid the destruction of evidence. Although police did not recover the gun that was used in the homicide, they recovered two gas cans from a side garage area behind appellant’s home.

On August 20, 2014, the State filed a complaint charging appellant with second-degree intentional murder, Minn. Stat. § 609.19, subd. 1(1) (2016). The following day, appellant made his first court appearance. On September 8, 2014, the court held a hearing to discuss a discovery issue.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
892 N.W.2d 801, 2017 WL 1349520, 2017 Minn. LEXIS 194, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-guzman-minn-2017.