State v. Hooper

620 N.W.2d 31, 2000 Minn. LEXIS 762, 2000 WL 1877862
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedDecember 28, 2000
DocketC2-99-188
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 620 N.W.2d 31 (State v. Hooper) 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. Hooper, 620 N.W.2d 31, 2000 Minn. LEXIS 762, 2000 WL 1877862 (Mich. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION

STRINGER, Justice.

When the decomposed body of Ann Prazniak was found in a cardboard box in a closet of her apartment at 1818 Park Avenue South on April 15, 1998, a criminal investigation soon led the police to suspect appellant Brian Keith Hooper. Appellant was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder 1 and was convicted and sentenced on each charge. His direct appeal raising issues of exclusion and sufficiency of evidence was stayed and remanded to the trial court on his petition for retrial based upon newly discovered evidence. The trial court denied his motion and on appeal here we review the claims he raised in his direct appeal and his claim that he was entitled to a new trial based upon newly discovered evidence. We affirm.

Ann Prazniak, a 77-year-old resident of 1818 Park Ave. South in Minneapolis, was last seen at her bank in late March, 1998 when she reported her checkbook missing. In early April of 1998 Prazniak’s neighbors contacted the police and her apartment manager, fearful that her apartment had been taken over by drug dealers. Prazn- *34 iak, who usually paid her rent promptly, had not paid the April rent on her apartment.

On April 3 the apartment manager entered Prazniak’s apartment to look for her and three days later police searched the apartment. It was in disarray and filled with debris, rotting food and cat feces, but there was no sign of Prazniak. Police saw evidence of drug dealing in the living room, including chopped up bath soap, commonly sold as fake crack, on a coffee table, and torn plastic baggies, typically used to wrap crack cocaine for sale, on the floor. Police called Animal Control to care for a cat found in the apartment and told the apartment caretaker to change the locks.

On April 10 police again searched the apartment and found its condition much the same. On both visits police saw a box inside the bedroom closet with cloth or clothing on top but did not look inside. On the first visit the apartment generally smelled unpleasant, but on the second visit police smelled a noticeable foul odor.

The police returned to Prazniak’s apartment for a third time on April 15. Upon stepping out of the squad car the police noticed a “rotten” odor. The police and building owner determined that the smell came from Prazniak’s apartment and upon stepping inside they determined the source of the smell was the bedroom closet. Inside the closet police found a cardboard box containing a heavy cloth and plastic bundle. Upon cutting into the bundle police discovered human remains. The medical examiner was then called and later testified the remains in the box were those of Ann Prazniak. Prazniak’s body was wedged upside down in a fetal position and a string of Christmas tree lights was wrapped around the box, apparently to reinforce it. Prazniak’s body was wrapped in a mattress pad and two large black/ green garbage bags. Underneath the bedding and garbage bags Prazniak’s head and body were wrapped in a blanket and secured with rope and her wrists were tightly bound with packaging tape. Electrical cord was tied around her ankles, and her nose and mouth were covered by layers of packaging tape wrapped around her face. Prazniak was determined to have suffered a broken rib and bruises to her wrists and knees before her death.

The medical examiner testified that the cause of death was asphyxiation caused by the layers of packaging tape covering her mouth and nose, a broken rib that put pressure on her chest, and the upside down and tightly curled position of her body, which would have prevented her diaphragm from expanding. Although the date of her death could not be established precisely, the medical examiner estimated Prazniak died two weeks to a month before the discovery of her body by police. Prazniak was five feet and one inch tall and weighed less than 100 pounds at the time of her death.

Neighbors told police investigators that they had seen people coming in and out of Prazniak’s apartment including a woman named “Shay” and a man named “Brome.” The police determined “Shay” to be Chala-ka Lewis and “Brome” to be appellant. Police found Lewis’ fingerprints on pieces of brown packaging tape stuck to the floor of the apartment similar to tape removed from the victim’s body. Appellant’s fingerprints were found on two sandwich baggies and a beer can in the living room. The fingerprints of Vonda Quass, a witness who confessed to smoking crack in the apartment, were found on a dark black/ green garbage bag similar to the ones used to wrap the body, and were also found on a white garbage bag. Several other prints were recovered, but none could be identified.

In an interview with police appellant said the only time he had ever met Prazn-iak was when he helped her take out her garbage. He described her as a “nice little old lady.” Appellant claimed that he first went to her apartment with Lewis and Lewis told him she was watching *35 Prazniak’s cat because Prazniak was in treatment for alcohol abuse. Appellant said he noticed a foul smell in the apartment but attributed the odor to waste from the cat. Appellant admitted entering Prazniak’s apartment three different times to smoke crack cocaine and have sex but denied killing Prazniak.

Police interviewed Lewis four times over the course of a month. At first Lewis denied any knowledge of the murder, but in the fourth interview Lewis gave a detailed statement incriminating appellant. Lewis testified that on the night of the murder she was at 1818 Park smoking crack cocaine in the hallway and she saw appellant standing near Prazniak’s apartment with a woman named Tammy and two other people she did not know. Police never found a witness named Tammy.

Not wanting to share her drugs with the others, Lewis went to a different part of the building to smoke. When she returned she hoped that appellant and the others would share their crack cocaine with her. She saw appellant standing alone in the door of Prazniak’s apartment and entered the apartment when appellant offered her crack to be a lookout for him. Once inside, appellant went to a back room of the apartment and shut the door while Lewis watched the hallway of the apartment building. Lewis saw a cat crying at the bedroom door and thought she heard a woman’s voice say “Help.” Lewis became afraid and left the apartment building, but appellant followed her outside and called her back.

Lewis went back to the apartment with appellant and again watched out the door to the hallway while appellant went to the bedroom. A few minutes later appellant came out sweating and “his eyes was looking all wild, ⅜ * ⅜ and he was cussing and swearing.” Appellant looked through the drawers of a desk in the dining room, pulled out some rolls of beige packaging tape and told Lewis to tear off tape for him. Lewis tore strips of tape and threw them on the floor. Appellant took the tape strips to the bedroom and Lewis heard “some rumbling or some bumping noises.” Lewis was frightened, left the apartment and paced in the hallway. Appellant opened Prazniak’s door, asked Lewis, who was pregnant at the time, what she was doing and threatened to kick her in the stomach to make her lose the baby if she didn’t keep watch. At the time Lewis was five and a half months pregnant, five feet five inches tall, and weighed about 140 pounds.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Brian Keith Hooper v. State of Minnesota
888 N.W.2d 138 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2016)
State of Minnesota v. Randal Anthony Daher
Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2016
State of Minnesota v. Jesus Arroyo, III
Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2016
State of Minnesota v. Eddie Manuel Demmings
Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2016
Brandon Darnell Barnes v. State of Minnesota
Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2016
State of Minnesota v. Lonnie Bell Scott
Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2016
State of Minnesota v. Jason Lonnie Gabbert
Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2016
Hassan Mohamed Abdillahi v. State of Minnesota
Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2015
Miles v. State
840 N.W.2d 195 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2013)
Hooper v. State
838 N.W.2d 775 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2013)
Dobbins v. State
845 N.W.2d 148 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2013)
State v. Usee
800 N.W.2d 192 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2011)
State v. Larson
788 N.W.2d 25 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2010)
State v. Hall
764 N.W.2d 837 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2009)
State v. Moon
717 N.W.2d 429 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2006)
State v. Pippitt
645 N.W.2d 87 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2002)
State v. Gianakos
644 N.W.2d 409 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2002)
State v. Lewis
638 N.W.2d 788 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2002)
State v. Nelson
632 N.W.2d 193 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2001)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
620 N.W.2d 31, 2000 Minn. LEXIS 762, 2000 WL 1877862, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hooper-minn-2000.