State v. Johnson

616 N.W.2d 720, 2000 Minn. LEXIS 543, 2000 WL 1264612
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedSeptember 7, 2000
DocketC3-99-1351
StatusPublished
Cited by86 cases

This text of 616 N.W.2d 720 (State v. Johnson) 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. Johnson, 616 N.W.2d 720, 2000 Minn. LEXIS 543, 2000 WL 1264612 (Mich. 2000).

Opinions

OPINION

RUSSELL A. ANDERSON, Justice.

We review appellant Sammie Lamont Johnson’s convictions and sentences for the crimes of first-degree premeditated murder, Minn.Stat. § 609.185(1) (1998), and first-degree felony-murder during the commission of an aggravated robbery, Minn.Stat. § 609.185(3) (1998). On appeal, Johnson argues that the state’s peremptory strike of an African American woman from the venire constituted purposeful racial discrimination in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Johnson also argues that the evidence was insufficient to support the convictions and that he is entitled to a new trial because the prosecutor committed misconduct during closing argument. Johnson also argues that the trial court erred by entering two judgments of conviction and by imposing concurrent life sentences for the same conduct. We affirm, but vacate Johnson’s judgment of conviction and sentence for first-degree murder committed during the course of an attempted aggravated robbery.

Agnes and Robert Fernlund spent the evening of October 27, 1998, playing cards with friends and returned to their Minneapolis home on 43rd Avenue South at approximately 11:45 p.m. Mr. Fernlund parked the car in front of their home and affixed a security device to the steering wheel while Mrs. Fernlund got out of the car. As she walked up the sidewalk toward their home she saw three men approach her husband from across the street. She heard one of the men ask for the time and Mr. Fernlund reply that it was a quarter to twelve. She continued walking and then heard a loud “pop.” She turned to see Mr. Fernlund lying in the street by the front of the car and the three men running away. She went into the house and called 911. Minutes later, paramedics arrived and discovered a gunshot wound in the upper right side of Mr. Fernlund’s back. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mrs. Fernlund was unable to describe the three men who approached her husband. However, neighbors were able to provide the police with some information. One neighbor heard a loud pop and then heard loud voices and laughter. Another neighbor heard a gunshot, footsteps, the sound of car doors slamming and an engine starting and then saw a white Ford Explorer-type vehicle with tinted windows speed down the alley. - Police found a shoe print in a yard across the street from the Fernlund home pointing in the direction of the alley and a tire track in the alley. No other evidence was recovered from the scene, and the casing from the bullet that killed Mr. Fernlund was never found.

The three men who approached Mr. Fernlund were Ernest Howard, Robert Neely and Johnson. Neely entered into a plea agreement with the state. In return for his promise to testify truthfully in any prosecution related to the Fernlund murder, Neely was permitted to plead guilty to second-degree unintentional murder for which he received a 12-year sentence. Neely testified at trial that on the day of the shooting he and Johnson met unexpectedly at a bus stop and that Johnson told him that he had a gun. Neely saw the gun’s loaded magazine. They went to the house of Johnson’s girlfriend who testified that she saw the gun and magazine in Neely’s pants. Neely testified that Johnson had given him the magazine to hold briefly.

[724]*724After Johnson and Neely left the house, Neely testified that Johnson fired the gun in the air and it jammed. Johnson removed the jammed bullet and placed the gun and bullet under some wood in the space between two garages. The two went to a convenience store and then retrieved the gun. Johnson again hid the gun, this time in a Iawnmower bag in the garage of his friend, Kenny Pritchard. The two went back to the store where they saw Howard, Johnson’s friend, putting gas in a white Mercury Mountaineer at a gas station across the street. Johnson and Neely approached Howard and Johnson brought up the idea of doing a “jack,” robbing someone, and the men agreed. The three drove back to Pritchard’s house and retrieved the gun. Howard wrapped the gun in paper and placed it in a compartment in the back of the vehicle’s passenger seats. The men drove around for about 20 minutes smoking marijuana before they saw the Fernlunds. Johnson said, “let’s get them” and Howard stopped the vehicle in an alley. Neely took the gun, with magazine attached, out of the compartment and gave it to Johnson.

The three men approached the Fern-lunds. Mr. Fernlund was closing his door when Johnson asked him for the time. When Mr. Fernlund answered, Johnson pulled out the gun and told Mr. Fernlund to give him his money. Howard also told him to “give up the money.” Mr. Fern-lund turned and took about two steps when Johnson shot him in the back. Neely testified that Johnson squeezed the trigger once, then “tried it again but the gun got jammed.” No one took anything from Mr. Fernlund, instead the men ran back to the Mountaineer. Neely put the gun back in the compartment and Howard drove Neely and Johnson back to Pritchard’s house.

Johnson took the casing out of the gun and buried it in the dirt in Pritchard’s yard.1 He then put the gun back in the Iawnmower bag. Johnson and Neely went upstairs to Pritchard’s bedroom and awakened him. Neely heard Johnson telling Pritchard about the incident, but was not sure what was said. The two slept at Pritchard’s house and in the morning stole a car and drove to St. Cloud. They spent that night in St. Cloud and the following morning stole another car and drove back to Minneapolis.

A few days after the murder, Johnson was shot with a ,22-ealiber weapon that was similar in class and rifling characteristics to the gun used to shoot Mr. Fernlund. The bullet recovered from Mr. Fernlund also was consistent in general characteristics with the bullet removed from Johnson, but the two bullets had no matching individual characteristics. Johnson gave police several different versions of the shooting, none of which corresponded to the ballistics evidence that he was shot at a distance of three feet or less. After he was arrested, Johnson accused Neely of trying to cover up the Fernlund murder by shooting him or having him shot. Johnson maintained that he was shot from a range of 15 to 20 feet. The police concluded that Johnson shot himself.

When police questioned Johnson about the Fernlund murder, Johnson admitted that he was present in fi*ont of Fernlund’s home before the shooting but claimed that Neely had the gun and shot Fernlund. Johnson claimed that he was running down the block when he heard the shot. Johnson maintained that Howard parked the vehicle in the street, not the alley, and that the three men did not walk through the neighbor’s yard. However, the shoe print found in the neighbor’s yard matched unique characteristics created by a small rock lodged in the sole of one of Johnson’s shoes and the tire track found in the alley matched unique characteristics of a tire on the white Mercury Mountaineer that Howard was driving.

Johnson was charged and convicted of first-degree premeditated murder and [725]*725first-degree felony-murder during the commission of an aggravated robbery. In his brief to this court Johnson concedes that the evidence was sufficient to convict him of aiding and abetting second-degree felony murder under Minn.Stat. § 609.19, subd. 2(1) (1998) (“causes the death of a human being, without intent to effect the death of another person, while committing or attempting to commit a felony offense ⅜ ⅜ ⅜

I.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
616 N.W.2d 720, 2000 Minn. LEXIS 543, 2000 WL 1264612, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-johnson-minn-2000.