State v. Kjeseth

828 N.W.2d 480, 2013 Minn. App. LEXIS 26, 2013 WL 1393824
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedApril 8, 2013
DocketNo. A12-1012
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 828 N.W.2d 480 (State v. Kjeseth) 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
State v. Kjeseth, 828 N.W.2d 480, 2013 Minn. App. LEXIS 26, 2013 WL 1393824 (Mich. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

HALBROOKS, Judge.

On appeal from his convictions of first-degree DWI for impaired driving, first-degree DWI for test refusal, and fleeing a police officer, appellant argues that the district court’s jury instruction on the enhancement element of first-degree DWI was based on an erroneous view of the law because it allowed his current violations of the DWI statute to be enhanced by a prior felony conviction of test refusal. In the alternative, appellant argues that his sentence should be reduced because the district court erred by including the prior felony conviction that was used for enhancement in his criminal-history score.

Because the first-degree DWI statute, Minn.Stat. § 169A.24, defines as predicate offenses “a felony under this section,” therefore including both impaired-driving and test-refusal felony offenses, we hold that a prior felony conviction of test refusal can be used to enhance a subsequent violation of the DWI statute to a first-degree offense. And because the sentencing guidelines require that prior felonies used for enhancement be included in an offender’s criminal-history score, we affirm appellant’s sentence.

FACTS

In 2004, appellant Clarence Peter Kjes-eth was charged with first-degree DWI for impaired driving and first-degree DWI for test refusal. Those incidents were charged as first-degree offenses based on “four prior qualified impaired driving incidents” from 1999 to 2001. Kjeseth pleaded guilty to first-degree DWI for test refusal, and the other charge was dismissed.

In 2011, Kjeseth was charged with first-degree DWI for impaired driving in violation of Minn.Stat. §§ 169A.20, subd. 1(1), .24; first-degree DWI for test refusal in violation of Minn.Stat. §§ 169A.20, subd. 2, .24; and fleeing a peace officer in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.487, subd. 6 (2010). The two DWI violations were charged as first-degree offenses based on Kjeseth’s 2004 felony DWI.

Kjeseth pleaded not guilty to all three counts and went to trial. After the close of evidence, the district court proposed a jury instruction on the applicable enhancement element of first-degree DWI that asked the jury to determine whether Kjes-eth had a previous felony conviction for DWI or refusal to submit to testing. Defense counsel objected to that instruction, arguing that “the legislature did not mean that refusal to submit to testing [be] included in [section 169A.24]” and noting that the CRIMJIG on first-degree DWI enhancement refers only to impaired-driving priors. The district court recognized that its proposed instruction deviated from the CRIMJIG, but explained that the CRIMJIG “doesn’t include everything that [482]*482is within [section 169A.24].” At the close of trial, the district court instructed the jury that if they found Kjeseth guilty of either the impaired-driving or test-refusal charge they must answer the additional question on their verdict form: “Did the defendant have a previous felony conviction for driving while impaired or refusal to submit to testing.”

The jury found Kjeseth guilty on all counts and answered “yes” to the question of whether he had a prior felony conviction for impaired driving or test refusal. Before sentencing, probation calculated Kjes-eth’s criminal-history score to be five, a score that included 1.5 points for his 2004 conviction. The district court sentenced Kjeseth to 66 months in prison, the presumptive sentence for felony DWI by an offender with a criminal-history score of five. See Minn. Sent. Guidelines Grid 2010. This appeal follows.

ISSUES

I. Did the district court abuse its discretion by denying Kjeseth’s request to instruct the jury on the prior felony-enhancement element of first-degree DWI by using the CRIMJIG?

II. Did the district court sentence Kjeseth based on an erroneous criminal-history score?

ANALYSIS

I.

“The district court has broad discretion in determining jury instructions and we will not reverse in the absence of abuse of discretion.” Hilligoss v. Cargill, Inc., 649 N.W.2d 142, 147 (Minn.2002). We review the district court’s jury instructions to determine whether they “fairly and adequately explain the law.” State v. Vance, 734 N.W.2d 650, 656 (Minn.2007), overruled on other grounds by State v. Fleck, 810 N.W.2d 303 (Minn.2012). Jury instructions “must define the crime charged and explain the elements of the offense to the jury.” Id. An instruction that materially misstates the law constitutes error. State v. Kuhnau, 622 N.W.2d 552, 556 (Minn.2001). In order to determine the accuracy of the district court’s instructions, it is necessary that we establish the elements of the DWI statutes at issue. See State v. Pendleton, 567 N.W.2d 265, 268 (Minn.1997). Whether the district court has properly construed the elements of a statute is a question of law, which we review de novo. See State v. Pearson, 633 N.W.2d 81, 83 (Minn.App.2001).

Minnesota’s DWI statute makes it a crime to drive motor vehicles, motorboats, snowmobiles, and off-highway motorcycles while impaired or to refuse to submit to a chemical test of one’s blood, breath, or urine. Minn.Stat. § 169A.20. A person violating the DWI statute is sentenced under one of four separate penalty statutes: “section 169A.24 (first-degree driving while impaired), 169A.25 (second-degree driving while impaired), 169A.26 (third-degree driving while impaired), or 169A.27 (fourth-degree driving while impaired).” Id., subd. 3. First-degree DWI is a felony offense. Id.; Minn.Stat. § 169A.24, subd. 2. Second-degree and third-degree DWIs are gross misdemeanors and fourth-degree DWI is a misdemeanor. Minn.Stat. §§ 169A.25, .26, .27 (2010).

A violation of section 169A.20 is a first-degree offense if one of three conditions is met: “[T]he person: (1) commits the violation within ten years of the first of three or more qualified prior impaired driving incidents; (2) has previously been convicted of a felony under this section; or (3) has previously been convicted of a felony under section 609.21....” Minn.Stat. § 169A.24, subd. 1. The second enhance[483]*483ment provision — enhancement by prior felony DWI — is at issue in this case.

Kjeseth argues that the district court’s jury instruction on the prior felony-enhancement element was based on an erroneous view of the law. On this element, the district court asked the jury to decide whether Kjeseth had a previous felony conviction of DWI or refusal to submit to testing.1 Kjeseth asserts that only a prior felony impaired-driving offense — not a pri- or test refusal — can support a conviction under the first-degree DWI statute. Whether the district court’s instruction on the first-degree enhancement element fairly explains the governing law of the case, therefore, requires us to determine whether felony test refusal is a predicate offense for first-degree DWI.

We necessarily turn to the language of the first-degree DWI statute, Minn.Stat. § 169A.24.

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Bluebook (online)
828 N.W.2d 480, 2013 Minn. App. LEXIS 26, 2013 WL 1393824, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kjeseth-minnctapp-2013.