State v. Marchand

410 N.W.2d 912, 1987 Minn. App. LEXIS 4698
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedAugust 25, 1987
DocketCX-87-157
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 410 N.W.2d 912 (State v. Marchand) 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. Marchand, 410 N.W.2d 912, 1987 Minn. App. LEXIS 4698 (Mich. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

HUSPENI, Judge.

Appellant Michael Ray Marchand was convicted of making terroristic threats in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.713, subd. 1 (1986). On appeal he argues that the evidence does not support the conviction, that the trial court abused its discretion in sustaining the prosecutor’s objections to certain defense questions and the trial court erred in its instructions to the jury. We affirm.

FACTS

Appellant had a leg amputated as the result of a motorcycle accident, and repeatedly parked his car in front of his business on a main traffic artery in downtown Duluth. He could not park at the rear of the store because he was unable to walk up and down the steps near the rear entrance. The area in front of the store is a “no parking” zone, and in the month preceding the incident which precipitated the charge and conviction now on appeal, appellant had received nearly 20 parking citations and his car had been towed six times.

On the day of the incident, he had again parked in the “no parking” zone as he unloaded his car. Within a few minutes, he left his store intending to move the car. However, the police had already been summoned and had called a tow truck. Complainant Debra Nephew is the wife of the owner of the towing firm. Appellant became very upset and argued with the police officers who refused to allow him to remove the car. Eventually, six officers were involved in the dispute with appellant.

After the tow truck arrived and the car was removed, appellant took a cab to the police station to obtain the towing slip. He was required to wait about 30 minutes at the station and again became extremely upset. After receiving the towing slip, he directed the cab driver to the address on the slip, which was about 90 blocks from *914 the police station. Unknown to appellant, the address was that of the residence of the Nephew family. Ms. Nephew had been phoned by the cab company and had told the caller that the car was not at the address on the slip. This information was not relayed to appellant.

When appellant arrived at the Nephew home and discovered his car was not there, he again became very upset. He left the cab, approached the window of the home and began yelling at Ms. Nephew. Ms. Nephew states that appellant slammed his fist on a garbage can as he yelled. She testified that:

[H]e said that he was handicapped. We had no right doing that to him, and that he was with the Hell’s Angels, and that; and then he told me that we — I would pay for towing — We would pay for towing his car, that we didn’t have a right to do that. He kept telling me that we didn’t have a right to do that and we would pay for it. He said “I know where you live and I know what kind of vehicles you have, and if I ever see you on the road I’ll run your asses right off the road.”

Appellant testified that he told Ms. Nephew she and her husband had no right to tow a handicapped person’s car and that he was a former member of the Hell’s Angels. He denies stating that he would run the Nephews off the road. Instead, he states that he told her he would run the family out of town. Appellant acknowledges that he was yelling at Ms. Nephew as loud as he could during the incident, but contends that he intended only to cause her to refuse to tow his car in the future, not to terrorize her.

Appellant was charged with making ter-roristic threats and the jury returned a verdict of guilty to the charge.

ISSUES

1. Is there evidence to support the conviction, showing that appellant intended to terrorize the complainant?

2. Did the trial court abuse its discretion in sustaining objections to defense questions?

3.Did the trial court commit reversible error in its instructions to the jury?

ANALYSIS

I.

Minn.Stat. § 609.731, subd. 1 (1986) provides:

Whoever threatens to commit any crime of violence with purpose to terrorize another * * * or in a reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror * * * may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than five years.

In the context of this statute, “purpose” means “aim, objective or intention.” State v. Schweppe, 306 Minn. 395, 398, 237 N.W.2d 609, 614 (1975). Appellant argues that there is insufficient evidence of intent to support the jury’s verdict.

This court is mindful of the directive that it is not to try the facts anew when considering an appeal of a jury’s finding of guilt. State v. Ellingson, 283 Minn. 208, 211, 167 N.W.2d 55, 57 (1969).

Our responsibility extends no further than to make a painstaking review of the record to determine whether the evidence, direct and circumstantial, viewed most favorably to support a finding of guilt is sufficient to permit the jury to reach that conclusion.

Id. Ms. Nephew’s testimony that appellant threatened to run her off the road constitutes a threat to commit a crime of violence, one of the elements that must be shown under Minn.Stat. § 609.713, subd. 1. Appellant’s argument on appeal centers on his contention that the evidence does not show beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to terrorize Ms. Nephew when making the threat. Rather, he contends that his statements were merely expressions of transitory anger. He relies on a dissenting opinion in State v. Taylor, 264 N.W.2d 157 (Minn.1978), which quotes from the comments to the section of the Model Penal Code upon which the Minnesota statute is patterned:

In drafting legislation penalizing threats, we would not wish to authorize grave *915 sanctions against the kind of verbal threat which expresses transitory anger rather than settled purpose to carry out the threat or to terrorize the other person.

Id. at 160. Although a dissenting opinion, the analysis of the intent issue is not contradicted by the majority opinion; it relates to an issue not addressed by the majority.

However, to warrant reversal based on appellant’s argument, this court must find that the evidence indicates he acted not out of an intent to terrorize but rather in the midst of transitory anger. While the effect of a terroristic threat on the victim is not an essential element of the offense, the victim’s reaction is circumstantial evidence relevant to the element of intent. Schweppe, 306 Minn. at 401, 237 N.W.2d at 614. Although Ms. Nephew became very fearful, appellant continued yelling at her.

Appellant also testified regarding his intent:

Q. My question is, is it your testimony that you did not mean to frighten that woman when you were yelling at her?
A. Yes, sir; I did not mean to frighten her.
Q. You didn’t think that might cause this woman to be afraid of you when you were yelling at her?
A.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
410 N.W.2d 912, 1987 Minn. App. LEXIS 4698, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-marchand-minnctapp-1987.