State v. McAdory

543 N.W.2d 692, 1996 Minn. App. LEXIS 182, 1996 WL 69997
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedFebruary 20, 1996
DocketC8-95-834
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 543 N.W.2d 692 (State v. McAdory) 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. McAdory, 543 N.W.2d 692, 1996 Minn. App. LEXIS 182, 1996 WL 69997 (Mich. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

NORTON, Judge.

Appellant Carlos L. McAdory was convicted of two counts of second-degree assault, following a jury trial. The court sentenced him to two concurrent terms of imprisonment for 36 months. The court ordered that the sentences run consecutively to a prior unexpired felony sentence for a fifth-degree controlled substance conviction. Appellant contends the record contains insufficient evidence to support his assault convictions, and that imposition of a consecutive sentence constitutes a departure from the sentencing guidelines. We affirm the conviction but reverse and remand for resentencing.

FACTS

On September 20, 1994, at approximately 10:00 p.m., a man driving a maroon/brown car shot Joseph Bailey and Calvin Haywood as they stood talking near the intersection of Milton and Marshall Avenues in St. Paul. Bailey and Haywood identified appellant as the shooter.

Bailey, who knew appellant as “Trell,” 1 described him as someone who hung around the intersection of Selby and Milton Avenues and often came into the nearby cellular communication business where Bailey worked.

Earlier on the day of the shooting, appellant came to Bailey’s office for help with his cellular telephone. Appellant’s phone rang as Bailey started to assist him. Appellant answered his cell-phone, had a brief conversation, and then left the shop, saying that he was going to “regulate this n-,” meaning to commit robbery. About thirty minutes later, Calvin Haywood came into the shop, stuttering and sweating; he said that “Trell” had just robbed him. Bailey saw appellant driving a maroon automobile on Selby Avenue shortly after Haywood left the shop.

That evening, Bailey went to visit a friend who lived at the intersection of Milton and Marshall Avenues. Bailey was leaning on the passenger side of his car, engaging in a face-to-face conversation with Haywood and James Stewart, when a maroon/brown colored vehicle stopped in the middle of the street. Bailey testified that appellant got out of the maroon ear, saying, “What’s up now, N-?” Bailey then heard gunshots. One bullet struck Bailey in the shoulder area, while another passed through the body of his car before striking him in the buttocks and coming to rest in his inner thigh. Haywood suffered a bullet wound in his arm.

Bailey fell to the ground after he was shot, but observed appellant’s maroon car leaving the scene. Paramedics took Bailey to the hospital, where he was prepped for surgery.

Sergeant Richard Weisman talked to Bailey twice the following day, September 21st. During a telephone conversation, Bailey told Weisman that he had not actually seen who shot him, but he believed that it could have been Haywood. During a visit later in the day, Bailey told Weisman that “Trell” was *695 involved in the matter. Weisman noticed Bailey was heavily sedated and in pain during these conversations.

Bailey viewed a photo lineup on September 27, 1994, and identified appellant as the shooter. Haywood was shown the same lineup two days later and also identified appellant as the shooter. Haywood did not testify at trial, because his whereabouts were unknown.

A probable cause pickup order was issued for appellant on September 27th. Officer Catherine Janssen, who knew appellant by sight, spotted him driving a silver car and followed him. She observed appellant as he “bailed out of the car leaving the door open, and started running south.” She and another officer eventually found appellant hiding in a tree and arrested him.

At trial, appellant testified on his own behalf, claiming that he was watching television with his girlfriend when the shooting occurred. He testified that he had been in Bailey’s shop only on one occasion. He swore he had not been in the shop the day of the shooting. He claimed that he had never met Haywood. He stated that he owned a silver/grey car. Appellant’s girlfriend also testified on his behalf.

A neighbor testified that she knew appellant drove a silver/grey car, which was parked in front of her house when she came home from work shortly after 9:00 p.m. the day of the shooting. She acknowledged, however, that her observations of appellant were limited to the daytime and that she never saw him that evening.

The jury convicted appellant of two counts of second-degree assault in violation of Minn. Stat. § 609.222, subd. 1 (1994). The state sought permissive consecutive sentences for the assaults, which would result in a sentence totaling 72 months. Appellant had a previously unexpired sentence of one year and one day for possession of a controlled substance. Instead of ordering that the assault sentences be served consecutively, the court ordered the 36-month sentences be served concurrent and that they be consecutive to the unexpired controlled substance sentence.

ISSUES

1. Is the evidence sufficient to support appellant’s conviction of second-degree assault?

2. Did the trial court abuse its discretion in ordering appellant’s assault sentence to run consecutively to a previously-imposed felony sentence for a crime that was not against a person?

ANALYSIS

1. Sufficiency of the evidence

Appellant contends the record contains insufficient evidence to support his conviction. This court’s review of the sufficiency of evidence to support a conviction is limited to:

[A] painstaking analysis of the record to determine whether the evidence, when viewed in a light most favorable to the conviction, was sufficient to permit the jurors to reach the verdict which they did.

State v. Webb, 440 N.W.2d 426, 430 (Minn.1989). The reviewing court must assume “the jury believed the state’s witnesses and disbelieved any evidence to the contrary.” State v. Moore, 438 N.W.2d 101, 108 (Minn.1989). The reviewing court will not set aside a verdict if the jury, acting with due regard for the presumption of innocence and the necessity to overcome that presumption by proof beyond a reasonable doubt, could reasonably have concluded that the defendant was guilty. State v. Alton, 432 N.W.2d 754, 756 (Minn.1988).

Appellant challenges the identification of him as the person who shot Bailey and Haywood. In State v. Burch, 284 Minn. 300, 315-16, 170 N.W.2d 543, 553-54 (1969), the supreme court set forth the following factors that are relevant in evaluating an identification: (1) the witness’s opportunity to see the defendant at the time the crime was committed; (2) the length of time the assailant was in the witness’s view; (3) the stress the witness was under at the time of the crime; (4) the lapse of time between the crime and the witness’s identification; and (5) the effect of the police procedures as either testing the witness’s identification or simply reinforcing *696

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Bluebook (online)
543 N.W.2d 692, 1996 Minn. App. LEXIS 182, 1996 WL 69997, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mcadory-minnctapp-1996.