State v. Medrano

751 N.W.2d 102, 2008 Minn. LEXIS 315, 2008 WL 2520854
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJune 26, 2008
DocketA07-1437
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 751 N.W.2d 102 (State v. Medrano) 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. Medrano, 751 N.W.2d 102, 2008 Minn. LEXIS 315, 2008 WL 2520854 (Mich. 2008).

Opinion

OPINION

ANDERSON, Paul H., Justice.

On April 17, 2005, Hector Manuel Me-drano confessed to the murder of Jose Gallegos. After a full trial on the merits, a Dodge County jury found Medrano guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(a)(1) (2006); first-degree felony murder, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(a)(3) (2006); and second-degree intentional murder, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.19, subd. 1(1) (2006). The Dodge County District Court convicted Medrano of first-degree premeditated murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Medrano now appeals, arguing that the admission of his confession at trial was prejudicial error that entitles him to a new trial. We affirm.

The essential facts on this appeal are not in dispute. On March 21, 2005, Jose Gallegos did not come to work at his job with McNeilus Truck and Manufacturing in Dodge Center. Someone claiming to be Gallegos’s nephew called McNeilus later that day and said that Gallegos had gone to Mexico to take care of an emergency. Gallegos’s friend and co-worker, Jesse Torres, did not believe that Gallegos would go to Mexico without telling him and urged his supervisor to contact the police. In early April, when Gallegos remained missing from work, someone at McNeilus contacted the Dodge County Sheriffs Department about Gallegos’s absence. Around the same time, Gallegos’s neighbor told the Sheriffs Department that she noticed Gallegos had not been home for an extended period of time and that several very loud, “shady, seedy-looking people” were going in and out of Gallegos’s house.

On April 8, 2005, Investigator Jeremy Gunderson and Deputy Ryer Anderson went to Gallegos’s house to investigate Gallegos’s disappearance. Salvador Gallegos, Gallegos’s nephew, answered the door and consented to a search of the house. When searching the house, Gunderson and Anderson found appellant Hector Manuel Medrano with two young women — K.R. and S.B. — in a back bedroom. Gunderson asked Medrano about Gallegos, and Me-drano stated that Gallegos had gone to Mexico and was in treatment. When asked to identify himself, Medrano provided Gunderson and Anderson with a false name. But the officers subsequently found a wallet in the bedroom that contained Medrano’s driver’s license. When the officers ran a search of Medrano’s name, they discovered that a body-only warrant had been issued for him. Medra-no was then taken into custody and the officers continued to search Gallegos’s house. During their search, the officers discovered Gallegos’s Jeep in the garage and seized, among other things, black gar *104 bage bags and cleaning products found around the Jeep, keys to Gallegos’s Jeep, two ends of a coaxial cable, an insurance card with Gallegos’s name on it, and Gallegos’s Minnesota driver’s license and his passport.

Medrano was detained at the Freeborn County jail in Albert Lea as a result of the body-only warrant. While in jail, Medrano told another inmate, Robert King, that he had killed someone. According to King, Medrano explained that the man he killed was someone he was staying with and that this man was treating Medrano’s friend— the man’s nephew — badly. Medrano went on to tell King that he stabbed the man and put a belt around his neck. Medrano then showed King his finger and said he had cut it during the incident. Medrano stated that after he killed the man, he rolled the man’s body up in plastic or a blanket and he and his friend moved it, first to the basement of the house and eventually somewhere else. He also told King that he told the police that the man had gone to Mexico. King relayed this information to a Freeborn County jail guard. The report was then referred to a Freeborn County Deputy, who contacted the Rochester Police Department. The Rochester police checked their own missing persons reports and those of the Olmsted County Sheriffs Office, but none fit the description King had provided. Me-drano was subsequently released from the Freeborn County jail.

On April 14, 2005, Gallegos’s body was discovered in Pine Island Township. His body was in a ravine, wrapped in canvas with coaxial cables wound around it. At approximately 2:30 a.m. on April 15, Gun-derson and other officers executed a search warrant at Gallegos’s house. Me-drano and K.R. both were inside the house at the time. Both of them were transported to the Dodge County Sheriffs Office and questioned. When questioned, Me-drano denied any involvement in the death of Gallegos. After Medrano and K.R. were interviewed, they were taken to a hotel room because Gallegos’s house had been secured for the execution of the search warrant. Later that day, after learning about the information that Me-drano had given to King while in jail, officers arrested Medrano for the murder of Gallegos. Just before his arrest, Me-drano was questioned for the second time about the murder but again denied any involvement.

On Sunday, April 17, Sergeant Luke Nash transported Medrano to the Dodge County Sheriffs Office for a third police interview. While in Nash’s vehicle, Me-drano told Nash that he had not slept very well and was not “feeling very good.” Me-drano then told Nash that he planned to give a confession to the police and asked Nash to call ahead to request a male interviewer.

Chief Deputy James Trihey conducted the April 17 interview of Medrano at the Dodge County Sheriffs Office. Trihey gave Medrano a Miranda warning and asked if Medrano was willing to speak with him. Medrano responded with the following statement: “Yes, but I have just one question. So if I ask for a lawyer now, will there be a lawyer present now?” Trihey explained that it was not likely that Me-drano would be able to speak to an attorney until the next day. He also explained that if Medrano asked for an attorney, the interview would stop and the police would not speak to Medrano until he spoke to an attorney. Medrano then stated he still wanted to speak to Trihey and went on to confess to murdering Gallegos.

Medrano explained that in March, he was staying at a hotel in Rochester, Minnesota, when he met Salvador. Salvador had no place to stay, so Medrano *105 invited Salvador to stay with him at the hotel. But Medrano had to check out of the hotel within a few days because he was running out of money. Eventually, the two men got a ride to Dodge Center and Salvador took Medrano to Gallegos’s house.

When Salvador and Medrano arrived at Gallegos’s house, no one was home, but Salvador had a key. After the two went inside, Medrano fell asleep for a few hours and when he woke up Salvador indicated that he wanted to leave. According to Medrano, Salvador said that he and Gallegos did not get along. The two men left but returned to the house three times during that day. The final time they returned to the house, Gallegos was home.

When Gallegos opened the door to Salvador and Medrano, Salvador and Gallegos talked for a minute and then Gallegos began accusing Salvador of taking one of Gallegos’s phone or credit cards. Eventually Medrano and Salvador went to a back bedroom and Salvador told Medrano that they could not stay at Gallegos’s house. After talking to Salvador about his relationship with Gallegos, Medrano then said to Salvador, “you act like you wanna kill him.” Salvador replied, “I do, but.” The conversation eventually ended and Salvador and Medrano left Gallegos’s house.

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Related

State of Minnesota v. Thomas James Fox
868 N.W.2d 206 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 2015)
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Maine Superior, 2015

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
751 N.W.2d 102, 2008 Minn. LEXIS 315, 2008 WL 2520854, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-medrano-minn-2008.