State v. Palmer

507 N.W.2d 865, 1993 Minn. App. LEXIS 1075, 1993 WL 454403
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedNovember 9, 1993
DocketC7-93-433
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 507 N.W.2d 865 (State v. Palmer) 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. Palmer, 507 N.W.2d 865, 1993 Minn. App. LEXIS 1075, 1993 WL 454403 (Mich. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

OPINION

HUSPENI, Judge.

Appellant John Edward Palmer, Jr. was arrested after being identified as the person who. sold a cooperating witness quantities of LSD and after that witness taped conversations in which she and appellant discussed drugs. Appellant waived his right to a jury trial. The trial court found him guilty of two counts of controlled substance abuse in the first degree, Minn.Stat. § 152.021, subd. 1(3). Because we find that the tape-recorded conversations were properly admitted and the evidence was sufficient to sustain appellant’s convictions, we affirm.

FACTS

Minneapolis police discovered that Kathleen Finley was shipping LSD in “plastic-type” form to persons in West Monroe, Louisiana. They obtained and executed a search warrant at Finley’s home, where they found quantities of cocaine powder, methamphetamine, and LSD; a handgun; Federal Express receipts; and a large quantity of money. Finley agreed to cooperate with the police if she were not charged under federal gun statutes or Minnesota statutes. She named appellant as the source of the LSD and told police that she bought the drug from him for $1.10 a “hit” and planned to sell it for $2.00 to $3.00 per unit.

Police escorted Finley to Louisiana in order for her to face drug charges there. She telephoned appellant a day after her arrival, at the behest of narcotics authorities in Louisiana, who also had her tape the conversation. Without mentioning drugs, Finley told appellant that she had buyers for more of his product, and that her customers loved the shipment appellant had sent to them earlier. She stated, “Blue is beautiful,” which according to a Minneapolis narcotics officer refers to a type of LSD. Finley also testified that she was referring to LSD and that she and appellant discussed sending another shipment to Louisiana.

Finley received a telephone call from appellant shortly after she returned to Minneapolis. Her answering machine partially recorded that call, in which appellant stated:

No, I, nothing’s up, I went and, you got everything that was halfway decent before, I mean the stuff is, it’s just, it’s so brittle, you can’t even cut it, it just breaks into a million pieces.

Finley explained that appellant was talking about the LSD that she had asked him to send to Louisiana.

Appellant planned to be in Minneapolis for a high school class reunion, and Finley arranged to meet him at the Walker Art Center so she could pay him $850 for LSD appellant sent her earlier. For the meeting, Finley wore a body wire and taped the conversation. Again, Finley and appellant discussed the LSD shipment to Louisiana, and *867 he mentioned working out a new design for his product. The narcotics officer testified that appellant’s comment referred to manufacturing LSD in a unique form in order to get a better price.

Shortly after the conversation at the Walker Art Center, police arrested appellant and charged him with two counts of controlled substance crime in the first degree. At trial before the court, appellant’s objection to admission of the three recorded conversations was overruled, and Finley and the narcotics officer testified that the language used in the conversations referred to drugs. In addition, a chemist with the Minneapolis Department of Health testified that she analyzed the sheets of blue, plastic-like material recovered from Finley’s house and found them to contain LSD. She further testified that the five sheets were divided into one-eighth-ineh squares and that there were 3,850 squares in all.

The trial court found appellant guilty of both counts of controlled substance crime and sentenced him to 93 months.

ISSUES

1. Did the trial court err in admitting tape-recorded statements made outside an adversarial proceeding and in which the de-clarant neither identified himself nor mentioned drugs?

2. Is there sufficient evidence to support appellant’s conviction for controlled substance crime in the first degree where the state produced no evidence concerning the strength or the weight of the LSD?

ANALYSIS

I.

Rulings on evidentiary matters generally rest within the sound discretion of the trial court. Caldwell v. State, 347 N.W.2d 824, 826 (Minn.App.1984). Even if the trial court errs in an evidentiary ruling, “[a] reversal is warranted only when the error substantially influences the jury to convict.” State v. Brown, 455 N.W.2d 65, 69 (Minn.App.1990) (quoting State v. Loebach, 310 N.W.2d 58, 64 (Minn.1981)), pet. for rev. denied (Minn. July 6, 1990).

The state offered appellant’s taped conversations into evidence both as admissions of a party-opponent and as statements against interest. Under the rules of evidence:

A statement is not hearsay if * * * [t]he statement is offered against a party and is (A) the party’s own statement, in either an individual or a representative capacity.

Minn.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(A). Appellant alleges that the trial court erred in admitting the taped conversations, and argues that rule 801(d)(2)(A) does not apply unless the declar-ant is a party in an adversary proceeding at the time he made the statement. His authority for this claim is the committee comment to rule 801(d)(2):

The requirements of trustworthiness, firsthand knowledge, or rules against opinion which may be applicable in determining whether or not a hearsay statement should be admissible do not apply when dealing with party admissions. Because the rationale for their admissibility is based more on the nature of the adversary system than in principles of trustworthiness or necessity, it makes sense to treat party admissions as nonhearsay.

Minn.R.Evid. 801(d)(2) cmt. (emphasis added). We do not believe that the comment imposes on the rule a requirement that there be an adversary proceeding at the time the statement is made. Rather, we believe that appellant confuses rules 801 and 804. Under rule 804(b)(3), an exception to the hearsay rule, the statement must be against the declarant’s interest when made and the declar-ant must be unavailable as a witness. Charles T. McCormick, McCormick on Evidence § 254 at 143 (John William Strong et al., eds., 4th ed. 1992). Rule 801, on the other hand, applies to words or actions inconsistent with a party’s position at trial, relevant to the substantive issues in the case, and offered against the party. Id. at 142. Statements that meet rule 801 requirements need not satisfy the hearsay exception requirement that they possess circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness because the party against whom the statement is offered is present in the courtroom and may cross- *868 examine the witness offering the statement or otherwise present evidence explaining the statement. See State v. Mitjans, 408 N.W.2d 824

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
507 N.W.2d 865, 1993 Minn. App. LEXIS 1075, 1993 WL 454403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-palmer-minnctapp-1993.