State v. Trimble

371 N.W.2d 921, 1985 Minn. App. LEXIS 4754
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedAugust 6, 1985
DocketC4-84-1189
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 371 N.W.2d 921 (State v. Trimble) 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. Trimble, 371 N.W.2d 921, 1985 Minn. App. LEXIS 4754 (Mich. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

OPINION

RANDALL, Judge.

Appellant Ralph Trimble was convicted of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, Minn.Stat. § 609.342(e)(i) (1982). On appeal he raises a number of issues: suggestive pretrial identification procedures, insufficient evidence, destruction of evidence, refusal to give an instruction, jury coercion, error in admission of evidence and erroneous jury instruction. We affirm.

FACTS

The complainant was sexually assaulted on August 2, 1983, at about 1:30 a.m. The *923 real issue at trial was the identity of her assailant.

Over objection, the complainant testified that she had' recently taken a college course on self-defense and applied some of her lessons during the assault. During the assault, which lasted about one and one-half hours, she attempted to mark her assailant by scratching him near his left eye and by ripping a hole in the seam of his shirt. She testified that she looked at her attacker’s face every chance she got to help her remember distinguishing characteristics.

After the assault the complainant described her assailant to police as between 5'8" and 5'11", mid 20’s with dark curly hair, dark beard, blue shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes. The hair was particularly unusual — fuzzy, sticking out on the sides, short and thinning on top.

The BCA chemist who performed lab tests testified that the seminal fluid in the vaginal sample was consistent with 33 percent of the male population and that appellant’s blood factor placed him within this group. The samples confirmed that the victim was having her period on August 2.

Appellant, who had been seen shortly after the assault by police officers while walking near the assault scene, had dirt and grass stains on his clothes and scratches on his face when later arrested that morning. He was wearing tan clothes; his shirt had dark blue piping.

After the complainant had been examined at a hospital, she identified appellant’s shirt at the police station. A police captain took her back to the scene of the assault where they found four quarters, a man’s comb, and the victim’s sanitary napkin which had come off during the assault. The captain took the napkin as evidence but later threw it away because the BCA lab did not need it.

Around 8:00 that morning the police captain showed the complainant a photo lineup of seven photos. He told her to look only at the faces. Appellant was in the photo lineup with the top portion of his prison issue orange jumpsuit showing. His photo was also the only one dated. Complainant immediately identified appellant as her assailant.

At trial appellant denied assaulting the complainant. He explained the dirt and grass stains on his clothes as having resulted from a tackle football game that afternoon and explained a scratch on his face as being from a fight that evening outside a downtown bar. He claimed he was in the area that hour of the night because he was unsuccessful in finding a place to sleep at a friend’s house and was walking back to his parent’s home 12 miles away.

ISSUES

1. Was the pretrial photo lineup imper-missibly suggestive?

2. Was the evidence sufficient to convict appellant of first degree criminal sexual conduct?

3. Was appellant prejudiced by the destruction of evidence?

4. Was the jury coerced into reaching its verdict?

5. Did the prosecutor commit prosecuto-rial misconduct in closing argument?

6. Did the trial court err in admitting testimony that the victim had attended a sexual defense class?

7. Did the trial court err in instructing the jury that testimony of a complainant need not be corroborated?.

ANALYSIS

I.

Pretrial identification

Appellant argues that the pretrial identification procedures were impermissibly suggestive, giving rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentifica *924 tion. Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 384, 88 S.Ct. 967, 971, 19 L.Ed.2d 1247 (1968). At the omnibus hearing, although he had raised the constitutionality of the photo lineup as an issue, defense counsel conceded the identification was proper.

Appellant points to the fact that his photo was dated and showed him dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, the top part of which is visible. He also makes much of the fact that, because he was recently awakened from sleep and was not allowed time to comb his hair, his hair was messy when his photo was taken.

The lineup photos were primarily of individuals faces; moreover orange clothing is not necessarily suggestive of jail clothing. The victim testified she based her identification on appellant’s facial features, not clothing. Similarly, the fact that appellant’s hair was messy is of little significance; the victim did not mention this as a factor in identifying appellant. While the photo of appellant should not have been dated, nothing shows the victim’s identification was based on this. In fact, she testified she did not notice or recall any writing on the photo.

Although displaying appellant’s photograph in this manner was not reversible error, it was improper for police to photograph him in jail garb with messy hair. Defendants should be allowed to comb their hair and dress in street clothes prior to being photographed for a lineup. Viewed in the totality of the circumstances, we agree with the trial court’s determination that the photo display was not unduly suggestive. However, these same factors under other circumstances could be found impermissibly suggestive.

Appellant has not shown a “very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidenti-fication.” Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 116, 97 S.Ct. 2243, 2253, 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977) (citation omitted). Here, factors other than those mentioned by appellant were critical to the victim’s identification. She had an opportunity to view her assailant over a 90 minute span, and was concentrating on his face the whole time. Her level of certainty was positive and she made the identification only five hours after the assault, although the in-court identification was made about five months later.

II.

Sufficiency of the evidence

We have reviewed the record and find there was sufficient evidence for the jury to convict appellant. The victim’s strong identification testimony was corroborated by the scratch on appellant’s face, the hole in the seam of his shirt, the presence of appellant at the scene of the assault shortly after the incident, his presence in the general area before the attack, and the dirt and grass stains on appellant’s clothes. We note that, although not required to produce witnesses, appellant’s testimony was that he did not know anyone at the tackle football game which was important to his explanation of the grass and dirt stains on his clothing.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
371 N.W.2d 921, 1985 Minn. App. LEXIS 4754, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-trimble-minnctapp-1985.