State v. Vance

392 N.W.2d 679, 1986 Minn. App. LEXIS 4719
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedSeptember 2, 1986
DocketC3-85-2120
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 392 N.W.2d 679 (State v. Vance) 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. Vance, 392 N.W.2d 679, 1986 Minn. App. LEXIS 4719 (Mich. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

OPINION

PARKER, Judge.

This appeal is from a judgment of conviction and sentence. Appellant Kevin Earl Vance was charged and subsequently convicted of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in violation of Minn. Stat. §§ 609.342(d) and 609.342(e)(i) (1984). He was given an executed sentence of 72 months and is currently incarcerated. We remand for vacation of one of the two convictions and affirm in all other respects.

FACTS

Sixteen-year-old S.D. was babysitting at the home of Ricky and Susie Ann Jeske in Watertown, Minnesota, on the evening of December 31, 1984. At about 1 a.m., a man whom S.D. had never seen before came to the door and asked if Rick was home. ' Thinking the man was a friend of the Jeskes, S.D. let him in the house.

The man eventually produced a knife, ordered S.D. to undress, and forcibly engaged in sexual intercourse with her. After about five minutes, S.D. reached up and pulled the man’s orange stocking cap over his eyes and started to scream. He removed the cap and stuffed it into S.D.’s mouth. She pulled it out, scratched his face, and sat up and bit him on the right shoulder. He bit her back on the nose.

The man got up and dressed. He then ordered S.D. to get up and go into another room. She walked down the hall into the children’s room, turned on the lights, and started yelling. The man fled.

S.D. dialed 911 on the telephone. Two deputies from the Carver County Sheriff’s office, Roger Roatch and Tim Curtin, responded to the call, which had come in at 1:46 a.m. Roatch interviewed S.D. while Curtin canvassed the neighborhood for witnesses. At the omnibus hearing Roatch testified that S.D. had given him the following description of her assailant:

As far as clothing, it was jeans, reddish plaid shirt, a navy pea coat and an orange stocking hat. As far as his physical features, it was long blondish hair, mustache with the sides extended down over the mouth and thin face.

An orange cap found on the floor was recovered. S.D. also told Roatch her assailant was 5’11" to 6’ tall and that she had scratched him.

One of the Jeskes’ neighbors spoke to Curtin and indicated that she saw a truck at the Jeske residence when she returned home between 1:00 and 1:30 a.m. She described it as a red and white Chevy pickup from 1968-1971 and stated that the lights were on and the engine running.

When the Jeskes returned home, Roatch began giving them S.D.’s description of the assailant. Ricky Jeske broke in and said it sounds like Cody, or, it has to be Cody. The Jeskes informed Roatch that “Cody” is Kevin Vance’s nickname and that Vance worked with Ricky Jeske. Susie Jeske stated that Vance had been over earlier in the day looking for her husband and had indicated he would stop back later. Vance had been to the Jeskes’ home several times before and was known by their children.

Ricky Jeske gave the deputies directions to Vance’s mobile home in Montrose. Because Montrose is located outside Carver County, two Wright County deputies accompanied Roatch and Curtin. The four deputies arrived at the mobile home at about 3:45 a.m. A 1970 orange and white Chevrolet truck matching the description given by the Jeskes’ neighbor and registered to Vance was parked outside. Both Roatch and Curtin testified that one of the Wright County deputies had received a radio dispatch informing them that Vance was known to keep a loaded shotgun near his bed.

*682 There were no lights on in the home. Roatch knocked and a woman answered the door. Roatch identified himself and asked for Vance. The woman, later identified as Vance’s wife, swung the door open and went into the back room. The deputies entered the living room, shut the front door, and positioned themselves. Curtin testified that, after a few minutes, he heard a male voice, and the deputies proceeded single-file down the hallway with their guns drawn. When they entered the bedroom, Vance appeared to be sleeping. Roatch nudged him and ordered him to wake up.

Vance was informed he was under arrest, handcuffed and read the Miranda warning. After Vance indicated that he understood, Roatch began questioning him while Curtin questioned his wife in the living room. Vance made several seemingly inconsistent statements as to his whereabouts that evening and as to whether he was wearing an orange cap when he left home that afternoon. He was naked from the waist up and, when asked about the various marks on his body, he indicated that he was a machinist and had probably received them at work. He was then taken to jail, where he was interviewed by Richard Anding, an investigator with the Carver County Sheriffs office. At Anding’s request, Vance showed him the mark on his right shoulder.

Two days later, on January 3, Anding again questioned Vance and asked to see the teeth mark. Vance lowered his shoulder and then replied, “You mean the scratch.” Vance allowed Anding to photograph the mark. As Anding was leaving, Vance commented, “Oh, by the way, if I raped that girl, tell her that I have venereal warts.” At trial a physician testified that S.D. had been diagnosed in April as having venereal warts.

After the omnibus hearings, the trial court ruled that all of the physical evidence seized from Vance’s trailer on January 1 was inadmissible because the entry and arrest were illegal and justified neither by consent nor exigent circumstances. The photographs taken by Anding were also suppressed because the State had failed to comply with the notice provisions of Minn. R.Crim.P. 9.02. Other evidence, however, including Vance’s statements at his home and later in jail and the deputies’ observations of Vance’s body, was ruled admissible.

At trial the critical issue was the identity of the assailant; there was little dispute that S.D. had been raped. S.D. testified and identified Vance as her assailant. The State introduced testimony by a Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) expert who had analyzed hairs found on the orange cap recovered from the scene of the crime. The expert testified that Vance qualified as a donor of the hair, but that neither S.D. nor any of the Jeskes did. Vance’s defense at trial was that he was in downtown Wa-tertown at the time of the rape. Vance himself, as well as two friends, testified as to his whereabouts.

The jury returned guilty verdicts on both counts, and the trial court imposed an aggravated sentence.

ISSUES

1. Did the trial court commit prejudicial error in allowing evidence of the deputies’ observations of Vance and of Vance’s post-Miranda statements?

2. Was it prejudicial error to allow And-ing to testify as to his observations of Vance’s body?

3. Was the photographic lineup properly conducted?

4. Was Vance prejudiced by the prosecutor’s reference to inadmissible evidence?

5. Was Vance prejudiced by the playing of a tape recording of the telephone call made by S.D. to the police after the assault?

6. Is the evidence sufficient to sustain the jury’s verdict?

7. Was the trial court's imposition of an aggravated sentence an abuse of discretion?

*683 8.

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Related

State v. Roan
532 N.W.2d 563 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1995)
Blackmon v. State
574 So. 2d 1037 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1990)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
392 N.W.2d 679, 1986 Minn. App. LEXIS 4719, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-vance-minnctapp-1986.