State v. Washington

725 N.W.2d 125, 2006 Minn. App. LEXIS 169
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedDecember 19, 2006
DocketNo. A05-1071
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 725 N.W.2d 125 (State v. Washington) 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. Washington, 725 N.W.2d 125, 2006 Minn. App. LEXIS 169 (Mich. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

LANSING, Judge.

Following a jury trial, Stephron Washington was convicted of two counts of fifth-degree domestic assault. Washington’s appeal focuses on three main issues. First, he argues that testimonial hearsay was admitted in violation of his Confrontation Clause rights. Second, he argues that the prosecutor committed prejudicial misconduct. Third, he argues that the district court erred by allowing the jury to have access to a 911 tape during deliberations. Washington also challenges four evidentia-ry rulings, the sufficiency of the evidence, and his sentence.

FACTS

At midnight, on April 12, 2005, an unidentified woman called 911 and asked to have police sent to her apartment. She told the 911 operator that she had been assaulted by her son’s father. Based on what the caller was saying and the sounds in the background, the 911 operator believed that the caller was being assaulted again during the call. The caller identified her assailant as Stephron Washington. Midway through the two-minute call, the caller said that Washington “ran out the back door.” She described Washington and the car he would likely be driving.

About five minutes after the 911 call, police arrived at the apartment building from which the calls were made and located the caller, LR. LR confirmed that she was the woman who had called 911. She appeared upset, and the officers asked if she was injured. She told them that Washington had bitten her arm and had hit her with a board. The board was a piece of the apartment’s doorframe that had been broken off and had a nail sticking out of it. Officers observed a bite mark on LR’s arm and a scratch from the nail. The officers believed they could recognize Washington from prior contacts, but they were unable to locate him. About a half-block from LR’s apartment, they found a Jeep Wagoneer that was registered to Washington.

Washington was detained on April 21, 2005. The next day LR recanted and denied that Washington had assaulted her. Although she maintained contact with the prosecutor’s office and called on the day of trial to say she was on her way to court to testify, she did not appear.

In a pretrial hearing, the district court concluded that LR’s statements in the 911 tape and during the onsite interview were nontestimonial. The district court noted that LR had just been assaulted during the 911 call and that police had not located Washington during the onsite interview. The district court therefore rejected Washington’s Confrontation Clause argument and permitted the state to introduce LR’s statements. The state also indicated [131]*131that the police officers would testify that they had met Washington and could identify him. Washington did not object.

At trial, the state played the 911 tape and the officers testified to LR’s statements. A defense investigator testified that LR had denied that Washington assaulted her. Washington testified in his own defense and acknowledged being at the apartment on April 12, 2005, but denied assaulting LR. The state introduced Washington’s prior convictions for impeachment purposes.

A jury found Washington guilty of two counts of domestic assault and found him not guilty of fourth-degree criminal damage to property. Washington received concurrent sentences of ninety days in the workhouse with sixty-one days stayed for one year and jail credit of twenty-nine days.

ISSUES

I. Were LR’s statements to the 911 operator and the police officers made under circumstances objectively indicating that the primary purpose was to enable police to meet an ongoing emergency?

II. Did the prosecutor engage in prejudicial prosecutorial misconduct?

III. Was the 911 recording improperly allowed in the jury room?

IV. Did the district court abuse its discretion in its evidentiary rulings?

V. Was the evidence sufficient to permit the jury to find Washington guilty of domestic assault?

VI. Did the district court properly sentence Washington?

ANALYSIS

I

Under the state and federal constitutions, a criminal defendant has “the right to be confronted with the witnesses

against him.” U.S. Const. amend. VI; Minn. Const. art. I, § 6. The Confrontation Clause covers not just witnesses who testify at trial but also the admission of hearsay statements that are testimonial in nature. Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 50-51, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 1364, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). Testimonial statements of witnesses absent from trial are inadmissible unless the declarant is unavailable and the defendant had a prior opportunity to cross-examine. Id. at 68, 124 S.Ct. at 1374; State v. Wright, 701 N.W.2d 802, 809 (Minn.2005), vacated, — U.S. —, 126 S.Ct. 2979, 165 L.Ed.2d 985 (2006).

Neither the United States nor the Minnesota Supreme Court has comprehensively defined “testimonial.” The “critical determinative factor in assessing whether a statement is testimonial is whether it was prepared for litigation.” State v. Caulfield, 722 N.W.2d 304, 309 (Minn.2006). But statements are nontesti-monial “when made in the course of police interrogation under circumstances objectively indicating that the primary purpose of the interrogation is to enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency.” Davis v. Washington, — U.S. —, —, 126 S.Ct. 2266, 2273, 165 L.Ed.2d 224 (2006). Statements made to enable police to meet an ongoing emergency “need not be limited to the complainant’s predicament or the location where she is questioned by police.” State v. Warsame, 723 N.W.2d 637, 641 (Minn.App.2006). If statements include both testimonial and nontestimonial material, only the testimonial material must be excluded. Davis, 126 S.Ct. at 2277.

In Davis, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the admissibility of hearsay evi[132]*132dence of police interviews in two separate cases: a 911 call and an onsite interview of a 911 caller. 126 S.Ct. at 2277-78. The Court concluded that, in the 911-call case, the caller was requesting help against a genuine physical threat and that the 911 operator requested information that was necessary for the police to resolve the emergency. Id. at 2276. Consequently, the Court determined that the exchange between the caller and the 911 operator was nontestimonial. Id. at 2277. In the onsite-interview case, the interview occurred at some time after the reported events, and centered on the victim’s deliberate recounting of how the events began and progressed. Id. at 2278. During the questioning the police kept the alleged assailant in another room. Id. At the conclusion of the interview, the police had the complainant fill out and sign a “battery affidavit.” Id. at 2279. The Court reasoned that the primary purpose of the onsite interview, unlike the 911 call, was “to establish or prove past events potentially relevant to later criminal prosecution.” Id. at 2274. The Court therefore held that the onsite interview was testimonial. Id. at 2278.

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Related

State v. Washington
725 N.W.2d 125 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 2006)

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725 N.W.2d 125, 2006 Minn. App. LEXIS 169, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-washington-minnctapp-2006.