Voorhees v. State

627 N.W.2d 642, 2001 Minn. LEXIS 350, 2001 WL 695322
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJune 21, 2001
DocketC5-00-1892
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 627 N.W.2d 642 (Voorhees v. State) 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
Voorhees v. State, 627 N.W.2d 642, 2001 Minn. LEXIS 350, 2001 WL 695322 (Mich. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

PAUL H. ANDERSON, Justice.

In 1998, a St. Louis County jury found appellant Brad Alan Voorhees guilty of *645 first-degree premeditated murder and he was sentenced to a mandatory term of life in prison. We affirmed Voorhees’ conviction in State v. Voorhees, 596 N.W.2d 241 (Minn.1999). Voorhees then filed a pro se petition for postconviction relief alleging violations of due process at trial and on appeal, errors in jury instructions, newly-discovered evidence, misconduct on the part of the prosecutor, violation of his right to effective assistance of trial and appellate counsel, and insufficient evidence of premeditation. The postconviction court denied relief, concluding that Voo-rhees raised only claims that he had already raised or could have raised in his direct appeal and that the evidence did not support his ineffective assistance of counsel claim. On appeal, Voorhees argues that the postconviction court abused its discretion in denying his petition without conducting an evidentiary hearing or granting a new trial, that he was denied his constitutional right to appointment of effective counsel throughout his proceedings, and that the postconviction court abused its discretion in dismissing his petition without issuing findings of fact and conclusions of law. We affirm.

A detailed statement of facts can be found in State v. Voorhees, 596 N.W.2d 241 (Minn.1999); therefore, we will set out only the facts relevant to this appeal. At approximately 2:00 a.m. on August 6, 1996, Voorhees drove to his wife Carolyn’s place of employment and parked his car one street over from her workplace so that his wife would not see him. After parking his car, Voorhees took a rifle from the trunk, loaded the rifle, and walked through a wooded area to the house where his wife worked. When his wife came out of the house to have a cigarette, Voorhees shot her 11 times. Voorhees has never denied that he killed his wife.

Trial testimony and Voorhees’ statements to police recreate the troubled state of the Voorhees’ marriage and the events leading up to the homicide. Brad and Carolyn Voorhees were married in 1993. During the time they were married, several close relatives of the couple died. Voo-rhees was especially troubled by the death of his brother in May 1996, and this loss took a toll on the marriage. In July 1996, Carolyn Voorhees moved out of their home and subsequently served Voorhees with marital dissolution papers. During this time, Voorhees was taking a prescribed amount of the drug Prozac on a daily basis and was drinking alcohol regularly. Voo-rhees testified that he called his wife approximately one week before he killed her and told her that he was going to commit suicide by taking pills. She responded by telling him that he would “just end up brain dead” if he tried to kill himself that way.

On Friday, August 2, Voorhees purchased an “eight-ball” of crank, which is a form of methamphetamine. His Prozac had run out, but he did not immediately refill his prescription because he did not think he should be taking Prozac while ingesting methamphetamine. Voorhees testified that throughout the weekend he continued to ingest methamphetamine and drink alcohol and that he was unable to sleep.

Voorhees further testified that on Monday, August 5, he spent the day lying in bed, depressed and unable to sleep. At approximately 6:00 p.m., he left his home, finished the last of the methamphetamine, and then decided he needed to “snap out of this and * * * get straight.” After visiting a former employer, who told Voorhees he would be rehired when a job opened up, Voorhees proceeded to Wal Mart to get his Prozac prescription filled. Voorhees arrived at Wal Mart between 8:00 and 8:30 *646 p.m., and noticed his wife’s car in the parking lot.

When Voorhees entered the store, he saw his wife and a female friend in the checkout line. Voorhees waited for them to finish checking'out, and noticed that one of the items his wife was purchasing was a douche. Voorhees asked to speak to his wife and she told him to sign the marital dissolution papers and leave her alone. The two women then left the store, and Voorhees accompanied them to the parking lot, continuing to speak to his wife for approximately 20 minutes regarding their impending marital dissolution and finances. When Voorhees asked his wife if she was seeing someone else, she did not respond.

After his wife left the parking lot, Voo-rhees drove to a bar, where he had a mixed drink. He testified that he felt that he had nothing to live for and thought about what his wife said would happen to him if he tried to commit suicide. Voo-rhees testified that it was at this point that the thought of “a gun popped into my mind, that I couldn’t fail with a gun.” At approximately 9:05 p.m., Voorhees drove back to Wal Mart, went to the gun department, filled out the required paperwork, and bought a .22 caliber semi-automatic Marlin rifle and a box of 50 rounds of ammunition. The clerk who sold Voorhees the rifle testified that it took approximately 20 minutes for Voorhees to complete the purchase of the rifle. The clerk further testified that Voorhees was coherent and in a good mood and did not appear to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Voorhees then proceeded to a second bar, where he recalls drinking two or three mixed drinks and five to six beers. However, the bartender who served Voorhees testified that he served Voorhees one mixed drink and three or four beers between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and midnight. The bartender also testified that Voorhees did not appear to be drunk or on methamphetamine when he left the bar.

Voorhees testified that he returned to his home with the intent to shoot himself while in the home. He then let his dog out, brought the rifle inside, and changed into dark clothing. Voorhees left a message on his answering machine stating that it was the last message he would ever leave and that he was sorry. He read the owner’s manual for the rifle and walked around, looking at pictures and at the rings his wife had left behind. He also wrote a note to his mother that read: “MOM I LOVE You — SoRRY!! LOVE BRAD ALWAYS — 8-6-96 2 AM.” On the back of a church bulletin, he wrote: “To Who EVER REALY [sic] CAREs — I hope you hAVE A Good liFE! LET This BE A 1ESSON TO EVERYBoDy ABouT MARRIAGE.” Voorhees testified that at that point he decided to shoot himself in front of his wife and he “headed for where she works.”

Voorhees testified that as he approached his wife’s workplace through the woods and across a field, his wife came out of the house and lit a cigarette. When she turned around and saw him standing there, he testified that she yelled at him to go away and that there was someone else and she did not love him. Voorhees then shot her 11 times, pulling the trigger until the gun stopped going off. After shooting his wife, Voorhees ran up the path to his car, dropping the rifle along the way. Neighbors reported hearing screaming and several pounding or “popping” noises around the time of the homicide.

Voorhees drove to a store and called his sister-in-law. Voorhees then drove to the Spirit Mountain Motel, where he threw away the empty rifle box and the receipt from the purchase of the rifle. At 4:13 a.m., he called 911 from a rest area.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
627 N.W.2d 642, 2001 Minn. LEXIS 350, 2001 WL 695322, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/voorhees-v-state-minn-2001.