2006-M-14 State
of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Leonard NMN Goodloe, Appellant.
DESCRIPTION OF THE CRIME: On July 22, 2004, a gunman chased Akeen Brown into the Big Stop
grocery store in North Minneapolis. Gunshots rang out from the back of
the store and the gunman fled. Brown was found dead from three gunshots
to his head.
On October 11, 2004, three months after the shooting, Goodboe ran
a red light and collided with another vehicle. A police officer saw
Goodboe try to climb out of a passenger window, with a gun in his hand.
Two other guns were found in the car, including a .357 caliber Coonan
semiautomatic.
The Coonan 3.57 matched with seven shell casings from the shooting
scene, a bullet retrieved from Brown’s skull, and ammunition from Goodboe’s apartment.
Goodboe was definitively identified by two witnesses and qualifiedly identified
by three witnesses from the shooting scene.
Security video from the crime scene linked the crime to Goodboe’s
car. Goodboe presented no testimony or witnesses at trial.
PRIOR PROCEEDINGS: A jury found appellant Leonard Goodloe guilty of
first-degree premeditated murder for the shooting death of Brown. The
district court entered a first-degree murder conviction and sentenced Goodloe
to life imprisonment.
THIS PROCEEDING: On this direct appeal, Goodboe appealed his conviction,
arguing that (1) the evidence was insufficient to prove the element of
premeditation beyond a reasonable doubt; (2) the district court’s jury
instruction regarding premeditation constituted plain error; and (3) the
district court plainly erred when it failed to sua sponte instruct the jury on
the lesser-included offense of second-degree intentional murder.
Goodloe also presented three additional arguments in a pro se
supplemental brief: (1) the district court’s admission of Spreigl
evidence (of prior crimes and bad acts) was error; (2) Goodloe was not promptly
brought before the district court after his arrest; and (3) the district court
that made the probable cause determination after Goodloe’s
arrest lacked authority to do so.
THIS DECISION: Justice Gildea joined the unanimous decision of Justice
Barry Anderson to affirm Goodhue’s conviction and life sentence.
First, the Supreme Court rejected Goodboe’s claim that the evidence was
insufficient to prove the element of premeditation beyond a reasonable
doubt. The murder weapon, shells, casings, ammunition, five witnesses,
video of Goodboe exiting his car and chambering a round as he pursued Brown,
and forensic testimony were adequate.
Second, the Supreme Court rejected Goodboe’s claim that the district
court’s jury instruction regarding premeditation constituted plain
error. he districts court instructed the jury on the element of
premeditation using the pattern jury instruction for first-degree premeditated
murder. The Supreme Court held that this standard jury instruction is not
a misstatement of the law as it stands.
Third, the Supreme Court rejected Goodboe’s claim that the district
court plainly erred when it failed to sua sponte instruct the jury on the
lesser-included offense of second-degree intentional murder. As the
Supreme Court had recognized in an earlier decision, a lesser-included offense
instruction need not be given if no evidence is adduced to support
giving the instruction. In this case, Goodboe did not present any
testimony or witnesses.
Fourth, the Supreme Court rejected Goodboe’s claim that the district court’s
admission of Spreigl evidence (of prior crimes and bad acts) was
error. Goodboe complained that he was prejudiced by testimony that he had
been escaping from his commission of an armed robbery when he overturned his
car with three guns in it when he was arrested on October 11. In
rejecting this claim, the Supreme Court noted that the prosecution offered no evidence
of the armed robbery on October 11.
Fifth, the Supreme Court rejected Goodboe’s claim that Goodloe was not
promptly brought before the district court after his arrest.
Goodloe asserts that he was arrested without a warrant on October
21, 2004, and was not taken before a judge until November 4, 2004. The
validity of these claims cannot be ascertained on the basis of the record before
us. An appellant has the responsibility of providing an appellate court
with a record adequate for review. Here, the record on appeal contains no
documentation indicating when Goodloe was arrested for the Big Stop shooting,
when the district court made the probable cause determination, or when Goodloe
was brought before the court. Thus, we cannot determine whether the
prompt appearance and probable cause determination requirements of Rules 4.02
and 4.03 were satisfied.
Sixth, Goodloe’s final claim is that the judge who made the probable
cause determination in his case was not properly assigned to the case pursuant
to the retired judge assignment process. Again, the record
provided for our review does not furnish sufficient documentation to permit
resolution of this claim. Specifically, the record does not contain the
order assigning the judge to Hennepin County District Court or to Goodloe’s
case. Consequently, we cannot address the merits of this claim.
Therefore, the conviction and the sentence are affirmed.
DATE OF DECISION: July 27, 2006
RECORD NUMBER: 2006-124
DESCRIPTION: [MURDER]
No comments:
Post a Comment