Do not murder a police officer during a traffic stop!  Ever!

16-M-337           State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Brian George Fitch, Appellant.

BACKGROUND:  Onn July 30, 2014, Officer Scott Patrick of the Mendota Heights Police Department pulled over Fitch for a traffic violation on the northern edge of Dakota County.  Officer Patrick did not know that Patrick was wanted by police as a felon who had been reported for a parole violation when he secretly fled from the St. Cloud area to Oakdale.  The day before the shooting, the heavily tattooed extremist Fitch told his girlfriend that he would “shoot a cop” if he were to be pulled over.

 As Officer Patrick approached Fitch’s car, Fitch fatally shot the officer in the leg, abdomen, and head.  That evening, Fitch started a shoot-out in which he was captured a few miles north in Ramsey County.

After careful consideration of venue concerns, a multi-county grand jury indicted Fitch and assigned the case to Dakota County.  A Dakota County judge granted Fitch’s motion for a change of venue and the case was moved to St. Cloud.’

After a full trial, a Stearns County jury found Fitch guilty of all counts. The district court sentenced Fitch to life in prison without the possibility of release for the first-degree murder of Officer Patrick; 216 months in prison, to be served consecutively after the life sentence, for each of the three attempted murders; and 71 months in prison, with credit for 189 days for time served, for the unauthorized possession of a firearm.

HELD:  On this direct appeal, the Supreme Court affirmed Fitch’s convictions and Sentences over his objections as to venue and the non-severance of his murder charge from Dakota County from his Ramsey County charges of illegal gun possession and counts of attempted murder from the shoot-out.

The district court's application of Minn. Stat. § 628.41 (2014) to appellant's case did not violate appellant's right, under Article I, Section 6, of the Minnesota Constitution, to be tried by a jury of the county or district in which the alleged offense occurred

. The district court did not commit reversible error by declining to sever the first-degree murder charge from the other charges against appellant.

               Anderson (Gildea, Dietzen, Stras, Lillehaug, and Hudson)

Took No Part:  Chutich.

               [CRIME] [MURDER] [PREMEDITATED] [FIRST-DEGREE] [POLICE]

Date: August 24, 2016