20111-M-174           Dario George Bonga, Appellant, vs. State of Minnesota, Respondent.

MAJORITY:  Appellant Dario George Bonga pleaded guilty to first-degree premeditated murder in the stabbing death of Carlos San Miguel.  Bonga pleaded guilty at a hearing he requested, and that was held, less than one day after Bonga confessed to killing San Miguel and then tried to kill himself in jail.  The district court accepted Bonga’s guilty plea, convicted him, and sentenced him to life in prison. 

Bonga filed a petition for post-conviction relief in which he sought to withdraw his guilty plea

because he was not competent to plead guilty.  In Bonga v. State (Bonga I), 765 N.W.2d 639 (Minn. 2009), we reversed the post-conviction court’s summary dismissal of Bonga’s petition.  Id. at 643.

  On remand, the post-conviction court denied Bonga’s petition after concluding that there was no reason to doubt whether Bonga was competent to plead guilty.  The issue in this appeal is whether the district court gave sufficient weight to evidence suggesting incompetence when it concluded that there was no reason to doubt Bonga’s competency to plead guilty.  We affirm.

HELD:  The district court gave sufficient weight to evidence suggesting incompetence when it concluded that there was no reason to doubt appellant’s competency to plead guilty.

DISSENT: Justice Meyer opined: “Here, the record plainly demonstrated that Bonga’s self-destructive spiral into depression should have given the court reason to doubt his ability to make a rational choice and his mental competence.  Bonga’s medical records indicate that, for two months prior to his suicide attempt, he suffered from stress, sleeplessness, and “extreme depression,” for which he was prescribed daily doses of the antidepressant Trazodone.  Bonga’s depression led him to despair, resulting in him discharging his counsel because he knew ―what’s going to happen in the end anyway‖— he was going to “crash and burn “with or without an attorney.  Further, his despair had apparently built up and finally drove him to take his own life—he made a full confession to the police about the murder and then promptly returned to his cell to commit suicide.  Fortunately, the guards discovered him before he died and Bonga was taken to a hospital, where he was treated and released.

Bonga’s mental illness, his disregard for his life, the stress and lack of sleep prior to the guilty plea, and his statements at the plea hearing could be a manifestation of an irrational state of mind.  As such, I believe the court had reason to doubt Bonga’s competency and ability to protect his own interests, and should have ordered an examination pursuant to Minn. R. Crim. P. 20.01, subd. 3.  Consequently, I would grant Bonga’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea and order the case remanded for trial. 

Barry Anderson (Gildea, Page, Paul Anderson, Dietzen and Stras)

               Dissent:  Meyer

[MURDER]