2012-M-211           State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Ryan Stanley Hurd, Appellant.

Appellant Ryan Stanley Hurd was indicted by a Steele County grand jury on one count of first-degree premeditated murder, Minn. Stat. § 609.185(a)(1) (2010); one count of first-degree murder while committing a kidnapping, Minn. Stat. § 609.185(a)(3) (2010); one count of second-degree intentional murder, Minn. Stat. § 609.19, subd. 1(1) (2010); and two counts of second-degree felony murder, Minn. Stat. § 609.19, subd. 2(1), (2) (2010), in connection with the stabbing death of his girlfriend, Kathryn Anderson. 

A jury found Hurd guilty on all counts, and the trial court convicted Hurd of first-degree premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  Hurd appeals his conviction and sentence, arguing that: (1) there was insufficient evidence to find him guilty of first-degree premeditated murder; (2) there was insufficient evidence to find him guilty of first-degree murder while committing a kidnapping; and (3) the trial court abused its discretion when it denied his request to instruct the jury that any confinement or removal that was incidental to the murder was insufficient to constitute kidnapping.  For the reasons discussed below, we affirm Hurd’s conviction for first-degree premeditated murder.

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

 [MURDER] [DOMESTIC]