2013-M-252             Demetrius Devell Dobbins, Sr., Appellant, vs. State of Minnesota, Respondent.

Following a jury trial, the district court convicted appellant Demetrius Devell Dobbins, Sr., of the first-degree premeditated murder of Quintin Roderick Lavender.  See Minn. Stat. § 609.185(a)(1) (2012).  We affirmed Dobbins’s conviction on direct appeal.  State v. Dobbins (Dobbins I), 725 N.W.2d 492 (Minn. 2006).  Dobbins later filed a petition for post-conviction relief.  The post-conviction court summarily denied Dobbins’s petition, but we reversed and remanded to the post-conviction court for an evidentiary hearing on Dobbins’s false-testimony claim.  Dobbins v. State (Dobbins II), 788 N.W.2d 719 (Minn. 2010).  Following a hearing, the post-conviction court again denied Dobbins’s petition.  On appeal, Dobbins asserts that the post-conviction court abused its discretion when it denied his petition.  We affirm. 

1. The post-conviction court did not abuse its discretion when it excluded the out-of-court statements offered by the appellant that did not satisfy the statement-againstinterest exception in Minn. R. Evid. 804(b)(3).

 2. The post-conviction court did not abuse its discretion when it denied the appellant’s witness-recantation claim following an evidentiary hearing.

 3. The post-conviction court did not abuse its discretion when it denied the appellant’s request for the appointment of advisory counsel to assist him at the post-conviction evidentiary hearing.  

4. The post-conviction court did not abuse its discretion when it denied the appellant’s motion to expand the scope of the post-conviction evidentiary hearing.  

 Affirmed.

Stras (Gildea, Page, Anderson, and Dietzen, and  Wright)

Took no part   Lillehaug

[MURDER]

A12-678,