Don't murder someone who is not affiliated with your rivals' gang!

2014-M-270       Lincoln Lamar Caldwell, Appellant, vs. State of Minnesota, Respondent.

THE CRIME:  On June 17, 2006, gangster Caldwell murdered a promising young teen in north Minneapolis.  Brian Cole was 18 and just about to graduate from North High School.  Gang-free, drug-free, and alcohol-free, Cole left his parents' protective home  to walk with some friends a few blocks to the Juneteenth celebration in Ted Wirth Park.  Along the way, they stopped to talk briefly with a group of ten boyhood friends.

Caldwell was a member of the nearby "LL" gang from the intersection of Lynndale and Lowery Avenues.  As Caldwell drove by the passing friends, he thought he identified two members of a rival gang.

Caldwell quickly circled the block and Cole was shot through the windpipe, the jugular vein, the collarbone, and the neck.

 Approximately ten or fifteen minutes after he left home, Cole’s mother heard gunshots.  Her husband went outside to investigate.  Shortly afterward, her husband ran back into the house, saying, “Brian got shot.”  Cole’s mother ran out of the house to find Cole.  She found him lying near the corner of Eighth Avenue North and Penn Avenue, with his eyes closed and his face covered with blood.

Cole's friends who had been walking with him prepared for his funeral by going to a local mall and made t-shirts that showed the newspaper article reporting Cole’s death.  One friend testified that Caldwell spoke to him while he was at the mall, and said: “I’m the reason why you got that shirt.”

Many witnesses testified that Caldwell was driving the gang vehicle, pointed out the friends passing on the sidewalk, and circled back to the murder scene.  Members of Caldwell's own gang testified that Caldwell passed the murder weapon to the actual shooter and told him to act.

MAJORITY:  The appellant, Lincoln Lamar Caldwell, challenged his conviction of first-degree

premeditated murder for the benefit of a gang in his third petition for post-conviction relief, in which he alleged that three witnesses presented false testimony at his trial.  The post-conviction court summarily denied the petition.  On appeal, Caldwell argues that the court abused its discretion when it failed to grant him an evidentiary hearing in connection with his petition.  Because we conclude that Caldwell has alleged facts that, if proven, would entitle him to relief, we reverse and remand to the post-conviction court for an evidentiary hearing.

HELD:  The post-conviction court abused its discretion when it denied the appellant’s

request for an evidentiary hearing on his witness-recantation claim.  

Reversed and remanded.

DISSENT:  Justices Dietzen and Gildea opined: “In reversing the post-conviction court, the majority dismisses crucial portions of the record, misconstrues the relevant case law, and misapplies the standard of review. 

Carnell Harrison and William Brooks did not recant their trial testimony or state that they did not testify truthfully at trial.  Instead, when asked whether they testified truthfully at trial, Carnell stated he could not remember and Brooks did not answer the question. Citing Pippitt v. State, 737 N.W.2d 221, 228-29 (Minn. 2007), the post-conviction court concluded that an alleged inability to remember is legally insufficient to satisfy the first prong of the Larrison recantation test.  The court alternatively concluded that Caldwell failed to satisfy the second prong of the Larrison test because, even in the absence of the allegedly false testimony, the jury would have reached the same verdict based on the testimony of several other important witnesses.  Without affording any deference to the post-conviction court, the majority concludes that Caldwell is entitled to an evidentiary hearing.  In reaching that conclusion, the majority relies on minor inconsistencies in the witnesses’ trial testimony and taped interviews, and dismisses the trial testimony of six important witnesses. 

Stras (Page, Anderson, Wright, and Lillehaug)

            Dissent:  Dietzen and Gildea

[MURDER]

A12-2301,