If you blast a mother and stab her two toddlers, don't be caught driving her vehicle ten miles away!

2015-M-285       State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Jason Ryan Williams, petitioner, Appellant.

THE CRIME:  On the evening of October 12, 1992, Michael Hage returned from work to his home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Upon arriving home, Hage discovered his wife, Julie Hage, dead from various injuries, including one shotgun blast to the back of her head and another shotgun blast to her lower back. He also discovered his three-year-old daughter, Nicole, dead from being stabbed with a knife. His four-year-old son, Mathew, had also been stabbed, but was still alive and survived due to medical treatment. Before being taken to the hospital, Mathew remained conscious long enough to answer some questions. When asked if he had seen his assailant, Mathew responded that a black man had hurt him. Several items of personal property had been stolen from the Hage residence, including a 1992 Hyundai Sonata automobile.

Later that evening, at approximately 10:15 p.m., a police patrol officer identified the Hages's 1992 Hyundai Sonata being driven in Champlin, Minnesota. The driver of the Hyundai was ordered to pull the car to the side of the road and to stop. Several police squad cars arrived at the scene.

Williams confessed to several friends, to detectives, and to a worker at the juvenile detention center. 

"Juvenile Detention Center employee Mark Wilson testified that he knew Williams from prior contacts outside of the Center setting. When Wilson saw Williams at the Center on October 15, 1992, Wilson asked Williams where he had been since Wilson had last seen him. Williams answered he had been at various places, and then smiled and 'without hesitation he says "And now I'm going to St. Cloud." Wilson then told Williams, 'You don't know that, man.' To which Williams replied, 'Hey man, I killed two people, where do you think I'm going to go?' When Wilson asked him how he could say that while smiling, Williams answered, 'Because if I don't smile I'll cry because I know it's dumb.'"

Following a jury trial, the district court convicted and sentenced appellant Jason Ryan Williams for two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder, and one count of burglary.  We affirmed Williams’s convictions on direct appeal.  State v. Williams, 535 N.W.2d 277, 279 (Minn. 1995).

THIS APPEAL:   In May 2014, Williams moved to correct his sentence, citing Miller v. Alabama, ___ U.S. ___, 132 S. Ct. 2455, 2469 (2012) (holding that mandatory imposition of life imprisonment without the possibility of release (LWOR) for juvenile offenders who are sentenced as adults violates the Eighth Amendment).  The post-conviction court denied the motion, rejecting Williams’s arguments that the rule announced in Miller should be extended to statutory provisions that mandate the imposition of life imprisonment with the possibility of release and should apply to a district court’s discretionary imposition of consecutive sentences that Williams characterizes as functionally equivalent to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. 

Because the post-conviction court’s decision is consistent with our recent rulings, including Ouk v. State, 847 N.W.2d 698, 701 (Minn. 2014), and State v. Ali, 855 N.W.2d 235, 257-58 (Minn. 2014), we affirm.

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

[MURDER]

A14-1640,