A trip to the Walgreen's drug store is not always an effective alibi.

2016-M-320         State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Heather Leann Horst, Appellant.

THE CRIME:  Horst plotted with her husband’s stepsister (A.P.), A.P.’s fiancé (Aaron Allen) and others to murder her husband Brandon.

On a summer evening in 2013, Horst took Allen to her St. Paul home.  She gave Allen a gun and old him to hide in the basement until Brandon came home and went to sleep.  Horst left to pick up A.P. and drive to a Walgreen’s to await Allen’s call.  Allen shot a sleeping Brandon once in the head.

Horst and A.P. picked up Allen and they disposed of the gun in a river.  They dropped Allen at his apartment in South St. Paul and returned to Horst’s home to report the crime.  The St. Paul officers arrested Horst for Brandon’s murder several days later.

A jury found her guilty of each of the charged offenses. The district court sentenced her to life imprisonment without the possibility of release on the first-degree premeditated murder count.

THIS DECISION:  On this direct Appeal, Horst made six arguments.  The Supreme Court upheld her conviction and sentence.

First, the appellant’s statements were admissible at trial because police investigators obtained them during a non-custodial interview.

Second, exigent circumstances justified the warrantless seizure of the appellant’s cellphone.

Third, even if the district court erred when it approved the search warrants for the appellant’s medical records, any error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

Fourth, even if the district court erred when it failed to give an accomplice-corroboration jury instruction sua sponte, any error did not affect the appellant’s substantial rights.

Fifth, the evidence was sufficient to support the appellant’s conviction of first-degree premeditated murder.

Sixth, the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied the appellant’s request to remove a juror for cause.

Stras (Gildea, Anderson, Dietzen, and Lillehaug)

Took No Part:  Hudson and Chutich.

[CRIME] [MURDER] [PREMEDITATED] [FIRST-DEGREE] [DOMESTIC]

Date: May 18, 2016