If you are the only other person in the house when you shoot your father, don't "hide" the spent shell casings with your fingerprints in a bucket in plain sight.

2016-M-340      State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Jonas David Nelson, Appellant.

BACKGROUND:  Jonas Nelson and his father lived in a house in rural Montgomery. Nelson called 911 at 11:00 p.m. on January 6, 2014. He told the operator that he wanted to “report a murder” and that his father had been “shot through the head.” It was a frigid night, and the 911 operator instructed Nelson to wait in his father’s truck to stay warm until officers arrived. He did so.

After three hours of sitting in his father’s truck with police and in police vehicles with police, Nelson said, “I do fully and completely understand the consequences that do come up,” and he confessed to using his father’s rifle to shoot his father in the head while he was sleeping on the living room floor. Nelson told the officers that he then shot a bullet through the French doors, returned the gun, and placed the shell casings in a bucket in the basement.  Nelson confessed two more times after his arrest.

A Le Sueur County jury found Nelson, then 18 years old, guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, second-degree intentional murder, and second-degree felony murder. The district court sentenced Nelson to life in prison without the possibility of release for the offense of first-degree premeditated murder.

HELD:  On this direct appeal, the Supreme Court upheld Nelson’s first-degree murder conviction and sentence.

First, the district court did not err when it denied appellant's motion to suppress his confessions because the totality of the circumstances shows that appellant voluntarily confessed.

Second, Appellant forfeited his Eighth Amendment challenge to his sentence when he failed to raise the claim in the district court.

Third, the order attached to the Warrant of Commitment erroneously lists two convictions for lesser-included offenses, which are vacated. Affirmed as modified.

Chutich (Gildea, Anderson, Stras, and Lillehaug, and McKeig)

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

Date: October 19, 2016