I could have evicted my tenant.  But dousing him with gas and burning down my house seemed like the better way to go!

2017-M-346            State of Minnesota, Respondent, vs. Adam John Lilienthal, Appellant.

BACKGROUND:  On June 17, 2014, landlord Lillenthal sought to remove tenant Scott Yorek from his Andover home.  After Lillienthal called police who advised Lillienthal to initiate the proper eviction process.  Lillienthal got the proper paperwork at the courthouse, but did not file the papers.

Lillienthal returned to his house, which Yorek had briefly left.  Lillienthal changed the locks,  When Yorek returned, he knocked on the doors and windows until Lillienthal again called the police. The officer told Lillienthal to let Yorek stay for the night and told Yorek to stay in his room.

Lillienthal’s story then was that he opened the door to Yorek’s room, he saw a lit torch propped on the bed.  When Yorek charged him, Lillienthal pushed him back onto the bed.  This tipped the torch and set the bed, room, and house ablaze.   At this point, Lillienthal fled the burning house and drove four hours north towards his cabin above Duluth.

Yorek’s story was that Lillienthal forced open the bedroom door, doused Yorek in gasoline, and set him ablaze.  Yorek died two days later.

After Lillienthal was arrested on the road to his cabin, he was transported to jail.  During that trip, Lillienthal was not interrogated and did not offer his side of the story.   At the jail, he was read his Miranda rights.

At trial, the district judge denied Lillienthal’s motion to include a jury instruction to consider a “defense of dwelling” defense.  The judge considered the law on such a defense claim, as well as the amount of evidence on that topic at trial.  Using his discretion, the trial judge denied the motion.

At trial, the prosecution made three references to the fact that Lillienthal did not say anything about his side of the story during his ride to jail before he was read his Miranda rights.

                                           

An Anoka County jury convicted Lillienthal of premeditated first-degree murder.  The district court sentenced Lilienthal to life imprisonment without the possibility of release on the first-degree premeditated murder count.  The prosecution noted that the police did not interrogate Lillienthal during that ride.

Lillienthal objected to the denial of his request for a jury instruction and to the three references to Lillienthal’s pre-Miranda silence in the police car during his trial.

HELD:  On this direct appeal, the Supreme Court upheld Lillienthal’s conviction and sentence.  It rejected his four claims on appeal.

First, it ruled that the district court had properly used its discretion in weighing the law and facts in the case and denying the motion for a “defense of dwelling” jury instruction.

Second, it noted that defense counsel had failed to object to the first prosecution reference to Lillienthal’s silence.  The State argued that Lillienthal thus waived his objection to the first reference and did not make a timely objection to the two references during the closing arguments.  The Supreme Court  did not base its decision on this “waiver” claim.

Third, the Supreme Court held that the purpose and effect of the three references was not to deny Lillienthal’s right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment or presented as affirmative evidence of his guilt.  The Supreme Court held instead that the references were allowable as contradictions to Lillienthal’s post-Miranda statements and trial testimony that he was silent because he was still in a panic four hours after he fled the burning house.

                                                                                                                                   

Finally, the Supreme Court held that even if the three references to Lillienthal’s silence did have some minimal impact on the jury’s decision, there was such an overwhelming supply of additional affirmative evidence to prove the case that the admission of the  three references would have been a harmless error.

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

Date: February 01, 2017

[CRIME] [MURDER] [PREMEDITATED] [FIRST-DEGREE] [RIGHTS] [FIFTH]