State of Minnesota v. Carl Antonio Wilks ( 2014 )


Menu:
  •                          This opinion will be unpublished and
    may not be cited except as provided by
    Minn. Stat. § 480A.08, subd. 3 (2012).
    STATE OF MINNESOTA
    IN COURT OF APPEALS
    A13-2261
    State of Minnesota,
    Respondent,
    vs.
    Carl Antonio Wilks,
    Appellant.
    Filed December 29, 2014
    Affirmed
    Rodenberg, Judge
    Ramsey County District Court
    File No. 62-CR-12-7746
    Lori Swanson, Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota; and
    John J. Choi, Ramsey County Attorney, Peter R. Marker, Assistant County Attorney, St.
    Paul, Minnesota (for respondent)
    Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Sara J. Euteneuer, Assistant
    Public Defender, St. Paul, Minnesota (for appellant)
    Considered and decided by Rodenberg, Presiding Judge; Johnson, Judge; and
    Hooten, Judge.
    UNPUBLISHED OPINION
    RODENBERG, Judge
    Appellant Carl Antonio Wilks challenges his conviction for two counts of second-
    degree assault with a dangerous weapon, arguing that the district court erred in declining
    to instruct the jury on self-defense. He also challenges the district court’s requirement
    that he register as a predatory offender. We affirm.
    FACTS
    Appellant was charged with three separate counts arising from the events of
    September 19, 2012 at 598 Thomas Avenue in St. Paul. He was charged with kidnapping
    in violation of Minn. Stat. § 609.25, subd. 1(3) (2012) for allegedly detaining C.D.;
    second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon in violation of Minn. Stat. § 609.222,
    subd. 1 (2012), also against C.D.; and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon in
    violation of Minn. Stat. § 609.222, subd. 1 (2012), against C.R.
    On September 21, 2012, appellant met his friend and colleague Joey Sharply at
    Sharply’s home, 598 Thomas Avenue, where appellant rented a room from Sharply, but
    did not reside. Their plan was to complete a furniture-moving job for S.J. and for which
    they had already been paid $75. S.J. and an unidentified man came to the house that day
    and demanded return of the $75, claiming that the furniture no longer needed to be
    moved. T.P., Sharply’s girlfriend and a resident of the home, testified that she was
    sleeping and woke up to hear appellant and the unidentified man arguing and the man
    demanding money from appellant. She got up and asked the unidentified man to leave.
    She later testified that he “cussed [her] out and he -- he started talking about he’ll air this
    b***h out” and that he then pulled out a pistol and aimed it toward T.P. and her children
    and grandchildren who were present. Appellant gave the unidentified man the $75, and
    the man “continue[d] to walk down the side of the house in front of the house,”
    2
    continuing to say that he would “air this b***h out.” T.P. then called the police to report
    the incident, but the police did not locate the man.
    Later that same afternoon, appellant was talking to several men in the kitchen of
    the 598 Thomas Avenue house and he referred to S.J. as a b***h. S.J. was a close friend
    of C.D. who was talking to several women in the living room. C.D. objected to appellant
    referring to S.J. as a “b***h” and asked appellant to stop using such language. A heated
    argument ensued between appellant and C.D. C.D. testified that appellant told her three
    times, “You not gonna make it outta here.” Appellant went into the kitchen and C.D.
    testified that he was then “calm” and stopped yelling. C.D. testified that appellant was in
    the kitchen and calm for “like two, three minutes.”
    Other people were in the living room and in the kitchen during all of this,
    including appellant, Sharply, T.P., and two of C.D.’s daughters. During the argument,
    C.D.’s daughter, A.D., ran out of the house to her grandmother’s house across the street
    where her step-father and other family members and friends were having a barbeque.
    A.D. testified that she “ran out the door because [she] felt scared, and . . . went to go get
    [her] family mates” because she “thought something bad was going to happen.” In
    response to A.D., C.R. (her stepfather) together with other family members and friends
    went across the street to 598 Thomas Avenue, where the argument had occurred.
    What happened next is disputed.        C.R. testified that when he arrived at 598
    Thomas Avenue the door was shut, but then after shouting that those inside the house
    should open the door, the door opened and C.R. saw his family members. C.R. testified
    that the door shut again and he began kicking and hitting the door and yelling at appellant
    3
    to open the door. C.R. testified that the door “flew wide open” and appellant was
    standing in the kitchen pointing a gun at C.R. C.R. testified that he then told appellant, “I
    just want my family back” and waved C.D. and her daughter out of the house. Testimony
    from multiple witnesses indicated that C.D. and her daughter walked to the door and that
    C.R. backed out after them and they all returned to the house across the street.
    There are multiple and varying accounts concerning the number of people outside
    the door of 598 Thomas Avenue, whether the door was forced open or opened from the
    inside, and whether appellant had a gun. Estimates of the size of the group outside the
    door ranged from five to twelve people. All witnesses testified that C.R. was trying to
    get the door open. C.R. and several other witnesses testified that the door opened from
    the inside. Sharply, who testified that he was inside the house when C.R. arrived,
    claimed that C.R. “forced his way in” because “nobody opened the door.” While most of
    the trial testimony placed appellant in the kitchen with a gun aimed at the door and C.R.,
    two defense witnesses testified that they did not see appellant with a gun. Sharply
    testified that appellant was “[j]ust standing there” when C.R. opened the door and that
    appellant told C.R. that “he could take his family, you know, so his wife by then had
    came to the kitchen, and they left.”
    Appellant was questioned by St. Paul Police Officer John Wright later that night.
    Appellant told the officer he had not touched a gun that day.
    Sharply also testified that, during the argument with appellant, C.D. threatened
    appellant that she would arrange to have her boyfriend, C.R., beat up appellant. Sharply
    testified that C.D. “told him that she wasn’t going to worry about [the argument] because
    4
    she was going to have her boyfriend beat the, you know, mess out of him.” T.P. testified
    that A.D. had gone across the street at the direction of C.D., to get C.R. to “come fight”
    appellant.
    After a three-day jury trial, the jury found appellant not guilty of kidnapping but
    guilty of both second-degree assault counts. Appellant was sentenced to 36 months in
    prison for each assault conviction, the sentences to run concurrently.         He was also
    required by the district court to register as a predatory offender because he was convicted
    of an offense arising from the same set of circumstances as the kidnapping charge. Minn.
    Stat. §§ 243.166, subd. 1b(a)(1) (2012). This appeal followed.
    DECISION
    Appellant argues that the district court erred when it declined his request that the
    jury be instructed on self-defense. We first note that appellant contends on appeal that he
    requested the district court to instruct the jury on the self-defense instruction “regarding
    all three counts.” The record does not support this contention. Appellant requested a
    self-defense instruction that “would only apply in this case to [C.R.,] who was the person
    kicking in the door. It wouldn’t apply to [C.D.], so we’d ask the Court to include that
    instruction, maybe include language to say that as it applies to [C.R.].”          Because
    appellant requested a self-defense instruction concerning only C.R., we separately
    analyze the issues raised on appeal concerning the self-defense instruction.
    Appellant requested a self-defense instruction for count three, the charge of
    second-degree assault against C.R. We review the district court’s denial of that requested
    instruction for an abuse of discretion. See State v. Kuhnau, 
    622 N.W.2d 552
    , 555 (Minn.
    5
    2001) (stating that “when a district court exercises its discretion and refuses to give a
    requested instruction, no error results if no abuse of discretion is shown”). A district
    court has “considerable latitude” in selecting language for jury instructions. State v.
    Peou, 
    579 N.W.2d 471
    , 475 (Minn. 1998).
    A criminal defendant has the burden of production in asserting a claim of self-
    defense and must provide evidence supporting the claim. State v. Soukup, 
    656 N.W.2d 424
    , 429 (Minn. App. 2003). A claim of self-defense requires evidence of “(1) an
    absence of aggression or provocation; (2) an actual and honest belief that imminent death
    or great bodily harm would result; (3) a reasonable basis existed for this belief; and (4) an
    absence of reasonable means to retreat or otherwise avoid the physical conflict.” 
    Id. at 428
    (citing State v. Basting, 
    572 N.W.2d 281
    , 285 (Minn. 1997)). The fourth element is
    not required when acting in self-defense in one’s home. State v. Glowacki, 
    630 N.W.2d 392
    , 402 (Minn. 2001). Once a defendant has produced evidence to support a self-
    defense claim, the state has the burden of disproving one or more of the elements beyond
    a reasonable doubt. 
    Basting, 572 N.W.2d at 286
    . The district court in this case observed
    that it was “within the discretion of . . . the Court to give instructions” and that it did “not
    believe there is evidence to support the giving of [the self-defense] instruction for either
    [C.R.] or [C.D.].”
    Appellant contends that he has produced evidence sufficient to support the first
    element of self-defense because there is evidence demonstrating that appellant was not
    the initial aggressor in the encounter with C.R. Respondent argues that appellant’s
    threats and argument with C.D. were the cause of C.R.’s attempt to enter the house, and
    6
    that appellant was the initial aggressor in that argument.     Appellant was the initial
    aggressor in the heated argument between appellant and C.D., which prompted the
    encounter with C.R. Appellant called C.D.’s close friend a “b***h” and threatened C.D.
    The district court was within its discretion in concluding that, but for the argument that
    appellant had with C.D. and appellant’s threatening C.D., there would have been no
    encounter with C.R. at the door of 598 Thomas Avenue. Moreover, C.R. came to the
    door unarmed. The district court acted within its discretion in concluding that C.R. was
    not the aggressor.
    Appellant argues that the evidence demonstrates that he had an actual and honest
    belief that he was in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm, satisfying the second
    element of self-defense. Appellant, who did not testify at trial, need not provide direct
    evidence of his state of mind. Rather, “inferences drawn from a person’s words or
    actions in light of all the surrounding circumstances” can provide evidence to support the
    claim. State v. Johnson, 
    719 N.W.2d 619
    , 630-31 (Minn. 2006). Appellant argues that
    the incident earlier that day wherein the unidentified man drew a gun on him, saying he
    would “air this b***h out,” along with C.D.’s threats to have C.R. beat up appellant,
    made appellant fear for his safety. Appellant argues that this series of events would make
    “any reasonable person, under those circumstances . . . believe that [they were] in
    imminent danger.” C.R. testified that he was “telling [appellant] to open the door” and
    that when the door opened he told appellant that he just wanted his family back. C.R.
    also testified that he recognized appellant as someone he knew “from around the
    neighborhood” and that the two had spoken previously. There is no evidence in the
    7
    record that C.R. was armed or brandished any weapon at appellant when the door opened.
    Based on this evidence, the district court acted within its discretion in concluding that
    appellant knew C.R. posed no threat of harm to appellant. There is no evidence that
    appellant entertained an honest belief that he was in imminent danger of death or great
    bodily harm.
    Even if the district court were to have concluded that appellant provided sufficient
    evidence to show that appellant actually believed he was in imminent danger of death or
    great bodily harm, the third element of self-defense requires that there be reasonable
    grounds for that belief. To be reasonable, the amount of force used to defend oneself
    must be limited to that which a reasonable person in the same circumstances would
    believe to be necessary. State v. Bland, 
    337 N.W.2d 378
    , 381 (Minn. 1983); see also
    State v. Devens, 
    852 N.W.2d 255
    , 258 (Minn. 2014) (stating that a person can use “only
    the level of force reasonably necessary to prevent the bodily harm feared”). Action taken
    in self-defense must be reasonable “in light of the danger to be apprehended” and must
    contemplate whether the individual is “being exposed to . . . grave peril at that place or
    time.” State v. Austin, 
    332 N.W.2d 21
    , 24 (Minn. 1983). The state’s witnesses testified
    at trial that appellant pointed a gun at C.R. from the time C.R. was in the doorway until
    the time that C.R. and C.D. left the residence. Even if appellant initially thought that the
    person at the door may have been the unidentified man from earlier that day, as his
    attorney implied at trial, when the door opened and appellant saw C.R., unarmed, he
    knew C.R. was not the unidentified man. It was within the district court’s discretion to
    8
    determine that, under these circumstances, it was not reasonable for appellant to believe
    he was in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm.
    In the alternative, and concerning the fourth element, appellant argues that he had
    no duty to retreat because the 598 Thomas Avenue address was his “dwelling” on
    account of his having rented a room there and being at the house quite often. But the
    evidence in the record is uncontradicted that appellant did not live in the house, did not
    consider it his primary address, and only rented a room there. While the castle doctrine
    imposes no duty to retreat from one’s own home, that doctrine does not extend to places
    surrounding one’s home, to places someone visits regularly, or to common areas. See
    
    Devens, 852 N.W.2d at 258
    (declining to extend the castle doctrine to the hallway of
    defendant’s apartment building); cf. State v. Griller, 
    583 N.W.2d 736
    , 741 (Minn. 1998)
    (holding that the home where the incident occurred was “indeed [the] place of abode” for
    the defendant because he owned the house, lived there and in one other home “depending
    on where he was needed,” and also because his Minnesota identification card listed the
    home as his address). In Devens, the supreme court stated that the degree of “exclusive
    possession and control” is persuasive in defining what spaces are considered a “home”
    for self-defense 
    purposes. 852 N.W.2d at 259-60
    . The record does not support that
    appellant had exclusive possession and control over this house or that he considered the
    house his home. The district court was within its discretion in concluding that appellant
    had a duty to retreat because he was not in his own home.1
    1
    The parties disagree on whether, if he had a duty to retreat, appellant could have done
    so. The availability of routes of retreat does not affect the jury-instruction analysis.
    9
    The record supports the district court’s decision not to instruct the jury on self-
    defense concerning the second-degree assault on C.R., and the district court acted within
    its discretion in denying that requested instruction.
    Because appellant did not request a self-defense instruction on the charges of
    kidnapping and assault of C.D., we review for plain error appellant’s argument on appeal
    that the district court should have given the instruction sua sponte. See 
    Griller, 583 N.W.2d at 740
    (holding that we review unobjected-to arguments to determine whether
    there was plain error that affected appellant’s substantial rights). Since the jury found
    appellant not guilty of kidnapping, we need not analyze whether the district court erred in
    declining to give a self-defense instruction on that charge. Therefore, we consider only
    whether the district court plainly erred in not instructing the jury concerning self-defense
    on the charge of second-degree assault against C.D.
    To be plain, an error must be obvious or clear. Johnson v. United States, 
    520 U.S. 461
    , 467, 
    117 S. Ct. 1544
    , 1549 (1997). As discussed previously, a district court has
    “considerable latitude” in selecting language for jury instructions. 
    Peou, 579 N.W.2d at 475
    . And the record must support a claim of self-defense. 
    Soukop, 656 N.W.2d at 429
    .
    First, the defendant must present evidence of “an absence of aggression or provocation.”
    
    Id. at 428
    .
    Here, there is no evidence that appellant was defending himself against C.D. She
    was, by all accounts, unarmed and was no physical threat to appellant. The two were
    arguing, both using coarse language. But there is nothing to support that appellant was
    10
    reasonably and actually in fear of great bodily harm.2 There was no error, much less
    plain error, in the district court’s not giving a self-defense instruction concerning the
    charge of second-degree assault against C.D.
    Appellant also argues that the district court erred in requiring him to register as a
    predatory offender because the assault charges did not arise from the same circumstances
    as the kidnapping charge. Whether a statute has been properly construed is a question of
    law, which we review de novo. State v. Murphy, 
    545 N.W.2d 909
    , 914 (Minn. 1996).
    A person is required to register as a predatory offender when the person was
    “charged with . . . and convicted of . . . [the triggering charge] or another offense arising
    out of the same set of circumstances.” Minn. Stat. § 243.166, subd. 1b(a)(1) (emphasis
    added). Kidnapping, in violation of section 609.25, is an offense requiring registration
    upon conviction. 
    Id., subd. 1b(a)(1)(ii).
    The conviction required by the statute need not
    be a conviction of the charge requiring registration, but it must arise from the same set of
    circumstances as the charge requiring registration. Boutin v. LaFleur, 
    591 N.W.2d 711
    ,
    713 (Minn. 1999). The offenses must be “sufficiently linked in time, location, people and
    events.” State v. Lopez, 
    778 N.W.2d 700
    , 706 (Minn. 2010). The relationship between
    the charges must constitute more than “related circumstances” and must share more than
    one single circumstance. 
    Id. In Boutin,
    the supreme court found a sufficient nexus between a sexual assault
    charge resulting in a conviction of third-degree assault because the defendant there
    2
    And we think it noteworthy in this regard that appellant’s trial counsel expressly limited
    the request for a self-defense instruction to the assault charge concerning C.R.
    11
    admitted that the “circumstances were aggravated by the fact that [the defendant] had
    sexual intercourse with [the victim] after assaulting her and inflicting substantial bodily
    
    harm.” 591 N.W.2d at 716
    n.4. Here, appellant argues that the alleged kidnapping and
    assaults do not arise from the same set of circumstances because of the time lapse
    between the argument with C.D. and the alleged assaults.         But the alleged assaults
    occurred within two or three minutes of the alleged kidnapping, involved two of the three
    same individuals (appellant and C.D.) and occurred in the same house. C.D.’s daughter
    reacted to the argument between appellant and C.D. by running across the street to tell
    her family that her mother was in trouble. This prompted C.R. to go to 598 Thomas
    Avenue.    The alleged assaults arise from the circumstances created by the alleged
    kidnapping. As in Boutin, the alleged assault was “aggravated” by the heated argument
    appellant had with C.D. See id.; 
    Lopez, 778 N.W.2d at 706
    .
    Appellant also argues that there is an insufficient connection between the events
    because C.R. was involved in the alleged assault, but was not present during the alleged
    kidnapping. The circumstances “must overlap with regard to time, location, persons
    involved, and basic facts,” but “the conviction offense need not be based on identical
    facts to the charged predatory offense.” 
    Lopez, 778 N.W.2d at 706
    (emphasis added).
    The arrival of other people to the scene of the alleged kidnapping is insufficient to break
    the nexus created by the overlap in time, location, and basic facts. We conclude that the
    district court properly required appellant to register as a predatory offender because the
    assault counts for which he was convicted arose from the same circumstances as the
    kidnapping charge.
    12
    Affirmed.
    13