State v. Williams

771 N.W.2d 514 (2009)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Minneapolis police responded to a 911 call of a shooting. The responding officer found Bennie Hodges lying on his stomach with blood on his pants near the buttocks area. Hodges told the officer that he had been shot and that D, whose nickname is 'Little Cuz,' was the shooter. Hodges was taken to the hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound. At the hospital, police spoke to Hodges' mother, who was with Hodges when he was shot. Hodges' mother told police that Hodges was shot by an African-American male roughly 25 years old with short braids to his neck, but was unable to make a positive identification from a photographic lineup. The next day, Hodges identified D in a photographic lineup as the shooter. Hodges' mother independently identified D as the shooter in a separate photographic lineup. That same day, a next-door neighbor told police that she had seen the shooting and described the shooter as an African-American male roughly 25-30 years old, with braids, wearing a light-colored shirt and dark blue jeans, a description that matched D. At trial, the State (P) presented the testimony of Hodges, Hodges' mother, and the next-door neighbor. The district court denied the motion to suppress the photographic lineup identifications and granted P's request to impeach D with two prior drug-related felonies if D testified at trial. The trial court applied the 5 Jones factors to the prior crimes and found them admissible. (we analyze those factors and results in the holding). D chose not to testify. After the trial, the district court declared a mistrial on the attempted first-degree murder charge because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. The jury found D guilty of the remaining charges. The court of appeals affirmed. D appealed.