Opinion ID: 2227991
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Raise Intoxication and Request an Intoxication Jury Instruction

Text: Doppler next argues that his second attorney of record acted ineffectively by: (1) failing to present evidence that Doppler was too intoxicated to be capable of premeditating his killing of Sargent and (2) failing to request an intoxication instruction be given to the jury. We begin analysis of this claim under the deficiency prong of the Strickland test. Under this test, Doppler must show by a preponderance of the evidence that his attorney's failure to present evidence that Doppler was too intoxicated to premeditate his killing of Sargent and request an intoxication jury instruction constituted deficient performance. Doppler's attorney testified at the postconviction court's evidentiary hearing. From this testimony, the postconviction court noted that the attorney stated that it was a tactical decision not to focus on intoxication as a defense because [the attorney], after discussion with [Doppler], believed it was better to focus on [Doppler's] main defense of self-defense. The postconviction court also found that the attorney did present evidence and final argument on the issue of intoxication to the jury. We agree with the postconviction court that the attorney's decision not to focus on intoxication as a defense provides no basis for relief. See Jones, 392 N.W.2d at 236. The attorney's failure to request an intoxication jury instruction was a matter of trial strategy. See id. As previously stated, we do not review for competence matters of trial strategy. See id.; see also Strickland, 466 U.S. at 693, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Accordingly, we hold that the attorney's failure to present evidence that Doppler was too intoxicated to premeditate his killing of Sargent and to request an intoxication jury instruction did not constitute deficient performance. Therefore, Doppler's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel fails.          II. Doppler is also before us on direct appeal, arguing that the evidence the state presented was insufficient to support the jury's verdict finding him guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. When considering whether the evidence in a case is sufficient to support a guilty verdict, we examine the evidence presented in the record, along with legitimate inferences from that evidence, to determine whether the jury could have concluded that the state met its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty of the offense charged. State v. Moore, 481 N.W.2d 355, 360 (Minn.1992). We review the evidence set forth in the record in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict and assume that the jury believed the state's witnesses and disbelieved evidence contradicting those witnesses. Dale v. State, 535 N.W.2d 619, 623 (Minn.1995); State v. Merrill, 274 N.W.2d 99, 111 (Minn. 1978). Deciding the credibility of witnesses is generally the exclusive province of the jury. Dale, 535 N.W.2d at 623; Merrill, 274 N.W.2d at 111. Doppler was convicted of first-degree premeditated murder, which is defined by statute as caus[ing] the death of a human being with premeditation and with intent to effect the death of the person or of another. Minn.Stat. § 609.185(1) (1998). Doppler confessed that he killed Sargent and that he intended to do so and he did not dispute that part of his confession at trial. Berry and Keith, the only other persons at the scene on the night Sargent was killed, also do not dispute that Doppler killed Sargent. Therefore, this court must decide whether a jury could have concluded that Doppler's killing of Sargent was premeditated. In Doppler's May 17 confession, he detailed how he returned to the car after he and Sargent got out to go to the bathroom, grabbed the gun that was underneath the driver's seat of the car, and shot Sargent. Further, when BCA agents asked Doppler when he formed the intent to kill Sargent, he responded, [w]hen we got out to go to the bathroom. The prosecution also presented evidence at trial that Doppler had a motive to kill Sargent and that, to that end, Doppler took the step of purchasing the gun with which he killed Sargent. Doppler was angry with Sargent for getting his brother, Keith, involved with drugs and threatening, in front of Doppler's nieces, to kill Keith. When Doppler purchased the gun used to kill Sargent, he asked the seller  Craig Delo  how much it would be worth to Delo for Doppler to do Mikey. Moreover, the jury could certainly have disbelieved Doppler's claims of self-defense, which he raised for the first time at trial and which contradicted his confession and the crime scene investigators' statements that Sargent's body and the crime scene bore no signs of a struggle. We conclude that the state presented evidence sufficient to support the jury's verdict finding Doppler guilty of premeditated first-degree murder. Affirmed.