Opinion ID: 1740065
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Bird's Interrogation, Arrest, and Pre-Trial Proceedings

Text: The police took Bird to a Brooklyn Park detention facility, where two officers later interviewed him for approximately two hours. During the videotaped interview, Bird told the officers that on the evening of August 1, he and his wife were in their bedroom arguing about whether she had molested his two daughters from a previous relationship. He said that his wife made a remark that indicated that she had sexual relations with one of them. He said that this remark made him angry and caused him to go to the living room to get away from his wife. In the first part of the interview, Bird told the officers that during the early morning hours on August 2, he and his wife were bickering back and forth again regarding Bird's daughters. He said that when he walked from the living room into the bedroom, he saw his wife sitting on the bed, holding one of his guns. He stated that she kept fooling at her head with [the gun] and that he did not think the gun was loaded. Later in the interview, Bird said that when he walked from the living room to the bedroom he initially thought his wife was asleep, but he found her sitting on the bed with the gun. He said his wife told him she wished she were dead and that she was dead already because she was HIV-positive. He said that his wife told him she was in love with another man and that she was going to leave Bird. Bird told the officers that he thought his wife was involved in more than one extramarital affair and that he must be HIV-positive because of her. Bird stated that after seeing his wife with the gun, he worked his way behind her in order to take the gun from her. He said that in his effort to get the gun, he pushed her down and she had the gun and [he] had the gun and the next thing you know it went off. At one point in the interview, Bird said that his wife's hands might have been on the gun when it discharged, but he later told the officers that he was the only person holding the gun at the time of the shooting. He admitted shooting his wife, but said he did not pull the trigger. He said that after the shot was fired, he dropped the gun and it fell onto his wife's hand. He denied pointing the gun at his wife, and he said he did not remember placing the gun in her hand after she was shot. Bird vehemently denied shooting his wife on purpose and denied shooting her out of anger. But he did acknowledge that he was angry at her, that he felt a little betrayed and disappointed by her, and that both he and his wife were mad at the time they struggled over the gun. Following his interview with the police, Bird was charged with the murder of his wife. A Hennepin County grand jury subsequently indicted him on one count of first-degree premeditated murder in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(a)(1) (2006), one count of first-degree domestic abuse murder in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(a)(6) (2006), and one count of second-degree murder in violation of Minn. Stat. § 609.19, subd. 1(1) (2006). Bird pleaded not guilty to all three counts and gave notice to the state that he intended to assert a mental illness defense. The court then ordered Bird to undergo a Rule 20 evaluation, [1] which resulted in an opinion by Dr. Kristine Kienlen that Bird was competent to stand trial and that he did not qualify for a mental illness defense. Bird did not challenge Dr. Kienlen's findings and did not interpose a plea of not guilty by reason of mental illness. But he moved the court to allow expert psychiatric testimony that he was experiencing psychotic symptoms from approximately July 27 through August 3 and that he was acutely psychotic at the time of the shooting. The court allowed Bird's expert to testify, but only about Bird's mental state at the time of his on-scene statements to the police and the subsequent custodial interview.