Court Opinion

ID: 9654205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:10:03.750788+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:06.821734
License: Public Domain

*480PAGE, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. In reversing Hall’s conviction, the court concludes that the trial court’s error in instructing the jury on transferred intent was not harmless because it relieved the state of its burden of proof as to the required element of premeditation. That conclusion is wrong.
Given Hall’s concession that he intended to kill Winfield and the fact that at the time of Winfield’s killing the men with whom Hall had fought earlier were not in the vicinity, the only issue for the jury to decide was whether Hall premeditated Winfield’s killing. Premeditation “means to consider, plan or prepare for, or determine to commit, the act referred to prior to its commission.” Minn.Stat. § 609.18 (2004). “Premeditation is defined as ‘a state of mind generally proved circumstantially by drawing inferences from a defendant’s words and actions in light of the totality of the circumstances.’ ” State v. Moua, 678 N.W.2d 29, 39 (Minn.2004) (quoting State v. Brocks, 587 N.W.2d 37, 42 (Minn.1998)). Premeditation can be inferred from planning activity, motive, and the nature of the killing. Id. at 40. We have said, “In order to prove premeditation, ‘the state must always prove that, after the defendant formed the intent to kill, some appreciable time passed during which the consideration, planning, preparation or determination required * * * prior to the commission of the act took place.’ ” State v. Netland, 535 N.W.2d 328, 330 (Minn.1995) (quoting State v. Moore, 481 N.W.2d 355, 361 (Minn.1992)). Thus, it is clear from the statutory definition of “premeditation” and our case law that premeditation has two predicates— intent and an act. Absent either intent or an act, premeditation cannot be found.
We have recognized three categories of evidence relevant to an inference of premeditation: (1) planning activity, for example, evidence regarding how or when the defendant retrieved or obtained the weapon; (2) motive evidence, that is, “ ‘facts about the defendant’s prior relationship and conduct with the victim from which motive may be inferred’ and (3) evidence regarding the nature of the killing, for example, the number of shots and whether the defendant shot within close range. Moua, 678 N.W.2d at 40-41 (quoting Moore, 481 N.W.2d at 361).
When determining whether the erroneous instruction was harmless, we must consider the instruction in its entirety. State v. Ihle, 640 N.W.2d 910, 916 (Minn. 2002) (explaining that to determine whether jury instructions fairly and adequately explain the law of the case, they must be viewed in their entirety). We presume that the jury followed the instructions as given. State v. Budreau, 641 N.W.2d 919, 926 (Minn.2002) (recognizing the court’s presumption that jurors follow the court’s instructions). In this case, the trial court gave the following instruction on premeditation and intent.
The elements of murder in the first degree are, first, the death of Dennis Lamont Winfield, Jr. must be proven. Second, the Defendant caused the death of Dennis Lamont Winfield, Jr. Third, the Defendant acted with premeditation and with the intent to kill Dennis Lamont Winfield, Jr. or another person.
Premeditation means that the Defendant considered, planned, prepared for, or determined to commit the act before the Defendant committed it. Premeditation, being a process of the mind, is wholly subjective and, hence, not susceptible to proof by direct evidence. It may be inferred from all the circumstances surrounding the event. It is not necessary that premeditation exist for any specific length of time. A premeditated *481decision to kill may be reached in a short period of time. However, a[n] unconsidered or rash impulse, even though it includes an intent to kill, is not premeditated.
In order to have had an intent to kill, the Defendant must have acted with the purpose of causing death, or the Defendant must have believed that the act would have that result.
If the Defendant acted with premeditation and with the intent to cause the death of another, the element of premeditation and intent to kill is satisfied, even though the Defendant did not intend to kill Dennis Lamont Winfield, Jr.
Fourth, the Defendant’s act took place on or about October 5, 2004 in Hennepin County.
Viewing the instructions in their entirety and assuming, as we must, that the jury followed the instructions, I conclude that the error in giving the transferred intent instruction was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
The doctrine of transferred intent is recognized in Minnesota. State v. Sutherlin, 396 N.W.2d 238, 240 (Minn.1986). Transferred intent can apply to first-degree premeditated murder. See id. at 239-40. Premeditation will transfer with intent if the perpetrator premeditated the murder of an intended victim but accidentally or mistakenly killed an unintended victim. See id. at 240. Transferred intent with respect to premeditated murder has been described as follows:
[I]f A without justification aims at B with a premeditated and deliberate intent to kill B (so that if he should kill B he would be guilty of first degree murder) but, missing B, he accidentally hits and kills C, A is * * * guilty of the first degree murder of C.
2 Wayne R. LaFave, Substantive Criminal Law § 14.7(a), at 482 (2d ed.2003). We have applied the transferred intent doctrine in accordance with that description. See State v. Ford, 539 N.W.2d 214, 219, 229 (Minn.1995) (applying transferred intent doctrine when, in the course of shooting a police officer, defendant wounded a bystander); State v. Merrill, 450 N.W.2d 318, 323 (Minn.1990) (holding intent to kill mother is transferable to her fetus); Sutherlin, 396 N.W.2d at 239-40 (holding defendant guilty of first-degree premeditated murder through transferred intent when defendant premeditated and intended the murder of one man but accidentally shot and killed a bystander). Thus, in order for the transferred intent doctrine to apply in this case, Hall, in shooting and killing Win-field, must have premeditated and intended to kill someone other than Winfield but accidentally or mistakenly killed Winfield instead. But that is not what happened here. As the court explained, it was error to give the instruction because “there was no evidence in the record that Winfield was an unintended victim; indeed, there was no evidence showing that when Hall shot Winfield he intended to kill anyone except Winfield.” For the same reason, the error in giving the instruction was harmless.
The court concludes that the error was not harmless because there is evidence in the record from which the jury could have inferred that between the time Hall retrieved the gun and arrived at the Citgo station he considered, planned or prepared for, or determined, that is, he premeditated, the killing of the unidentified men. The court concludes that the jury may then have used the premeditation relating to the unidentified men to convict Hall of the premeditated murder of Winfield without making a determination as to whether Hall premeditated Winfield’s killing. The court’s conclusion ignores our definition of “premeditation,” our law on transferred *482intent, the instructions actually given, our presumption that juries follow those instructions, and the factual circumstances of Winfield’s killing.
Here, the trial court’s instruction on premeditation and intent relating to Win-field accurately stated the law. At the same time, under the erroneously given transferred intent instruction, transferred intent would have come into play and the elements of premeditation and intent to kill would have been satisfied only “if the Defendant acted with premeditation and with the intent to cause the death of another” (emphasis added). There is no evidence from which the jury could have found both intent and an act with respect to the unidentified men. Clearly, after Hall returned to the Citgo station, no act of any kind with respect to the unidentified men took place. Therefore, the jury could not have found that Hall premeditated the killing of the unidentified men. And, to state the obvious, there being no premeditation with respect to the unidentified men, there was no premeditation that could be transferred and used to satisfy the element of premeditation with respect to Winfield. There was, however, ample evidence to support a jury finding that Hall “acted” with intent with respect to Win-field and from which it could be inferred that Hall premeditated Winfield’s killing.
The evidence demonstrating that Hall intended to kill Winfield and no one else is striking. Hall conceded at trial that at the time of the act referred to, i.e., the killing of Winfield, he intended to kill Winfield and not the unidentified men. Moreover, the record supports that conclusion even without Hall’s concession. There is nothing in the record showing that the unidentified men were anywhere in the vicinity at the time Winfield was shot, nor is there anything in the record from which it could be inferred that, at the time of the shooting, Hall intended to kill anyone other than Winfield or that he killed Winfield by accident or mistake. Indeed, after Hall returned to the Citgo station, the evidence shows that he did not act, either with or without premeditation, to carry out any intentional killing with respect to the unidentified men.
Rather, the record shows that Winfield and M.G. were taking garbage to the dumpster when Hall arrived at the Citgo station, crossed the street, walked across the station’s apron, walked up to Winfield, displayed a gun, shot Winfield multiple times from point-blank range, and then fled. In that there was nothing before the jury that the jury could have used to reach the conclusion that, at the time Hall shot and killed Winfield, Hall intended to shoot and kill any of the unidentified men, the jury could not have concluded that Hall acted with intent to kill the unidentified men when he killed Winfield. Because the jury could not have concluded that Hall acted with intent to kill the unidentified men, the jury could not have used the theory of transferred intent as the basis for finding that Hall premeditated Win-field’s murder.
In addition to evidence of Hall’s intent to kill Winfield, there is strong evidence from which the jury could infer that, after Hall formed the intent to kill Winfield, some appreciable amount of time passed during which Hall considered, planned or prepared for, or determined to kill Win-field before acting to kill him. Upon his return to the Citgo station, Hall crossed the street to the station, crossed the station’s apron, walked up to Winfield, pulled out his weapon, fired multiple shots at Winfield from a close range, and then fled. That Hall acted with premeditation as to Winfield can also be inferred from the events that occurred before he returned to the Citgo station, including the confronta*483tion between Hall and Winfield during which Hall threatened Winfield, saying “[t]his bulletproof glass isn’t [going] to save you,” and Winfield locking Hall in the Citgo station until Hall returned the items he had originally intended to buy. Given the evidence, the jury could only have concluded that Hall premeditated Win-field’s murder and could not resort to transferring premeditation relating to someone other than Winfield as the basis for satisfying the premeditation element. Therefore, the trial court’s error in giving the transferred intent instruction was harmless.1
The trial proceedings support that conclusion. The central focus of the trial, and all of the evidence produced at trial, except for A.M.’s brief testimony that Hall was angry at the unidentified men when he returned to the apartment and retrieved the gun, was directed at establishing that Hall premeditated and intended Winfield’s murder. While it is true that during closing argument the prosecutor misstated the law as well as the transferred intent instruction given by the court when he argued that the jury could find that Hall premeditated Winfield’s murder by finding that Hall premeditated the murder of the unidentified men, that argument consisted of 16 lines in the middle of the state’s 21-page closing argument. The state’s argument began with the prosecutor quoting Hall’s threat to Winfield that the bulletproof glass would not protect him. The rest of the argument consisted of the facts surrounding the shooting of Winfield, as they related to the elements of the second-degree intentional murder, premeditated first-degree murder with respect to Win-field, and the fact that Hall’s intoxication defense was not supported by the record.
Because I conclude that the trial court’s error in giving the transferred intent instruction was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, I would affirm Hall’s convictions.

. I also note that, for the erroneously given instruction to have harmed Hall, the jury would have had to reject or ignore all of the evidence from which it could be inferred that Hall premeditated Winfield’s murder. Given the extrinsic evidence in the record from which it could be inferred that Hall premeditated Winfield’s murder, it is highly unlikely that the jury rejected or ignored each and every piece of that evidence in finding that Hall premeditated Winfield’s murder.