Court Opinion

ID: 9910857
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-12-18 18:06:52.541274+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:54:41.426391
License: Public Domain

This opinion is nonprecedential except as provided by
                        Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 136.01, subd. 1(c).

                               STATE OF MINNESOTA
                               IN COURT OF APPEALS
                                     A23-0250

                                    State of Minnesota,
                                       Respondent,

                                            vs.

                               Bryon Christopher Hultquist,
                                       Appellant.

                                Filed December 18, 2023
                                Reversed and remanded
                                       Ede, Judge

                               Becker County District Court
                                 File No. 03-CR-22-1701

Keith Ellison, Attorney General, Ed Stockmeyer, Assistant Attorney General, St. Paul,
Minnesota; and

Brian W. McDonald, Becker County Attorney, Detroit Lakes, Minnesota (for respondent)

Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Adam Lozeau, Assistant Public
Defender, St. Paul, Minnesota (for appellant)

       Considered and decided by Bjorkman, Presiding Judge; Segal, Chief Judge; and

Ede, Judge.

                           NONPRECEDENTIAL OPINION

EDE, Judge

       In this direct appeal from the final judgment of conviction for one count of attempted

second-degree burglary and one count of possession of burglary tools, appellant argues that

he is entitled to a new trial because the district court committed reversible error by
instructing the jury to work through an impasse during deliberations. In the alternative,

appellant asserts that this court should reverse his possession-of-burglary-tools conviction

and remand with instructions to vacate because the district court did not adjudicate

appellant guilty of that charge. Based on the specific facts of this case, we conclude that

the district court’s instructions to the jury during deliberations resulted in reversible error.

We therefore reverse and remand for a new trial.

                                           FACTS

       Shortly before 7:00 a.m. on August 25, 2022, a police officer responded to a report

of a burglary in progress at a storage building located across the street from a gym. The

reporting witness said that she saw a man with a black truck in possession of a crowbar.

The police officer located appellant Bryon Christopher Hultquist walking towards a black

truck, which belonged to Hultquist. The officer arrested Hultquist and found a crowbar in

the truck. Respondent State of Minnesota charged Hultquist with one count of attempted

second-degree burglary, in violation of Minnesota Statutes sections 609.583, subdivision

2(a)(4), and 609.17, subdivision 1 (2022), and one count of possession of burglary tools,

in violation of Minnesota Statutes section 609.59 (2022). The parties tried the matter to a

jury over two days in October 2022.

       At trial, the reporting witness testified that, while leaving the gym, she saw a man

across the street trying to pry open a door of a nearby building. The witness described the

man and his black truck. After the witness made eye contact with the man while he was

trying to pry open the door, the man dropped the crowbar and looked away. She got into

her car and called 911. On cross-examination, the witness said she saw the man for about

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five seconds and that the man did not run away after they made eye contact. On redirect,

regarding her testimony about the man attempting to pry the door, the witness demonstrated

what she had seen by holding her hands in the air by her forehead and pulling them back

and forth. The state also introduced a recording of the phone call the witness made to police,

reporting the incident.

         The state presented testimony from the responding police officer, who explained

that he detained Hultquist and found a crowbar inside Hultquist’s truck. According to the

officer, the truck was extremely messy with lots of personal property “all over the inside.”

The officer also stated that, while walking around the area, he found a hose outside a nearby

abandoned house that someone had apparently used to siphon gas. The officer saw a similar

hose in Hultquist’s truck bed. On cross-examination, the officer testified that security

footage showed Hultquist digging through a dumpster outside a nearby shop, Design 2 Sell,

around 3:30 a.m.; that security footage did not show Hultquist trying to pry open any doors;

and that it was bright out when the officer responded to the attempted burglary report. In

addition, the officer said that Hultquist did not deny owning the crowbar—but did deny

using it to pry the door in question—and that Hultquist offered to let the officer search his

truck.

         The state further presented testimony from an employee of a nearby shop and the

gym owner. The employee stated that the building where the incident occurred was old and

used for storage. The employee testified that the subject door had a “bent” clasp or latch

with a padlock. He said that, although the bend occurred several years earlier, it appeared

                                              3
more bent after the incident. The gym owner testified that he saw a man walking with a gas

can towards a black truck.

       In the defense’s case, Hultquist testified that he is a “jack of all trades,” including

carpentry, landscaping, and other odd jobs, and that he gets materials for repairs from

dumpsters. Hultquist explained that he keeps a lot of tools in his truck, including multiple

prybars to pry apart boards that he finds for salvage. Around 3:00 a.m. on the day of the

incident, he started searching a dumpster behind the Design 2 Sell. Hultquist then fell

asleep in his truck, which was parked near the gym. He left the gym after he saw people

around. While driving around, Hultquist ran out of gas. He called a friend, who met him a

few blocks away and allowed him to siphon gas into a can.

       Hultquist testified that he returned to his truck and drove over to the storage

building. He looked for a phone number or sign saying who owned the building because

he was interested in salvaging floor planks that he had found in an adjacent dumpster. He

said he looked around but did not find any information. He denied prying the door in

question or trying to get into the building. In addition, Hultquist presented testimony from

a defense investigator who stated that there was another door to the building that was

boarded over, and that door would have been more easily accessible via crowbar. The

investigator also testified that the scratch marks on the door did not appear to be caused by

a crowbar.

       Following the close of evidence on the second day of trial, the district court

instructed the jury on the applicable law, including as follows:

                                              4
                      In order for you to return a verdict, whether guilty or not
              guilty, each juror must agree with that verdict. Your verdict
              must be unanimous.

                     You should discuss this case with one another and
              deliberate with the view to reaching an agreement if you can
              do so without violence to your individual judgment. You
              should decide the case for yourself, but only after you have
              discussed the case with your fellow jurors, and you have
              carefully considered their views. You should not hesitate to
              reexamine your view and change your opinion if you become
              convinced it is erroneous, but you should not surrender your
              honest opinion simply because the jurors disagree or merely in
              order to reach a verdict.

This was a near-verbatim recitation of a former model jury instruction, “CRIMJIG 3.04,”

which has since been renumbered as 3.02. Compare 10 Minn. Prac., CRIMJIG 3.04 (6th

ed. 2022), with 10 Minn. Prac., CRIMJIG 3.02 (7th ed. 2023).

       Jury instructions concluded at 10:20 a.m. and deliberations began around midday.

During deliberations, the jury requested to relisten to the reporting witness’s recorded call

and her description of the prying movements she had observed. The district court replayed

the call for the jury and sent it a written note, asking for clarification of the jury’s other

request.

       After continued deliberations, the jury sent a second note to the district court stating:

“We are at this point not able to reach a unanimous decision. What’s next?” The court,

defense counsel, and the prosecutor discussed the matter on the record. The district court

proposed the following response to the parties: “You’re instructed to attempt to work

through your impasse and continue in your deliberations. You should keep in mind my

previous instructions.” Both defense counsel and the prosecutor agreed with the court’s

                                               5
proposed response. But the district court’s actual response, which it provided in a second

written note to the jury that was delivered outside the presence of the parties, instead stated:

“You are instructed to work through your impasse. In continuing your deliberations, you

must keep in mind my previous instructions.” The record does not reflect the timing of this

exchange, i.e., how long the jury had deliberated prior to submitting its second note or

when the district court responded.

       The jury submitted a third note, written at 4:50 p.m., which stated: “We have 11

jurors who agree – one juror who does not[.] This juror[,] we feel[,] is not following the

judge[’]s instructions.” The district court, defense counsel, and the prosecutor again

discussed the matter on the record. The court proposed the following response, and the

defense and prosecution agreed: “You are all required to follow my Jury Instructions.

Continue to deliberate under the direction of the Jury Instructions with a goal towards

reaching a verdict.” The district court stapled the foregoing written response to the jury’s

third note and provided it to the jury.

       The jury found Hultquist guilty of both charges. The district court filed the jury’s

guilty verdicts at 5:28 p.m. At the sentencing hearing, the district court adjudicated

Hultquist guilty of attempted burglary and imposed a sentence of 12 months and 1 day,

which the court stayed for five years. During the hearing, the district court initially

pronounced that it was adjudicating Hultquist on the possession-of-burglary-tools count,

but then later clarified that the charge remained unadjudicated.

       Hultquist appeals.

                                               6
                                        DECISION

       Hultquist argues that he is entitled to a new trial because the district court’s

instructions to the jury during deliberations constituted reversible error. In the alternative,

he contends that this court should reverse his possession-of-burglary-tools conviction and

remand for the district court to vacate the adjudication of that charge as erroneously

entered. Because we conclude that Hultquist is entitled to a new trial, we do not reach his

alternative claim of error.

       Hultquist asserts that the district court committed reversible error by coercing the

jury into reaching a decision. In particular, Hultquist points to the court’s written

instruction that the jury “work through [its] impasse” in response to the jury’s note stating

that it was “at this point not able to reach a unanimous decision.”

       As an initial matter, we are unpersuaded by the state’s argument that Hultquist

forfeited this challenge and that our review is governed by the plain-error doctrine. The

forfeiture doctrine generally precludes a party from obtaining appellate relief when the

party fails to object to jury instructions before the district court, unless the plain-error

standard is satisfied. See, e.g., State v. Beganovic, 991 N.W.2d 638, 655 (Minn. 2023). This

doctrine “encourages defendants to object while before the district court so that any errors

can be corrected before their full impact is realized.” Id. (quotation omitted). But the

forfeiture doctrine is inapplicable here. Hultquist did not have the opportunity to object to

the district court’s instruction because, after orally proposing one response that was

acceptable to the parties, the court omitted the words “to attempt” from the written response

that the court provided to the jury. As a result, rather than instructing the jury “to attempt

                                              7
to work through [its] impasse,” the district court instructed the jury “to work through [its]

impasse,” and neither Hultquist nor the prosecutor were aware of the omission until after

the jury returned its verdict. Accordingly, Hultquist has not forfeited his challenge to the

district court’s instructions, and we now address the merits of his claim. 1

       We apply the “abuse of discretion standard when reviewing a district court’s charge

to a jury to continue deliberating after the jury has indicated it was deadlocked.” State v.

Cox, 820 N.W.2d 540, 550 (Minn. 2012). Although district courts have “considerable

latitude” in instructing the jury, it is reversible error to coerce a jury into reaching a

unanimous verdict. Id. “A court, therefore, can neither inform a jury that a case must be

decided, nor allow the jury to believe that a ‘deadlock’ is not an available option.” State v.

Jones, 556 N.W.2d 903, 912 (Minn. 1996) (citing State v. Martin, 211 N.W.2d 765, 772-

73 (Minn. 1973) and State v. Kelley, 517 N.W.2d 905, 909-10 (Minn. 1994)). “As long as

the district court does not coerce a verdict, the court may require the jury to continue

deliberating.” Cox, 820 N.W.2d at 550.

       To determine whether the district court’s communications were coercive, Cox

identified two considerations: (1) “whether the court required the jury to deliberate for an

unreasonable length of time or for unreasonable intervals”; and (2) “whether the jury was

fully able to discern the limits of its obligations,” or instead “believed it was required to

deliberate until it reached a unanimous verdict on each count.” Id. at 551 (quotations

1
 For the same reasons, the “invited-error doctrine” does not apply. See Pulczinski v. State,
972 N.W.2d 347, 360 n.10 (Minn. 2022) (discussing the history and contours of the
“invited-error doctrine”).

                                              8
omitted). “[T]elling a jury that it must reach a verdict may cause jurors holding a minority

viewpoint to surrender their honest beliefs in order to reach a unanimous verdict” and “is

particularly coercive when delivered to a jury that is at an impasse.” State v. Olsen, 824

N.W.2d 334, 338 (Minn. App. 2012), rev. denied (Minn. Feb. 27, 2013). “If a trial court’s

instructions appear to have coerced a jury to reach a unanimous verdict, or allowed the jury

to believe that a deadlock is not a possible outcome to their deliberations, a new trial is

necessary.” Jones, 556 N.W.2d at 910-11 (citations omitted). We begin by considering

whether the jury communicated that it was deadlocked before turning to our analysis of the

district court’s responsive instructions.

       First, Hultquist and the state dispute whether the jury conveyed that it was at an

impasse. Based on the language the jury used, we agree with Hultquist.

       The jury’s second note stated: “We are at this point not able to reach a unanimous

decision. What’s next?” By stating that it was “not able to reach a unanimous decision” “at

this point,” the jury communicated that it had reached an impasse. 2 The district court—

having heard the trial evidence and having interacted with the jury throughout the

proceedings—itself used the phrase, “your impasse,” in its response to the jury.

2
  Our focus here is on the words the jury included in its message to the district court, not
how long the jury had deliberated (i.e., less than five hours) when it submitted the second
note to the court. In Olsen, we rejected an argument by the state similar to the position the
state advances here, that the jury was “not coerced by the district court’s instruction” where
the jury had “deliberated for less than five hours.” 824 N.W.2d at 339-40 n.2. Citing a
precedential decision in which “the district court committed reversible error by delivering
a coercive instruction after only six hours of deliberations,” as well as published cases in
which “the coercive instruction was given eight hours into deliberations,” we reasoned that
“we have never held that delivering a coercive instruction is not reversible error simply
because the jury is not far into its deliberations.” Id. (citations omitted).

                                              9
       The state’s reliance on Cox is unavailing. In Cox, the jury’s note stated, “We have

agreed on a verdict on two charges, but have not been able to agree on a third charge. What

happens if we are unable to agree on the third charge?” 820 N.W.2d at 550 (emphasis

added). Construing the language used by the jury in its note, the supreme court explained

that “the jury appear[ed] to seek guidance not because the jury is currently deadlocked, but

in the event that the jury may become deadlocked in the future.” Id. at 551. By contrast,

the jury here told the court in its note that, “at this point,” it was “not able to reach a

unanimous decision.” Accordingly, Cox is inapposite to the specific record before us,

where the jury conveyed that it was at an impasse.

       Second, we analyze the district court’s instructions. Hultquist argues that, by

instructing the jury to “work through [its] impasse[,]” the court allowed the jury to believe

that deadlock was not a permissible outcome, and thus the jury could not discern the limits

of its obligations. The state responds that the district court’s instructions, when considered

as a whole, permissibly required the jury to continue deliberations. Although we conclude

that the district court did not require the jury to deliberate for an unreasonable length of

time or for unreasonable intervals, we agree with Hultquist that, under the second

consideration described in Cox, the court’s instructions were impermissibly coercive. 820

N.W.2d at 550.

       More specifically, the district court responded to the jury’s stated inability to reach

a unanimous decision by instructing the jury to “work through [its] impasse.” This left the

jury unable “to discern the limits of its obligations.” See Cox, 820 N.W.2d at 551. The

court’s instruction that the jury affirmatively “work through”—rather than “attempt to

                                             10
work through,” which the parties had agreed was appropriate—was coercive, particularly

after the jury had reached, as the district court put it, an “impasse.” In other words, the

instruction suggested that a deadlock was not a permissible outcome.

       The state argues that this charge to the jury was not coercive when considered in the

full context of the district court’s other instructions. As support, the state relies on the

district court’s nearly verbatim reading of the former CRIMJIG 3.04, which specified that

jurors “should not surrender [their] honest opinion simply because [they] disagree or

merely in order to reach a verdict.” But neither the supreme court nor this court have held

that reading an instruction like the former CRIMJIG 3.04 during the initial jury charge

necessarily renders any later communication non-coercive. Rather, the supreme court has

highlighted “the ameliorative effect of giving the proper charge, CRIMJIG 3.04, when the

jury reached a deadlock,” but has “emphasized that to do so is not a panacea.” Jones, 556

N.W.2d at 911 (emphasis added); see also Olsen, 824 N.W.2d 336-37, 340 (concluding

that the district court’s instruction to reach a decision was coercive even where the initial

charge included the former CRIMJIG 3.04).

       Likewise, the state’s reliance on State v. Buggs, 581 N.W.2d 329 (Minn. 1997), 3 is

misplaced. In Buggs, the supreme court held that “the trial court did not abuse its discretion

in charging the jury,” reasoning that the trial court’s notes telling the jury to “‘try to resolve

these issues yourselves, if you can do so’ and ‘continue to try to work through your

impasse’ would not lead the jury to conclude they were required to deliberate until a

3
  The supreme court overruled Buggs on grounds unrelated to its analysis of alleged
instructional error. See State v. McCoy, 682 N.W.2d 153, 160 n.6 (Minn. 2004).

                                               11
unanimous verdict was reached.” 581 N.W.2d at 338-39. The supreme court concluded that

“the jury was fully able to discern the limits of its obligations and was not coerced to reach

a verdict” because, among other things, the “nature of the trial court’s notes” was

“noncoercive” and “the defense was fully advised of the notes.” Id. at 338. By contrast, the

district court’s second note in this case was coercive because it directed the jury “to work

through [its] impasse”—not to try to resolve the issues if it could do so, or to attempt to

work through its impasse—and the defense was not fully advised of the court’s written

note, which differed from the proposal that the district court had discussed with the parties.

       Our decision in Olsen is more on point. There, the district court read the former

CRIMJIG 3.04 during its initial charge. 824 N.W.2d at 336-37. After nearly five hours of

deliberations, the jury sent a note stating, “We have reached an impasse, how should we

continue.” Id. at 337. We explained that the supreme court’s decisions in Martin and Jones

“stand for the proposition that, if the district court’s instructions, taken as a whole,

communicate to a jury at an impasse either that it must reach a verdict, or that deadlock is

not an option, the district court has committed reversible error.” Id. at 339. We concluded

that the district court’s response—specifically its statement, “[t]here are twelve of you and

you are to make a decision on this”—communicated to the jury that it must reach a verdict.

Id. As a result, we held that the instruction to “make a decision,” communicated to a jury

reporting an impasse and considered in the context of the jury instructions as a whole,

“constituted the reversible error of coercing the jury to reach a verdict.” Id. Although the

jury here was not affirmatively told that it must “make a decision,” the district court’s

charge that the jury “work through [its] impasse” communicated that a deadlock was not a

                                             12
permissible outcome and that the jury should instead reach a verdict. See Jones, 556

N.W.2d at 912 (explaining that, because “it is reversible error in Minnesota to coerce a jury

towards a unanimous verdict,” a district court “can neither inform a jury that a case must

be decided nor allow the jury to believe that a ‘deadlock’ is not an available option”

(citations omitted)).

       Our conclusion that the district court’s instructions, as a whole, led the jury to

believe it must reach a unanimous verdict is reinforced by the subsequent communications

between the jury and the district court. The jury sent a note at 4:50 p.m. stating: “We have

11 jurors who agree – one juror who does not[.] This juror[,] we feel[,] is not following the

judge[’]s instructions.” The district court responded, “You are all required to follow my

Jury Instructions. Continue to deliberate under the direction of the Jury Instructions with a

goal towards reaching a verdict.” The jury’s guilty verdicts were then filed at 5:28 p.m.

       The instruction above was not coercive on its face. But the jury’s third note stated

that the lone holdout was not following the judge’s instructions, and the district court had

instructed the jury to “work through [its] impasse.” Given that background, the district

court’s directive that the jury continue deliberating—again without explaining that the jury

needed only to “attempt to work through [its] impasse,” while underscoring the jury’s goal

as reaching a verdict—did not sufficiently advise the jury about its obligations. Instead, the

court’s response allowed the jury to believe that a deadlock was impermissible. See Kelley,

517 N.W.2d at 909 (concluding that, “while the court’s communications were not coercive

on their face, they did not provide the careful description of the obligations of the jurors,

individually and collectively, which the Martin court approved”).

                                             13
       In sum, our analysis rests on the context of the district court’s jury instructions as a

whole and the specific facts of this case. We conclude that the court’s instruction to the

jury to “work through [its] impasse,” in response to the jury’s communication that it was

not able to reach a unanimous decision at that point, constituted an abuse of discretion.

This reversible error entitles Hultquist to a new trial.

       Reversed and remanded.

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