State of Minnesota v. Cynthia Ann Maxwell ( 2015 )

This opinion will be unpublished and
may not be cited except as provided by
Minn. Stat. § 480A.08, subd. 3 (2014).
STATE OF MINNESOTA
IN COURT OF APPEALS
A14-1239
State of Minnesota,
Respondent,
vs.
Cynthia Ann Maxwell,
Appellant.
Filed June 8, 2015
Affirmed
Ross, Judge
Hennepin County District Court
File No. 27-CR-11-39117
Lori Swanson, Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota; and
Michael O. Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney, Linda M. Freyer, Assistant County
Attorney, Minneapolis, Minnesota (for respondent)
Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Rochelle R. Winn, Assistant
Public Defender, St. Paul, Minnesota (for appellant)
Considered and decided by Reilly, Presiding Judge; Cleary, Chief Judge; and
Ross, Judge.
UNPUBLISHED OPINION
ROSS, Judge
Cynthia Maxwell’s boyfriend suffered second- and third-degree burns because she
threw hot chicken grease in his face. During Maxwell’s first-degree assault trial, the
district court excluded her acquaintances from the courtroom after they repeatedly
asserted weakness in the state’s case in front of jurors during breaks. On appeal after her
conviction, Maxwell maintains that the district court violated her constitutional right to a
public trial. Because Maxwell’s right to a public trial does not diminish the district
court’s authority to jettison apparent jury manipulators, we affirm the conviction.
FACTS
Minneapolis police responded to an emergency call in December 2011 that
someone had just thrown hot grease in a man’s face. Officers approached the home and
encountered Jeffrey Given, who was in excruciating pain and whose skin was red and
blistering. An ambulance took Given to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with third-
degree burns on his face and chest and second-degree burns on his eyes. He told the
officers that Cynthia Maxwell, his girlfriend of 12 years, threw hot grease in his face. A
witness told the officers that she too saw Maxwell douse Given’s face with chicken
grease that had been heating on the stove.
The state charged Maxwell with first-degree assault. On the third day of
Maxwell’s March 2014 trial, the district court judge made a record of evicting Maxwell’s
friends and family from the courtroom:
During the break the deputy brought to my attention that
defendant’s friends or family were talking out in the hallway
in the presence of jurors about the case and about the lack of
evidence, et cetera. They had been warned already once in the
courtroom or at least once by the same deputy and were told
they would be kicked out if they continued. The deputy
brought that to my attention.
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So number 1, we’ve kicked them out of the building.
But number 2, I’m going to instruct the jury just to disregard
anything they might have said. Nobody knows what they said.
But obviously it’s not evidence. Anybody want to say
anything else?
Maxwell’s attorney did not object to the removal. When the jury returned, the judge
advised jurors to disregard anything they heard the commenters say about the case:
It was brought to my attention by the deputy that some people
who were in this courtroom might have been talking out in
the hallway and might have said things that maybe you --
some of you maybe overheard. Just want to remind you that
nothing anybody says that’s not on the witness stand is
evidence and should not be considered by you for any
purpose. So I don’t know what was said, if you heard it or
not, but to the extent you heard anything, just disregard it
completely.
The jury found Maxwell guilty. The district court sentenced her to 134 months in prison.
Maxwell appeals.
DECISION
Maxwell argues that the district court violated her constitutional right to a public
trial by excluding her friends and family from the courtroom. The argument has no merit.
A criminal defendant’s right to a public trial is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to
the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 6 of the Minnesota Constitution.
“The requirement of a public trial is for the benefit of the accused; that the public may
see he is fairly dealt with and not unjustly condemned.” Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39,
46, 104 S. Ct. 2210, 2215 (1984) (quotation omitted). Whether the district court violated
Maxwell’s right to a public trial raises a constitutional question, which this court reviews
de novo. State v. Brown, 815 N.W.2d 609, 616 (Minn. 2012).
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Not every courtroom exclusion implicates the accused’s right to a public trial. Id.
We know, for example, that a district court judge’s courtroom exclusion does not
implicate the defendant’s right to a public trial when the judge did not clear the
courtroom of all spectators, the trial remained generally open to the public and press,
members of the public were present during every period of the trial, and the judge
excluded no one improperly. See id. at 617–18; see also State v. Silvernail, 831 N.W.2d
594, 601 (Minn. 2013). This standard informs us that the district court did not interfere
with Maxwell’s right to a public trial. The district court did not clear the entire
courtroom, the trial remained generally open, and the record suggests that some member
of the public attended each trial segment (and Maxwell does not claim otherwise). These
circumstances are not disputed. Our only question—and it is not a difficult one—is
whether the exclusions were proper.
We hold that the district court did not improperly exclude Maxwell’s family and
friends from the courtroom. It is well established that “a trial court may, in the
appropriate exercise of its discretion, exclude spectators when necessary to preserve order
in the courtroom.” State v. Ware, 498 N.W.2d 454, 458 (Minn. 1993). The district court
excluded Maxwell’s companions only after they engaged in improper communication
around jurors, they were warned that they would be excluded if they continued that
conduct, and they continued that conduct. The defendant is not the only party in a
criminal trial, and the state, representing the people, has a right to an unmanipulated jury.
Because the exclusion was proper, it suggests neither an abuse of the district court’s
discretion nor a violation of Maxwell’s right to a public trial.
4
Maxwell provided us with a supplemental, pro se brief that states concerns about
her decision to proceed to trial rather than plead guilty and about her sentence. Because
she does not support these concerns with any arguments or legal authority, we will not
address them substantively. See State v. Bartylla, 755 N.W.2d 8, 22 (Minn. 2008) (“We
will not consider pro se claims on appeal that are unsupported by either arguments or
citations to legal authority.”).
Affirmed.
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