State of Minnesota v. Charlene Marie Waldron ( 2023 )

This opinion is nonprecedential except as provided by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
A22-1844
State of Minnesota,
Respondent,
vs.
Charlene Marie Waldron,
Appellant.
Filed December 26, 2023
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded
Gaïtas, Judge
St. Louis County District Court
File No. 69HI-CR-20-39
Keith Ellison, Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota; and
Kimberly J. Maki, St. Louis County Attorney, Tyler Kenefick, Assistant County Attorney,
Hibbing, Minnesota (for respondent)
Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Kathryn J. Lockwood, Assistant
Public Defender, St. Paul, Minnesota (for appellant)
Considered and decided by Smith, Tracy M., Presiding Judge; Gaïtas, Judge; and
Wheelock, Judge.
NONPRECEDENTIAL OPINION
GAÏTAS, Judge
Appellant Charlene Marie Waldron challenges her convictions for fourth-degree
driving while impaired following a jury trial. She argues that the district court erred in
denying her motion to suppress her statements to law enforcement officers on
constitutional grounds, abused its discretion in denying her motion to exclude the
statements from evidence at trial under the rules of evidence, and violated Minnesota law
by entering two convictions for the same criminal conduct. Because Waldron’s statements
to police did not implicate her constitutional rights, and the district court did not abuse its
discretion in admitting the statements at trial over Waldron’s evidentiary objection, we
affirm in part. But, because the district court erred in entering two DWI convictions for
the same criminal act, we reverse in part and remand for vacation of one conviction.
FACTS
At 2:00 a.m. on a cold January morning, Waldron approached a house in Hibbing
looking for help after a single-car rollover crash. Waldron was injured and smelled of
alcohol, and the homeowners summoned emergency assistance. A state trooper was the
first emergency worker to arrive. The trooper located the car, which was in a ditch about
40 yards away from the road, and he confirmed that it was unoccupied. Then, the trooper
went to the house to meet with Waldron.
Waldron was lying on the entryway floor, bloodied, and crying, and the
homeowners were nearby. The trooper called for an ambulance. When the trooper asked
Waldron for her name, she did not respond and moaned in pain. The homeowners told the
trooper that Waldron had told them her name and had said her boyfriend was the driver.
When the trooper asked Waldron what she had been doing at the time of the crash and
whether she had been wearing a seatbelt, Waldron said she was not driving and asked about
her boyfriend’s whereabouts. The trooper radioed for assistance in locating the missing
boyfriend.
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Another officer arrived at the home, and asked Waldron for the name of the
boyfriend they should be looking for. This officer asked Waldron whether the boyfriend
had been driving. Waldron responded that her boyfriend was not the driver.
The ambulance arrived. As Waldron was being loaded into the ambulance, she
became combative with the paramedics and another officer at the scene. The ambulance
transported her to the hospital. There, Waldron’s blood was drawn pursuant to a search
warrant. The blood draw revealed that she had an alcohol concentration of 0.188.
Respondent State of Minnesota charged Waldron with two counts of fourth-degree
DWI—one count for driving with an alcohol concentration over the legal limit as measured
within two hours of driving and one count for operating a motor vehicle while under the
influence of alcohol. Additionally, the state charged Waldron with one count of
misdemeanor obstructing legal process based on her combative conduct once the
ambulance arrived. After a competency evaluation determined that Waldron was
competent at the time of the DWI offenses but not at the time of the obstructing-legal-
process offense due to a head injury sustained during the accident, the state dismissed the
charge of obstructing legal process.
Before trial, Waldron moved to suppress her statements to the responding law
enforcement officers, which were recorded by the responding trooper’s dashboard camera. 1
1
The video from the trooper’s dashboard camera showed the front of the house and did not
capture any of the events inside the house. But the video captured audio from the trooper’s
body microphone. The audio from the video recording included the entire interaction
between Waldron and law enforcement officers while the responding trooper was inside
the house.
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She argued that the law enforcement officers violated her constitutional rights by failing to
provide her with a Miranda warning before questioning her, or alternatively, by causing
her to make involuntary statements. The district court denied Waldron’s suppression
motion, determining that the “rescue doctrine”—an exception to the requirement for a
Miranda warning—justified the law enforcement officers’ questions to Waldron absent a
Miranda warning.
Waldron’s pretrial motion also sought exclusion of her statements from trial under
the rules of evidence, asserting that the statements were unfairly prejudicial. The district
court did not explicitly address this motion.
Waldron then had a jury trial. The state introduced the recording of Waldron’s
statements to law enforcement in the house following the car accident. Additionally, the
state presented evidence of Waldron’s alcohol concentration and testimony from the
responding trooper. The responding trooper testified that the car involved in the accident
was registered to Waldron. He also testified that he observed just one set of footprints in
the snow leading away from the car.
Waldron testified on her own behalf. According to Waldron, she did not consume
any alcohol, she began to feel sick after she ate dinner with her boyfriend, and she did not
remember driving her car.
The jury found Waldron guilty of both charges, and the district court entered
convictions on both counts. The district court sentenced Waldron to 90 days of jail time,
stayed for a year, and probation.
Waldron appeals.
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DECISION
I. The district court did not err by denying Waldron’s pretrial motion to suppress
her statements on constitutional grounds.
Waldron first challenges the district court’s denial of her pretrial motion to suppress
evidence on constitutional grounds. She argues that the district court erred in determining
that the “rescue doctrine” allowed the law enforcement officers who responded to the
accident to interrogate her. According to Waldron, the officers should have provided her
with a Miranda warning before asking questions. And even if no Miranda warning was
required, Waldron contends that her statements were involuntary due to her condition.
When considering a challenge to a district court’s pretrial ruling on a motion to
suppress evidence, the appellate court reviews factual findings for clear error and legal
conclusions de novo. State v. Diede, 795 N.W.2d 836, 849 (Minn. 2011).
A. Because Waldron was not subjected to custodial interrogation, no
Miranda warning was required.
Before the police can question a suspect in custody, they must provide the suspect
with a Miranda warning. State v. Horst, 880 N.W.2d 24, 30 (Minn. 2016) (citing Miranda
v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 479 (1966)). Among other rights, a Miranda warning advises a
suspect of the privilege against self-incrimination, which is guaranteed by the Fifth
Amendment of the United States Constitution. Miranda, 384 U.S. at 478-79. To ensure
compliance with the requirement for a Miranda warning, the United States Supreme Court
has held that any statements made during a custodial interrogation when a Miranda
warning has not been provided must be suppressed. Id. at 479.
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Here, there is no dispute that the first trooper to arrive at the house, and a second
officer who arrived shortly thereafter, asked Waldron some questions. In considering
Waldron’s suppression motion, however, the district court did not make any explicit
findings about whether Waldron was subjected to a custodial interrogation. Instead, the
district court determined that an exception to the Miranda requirement—the rescue
doctrine—applied. See State v. Provost, 490 N.W.2d 93, 96-97 (Minn. 1992) (“[T]he
rescue doctrine is applicable in emergency situations where exigent circumstances may
excuse compliance with the Miranda rules in instances of overriding need to save human
life or to rescue persons whose lives are in danger.” (quotation omitted)).
Waldron asks us to conclude that a Miranda warning was required and that the
district court erred in invoking the exception to Miranda. But the state urges us to affirm
the district court’s denial of Waldron’s suppression motion on the alternative ground that
Waldron was never subjected to a custodial interrogation and thus no Miranda warning
was required. Citing State v. Grunig, the state notes that it is entitled to raise alternative
arguments on appeal to support a district court’s decision if the factual record is sufficiently
developed for consideration of the alternative theory, the law supports the alternative
theory, and a decision on the alternative theory would not expand the relief granted below.
660 N.W.2d 134, 137 (Minn. 2003). The state points out that it argued to the district court
that there was no custodial interrogation and developed a factual record that supports this
alternative theory. We agree with the state’s analysis, and we sustain the district court’s
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denial of Waldron’s suppression motion on the alternative ground that there was no
custodial interrogation necessitating a Miranda warning.
To determine whether an individual was in custody for the purpose of the Miranda
requirement, a court should consider the surrounding circumstances. State v. Scruggs, 822
N.W.2d 631, 637 (Minn. 2012). Factors suggesting that a person was in custody include:
(1) the police interviewing the suspect at the police station;
(2) the suspect being told he or she is a prime suspect in a
crime; (3) the police restraining the suspect[’]s freedom of
movement; (4) the suspect making a significantly
incriminating statement; (5) the presence of multiple officers;
and (6) a gun pointing at the suspect.
State v. Vue, 797 N.W.2d 5, 11 (Minn. 2011) (quotation omitted). And factors suggesting
that an individual was not in custody include brief questioning, a nonthreatening
environment, an explicit statement by police that the person is not under arrest, and police
allowing the person to make phone calls or leave after they gave their statement. Scruggs,
822 N.W.2d at 637.
Interrogation is “express questioning or any words or actions on the part of the
police that the police should know are reasonably likely to elicit an incriminating
response.” State v. Heinonen, 909 N.W.2d 584, 589 (Minn. 2018) (quotations omitted). A
custodial interrogation occurs when “questioning [is] initiated by law enforcement officers
after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his [or her] freedom of
action in any significant way,” Miranda, 384 U.S. at 444, or “if, based on all the
surrounding circumstances, a reasonable person under the circumstances would believe
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that he or she was in police custody of the degree associated with formal arrest.” Vue, 797
N.W.2d at 10-11 (quotation omitted); see also Scruggs, 822 N.W.2d at 637.
“The issue of whether a suspect is in custody and therefore entitled to a Miranda
warning presents a mixed question of law and fact qualifying for independent review.”
State v. Sterling, 834 N.W.2d 162, 167 (Minn. 2013). A district court’s findings of fact as
they relate to the circumstances of the interrogation are reviewed for clear error, but
appellate courts conduct “an independent review of the [district] court’s determination
regarding custody and the need for a Miranda warning.” Id. at 167-68. Considerable, but
not unlimited, deference is given to a district court’s “fact-specific resolution of such an
issue when the proper legal standard is applied.” Id. at 168.
Waldron does not challenge as clearly erroneous any of the district court’s factual
findings underlying its implicit determination that there was a custodial interrogation.
Based on the district court’s undisputed factual findings, we determine, based on our
independent review, that there was no custodial interrogation requiring a Miranda warning.
We reach this conclusion for two reasons.
First, considering the surrounding circumstances, Waldron was not in custody when
she was questioned. At the outset of Waldron’s encounter with law enforcement—and,
indeed, for the majority of that encounter—there was just one law enforcement officer
present. The homeowners were also present during the encounter, and they were also
interacting with law enforcement. Waldron was not in a police station, jail, or a squad car.
She was lying on the floor of a house that she entered on her own initiative. And the
responding trooper made clear that medical help had been summoned for Waldron. The
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questions posed by law enforcement were not accusatory. Rather, they were open-ended
attempts to figure out what had happened and whether there was another injured person
outside in the cold. The totality of these circumstances indicates that Waldron was not in
custody when she made the statements at issue. See Vue, 797 N.W.2d at 11 (instructing
district courts to consider the totality of the circumstances in deciding whether an
individual is in custody for the purpose of a Miranda warning).
Second, there was no interrogation. Police are not required to give a Miranda
warning when engaging in “general on-the-scene questioning as to facts surrounding a
crime or other general questioning of citizens in the fact-finding process.” Miranda, 384
U.S. at 477. This includes “on-the-scene questioning” of individuals suspected of driving
while under the influence. See Steinberg v. State, Dep’t of Pub. Safety, 357 N.W.2d 413,
416 (Minn. App. 1984) (“[U]pon arriving at the scene of an accident an officer need not
give a Miranda warning to a person suspected of DWI.”); see also State v. Werner, 725
N.W.2d 767, 769-71 (Minn. App. 2007) (stating that asking a DWI suspect about alcohol
consumption does not constitute an interrogation); State v. Herem, 384 N.W.2d 880, 883
(Minn. 1986) (observing that an “officer’s subjective intent or . . . belief that defendant was
driving under the influence” does not on its own “necessitate a Miranda warning”). Here,
law enforcement officers asked Waldron general on-the-scene questions after responding
to a serious car accident. These questions did not amount to an interrogation.
Because there was no custodial interrogation, no Miranda warning was required.
And because no Miranda warning was required, there was no violation of the Miranda
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requirement. Given this determination, we do not reach the question of whether the rescue
exception to the Miranda requirement applied.
B. Because the record contains no evidence of police coercion, Waldron’s
argument that her statements were “involuntary” fails.
Separate from the Miranda requirement, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment of the United States Constitution bars the government from introducing in
evidence any statement that was involuntarily given. State v. Zabawa, 787 N.W.2d 177,
182 (Minn. 2010); see also State v. Williams, 535 N.W.2d 277, 287 (Minn. 1995) (stating
that the voluntariness requirement is separate from the Miranda requirement). In
considering whether a statement was involuntary, “courts inquire whether police conduct,
together with other circumstances surrounding the interrogation, was so coercive, so
manipulative, and so overpowering as to deprive a defendant of his ability to make an
unconstrained and wholly autonomous decision to speak as he did.” State v. Clark, 738
N.W.2d 316, 333 (Minn. 2007) (quotation omitted). The relevant circumstances
surrounding an interrogation include the suspect’s age, maturity, intelligence, education,
experience, ability to comprehend, lack of or adequacy of warnings, length and legality of
detention, nature of interrogation, physical deprivations, and limits on access to family and
friends. See id. at 332; State v. Camacho, 561 N.W.2d 160, 170 (Minn. 1997); State v.
Blom, 682 N.W.2d 578, 614 (Minn. 2004).
Although Waldron argued to the district court that her statements were involuntary,
the district court did not address this issue. On appeal, Waldron does not contend that the
district court’s failure to address the issue was error. And, generally, we will not make
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such a determination in these circumstances. See Palladium Holdings, LLC v. Zuni Mortg.
Loan Tr. 2006-OA1, 775 N.W.2d 168, 177-78 (Minn. App. 2009) (“Appellate courts cannot
assume a district court erred by failing to address a motion, and silence on a motion is
therefore treated as an implicit denial of the motion.”), rev. denied (Minn. Jan. 27, 2010).
Instead, Waldron argues that we should determine, applying de novo review, that her
statements were involuntary.
Our standard of review permits us to consider de novo whether Waldron’s
statements were voluntary. Appellate courts “review a district court’s conclusion as to the
voluntariness of a statement de novo to determine whether the state proved voluntariness
based on the totality of the circumstances.” Clark, 738 N.W.2d at 333. A district court’s
factual findings bearing on voluntariness are reviewed for clear error. Id.
Reviewing the issue de novo, we conclude that the state satisfied its burden of
establishing the voluntariness of Waldron’s statements. The record contains no evidence
of police coercion. Instead, the audio recording of the interaction between Waldron and
law enforcement officers reveals a routine investigation of an accident involving an injury.
“Coercive police activity is a necessary predicate to a finding that a confession is
involuntary.” Camacho, 561 N.W.2d at 169 (emphasis added). Because there was no
coercion, Waldron’s statements were not involuntary.
Waldron argues that the responding trooper acted coercively by refusing to assist
her when she was in obvious pain and by continuing to question her in this situation. The
record does not support this argument. Although Waldron was apparently in pain, the
responding trooper assured her that an ambulance had been summoned and explained that
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he would not touch her so as not to exacerbate any of her injuries. This conduct is not
consistent with coercion.
Waldron also argues that her statements were involuntary due to her mental
condition. She points out that a subsequent competency evaluation deemed her incapable
of appreciating the nature of her actions following the car accident because she sustained
a head injury. However, the United States Supreme Court has held that “a defendant’s
mental condition, by itself and apart from its relation to official coercion,” does not
“dispose of the inquiry into constitutional ‘voluntariness,’” and absent coercive police
activity “causally related to the confession, there is simply no basis for concluding that any
state actor has deprived a criminal defendant of due process of law.” Colorado v. Connelly,
479 U.S. 157, 164 (1986); see also State v. Mills, 562 N.W.2d 276, 283 (Minn. 1997) (“The
fact that a defendant suffers from a mental deficiency is, alone, insufficient to render a
statement . . . involuntary. Instead, coercive police activity is a predicate to a finding that
a statement . . . was made involuntarily.” (citation omitted)), overruled by State v. McCoy,
682 N.W.2d 153 (Minn. 2004) (overruling Mills on grounds unrelated to voluntariness).
Waldron’s mental condition may have made her more susceptible to police coercion. But
because there was no police coercion, we cannot conclude that her statements were
involuntary. Accordingly, we reject her argument that her statements should have been
suppressed because they were not voluntary.
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II. The district court did not abuse its discretion by allowing the state to introduce
Waldron’s statements in evidence at trial.
As an alternative to her constitutional challenges, Waldron argues that the district
court abused its discretion in allowing the state to introduce the recording of her statements
at trial because they were more prejudicial than probative. She contends that the district
court should have excluded the statements under Minnesota Rule of Evidence 403, as she
requested in her pretrial motion.
Rule 403 provides that relevant evidence “may be excluded if its probative value is
substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or
misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless
presentation of cumulative evidence.” Relevant evidence “has probative value when it, in
some degree, advances the inquiry.” State v. Schulz, 691 N.W.2d 474, 478 (Minn. 2005).
Evidence is unfairly prejudicial under rule 403 when it is “not merely damaging evidence
[or] even severely damaging evidence,” but when it “persuades by illegitimate means,
giving one party an unfair advantage.” Id.“Evidentiary rulings rest within the sound discretion of the district court, and
[appellate courts] will not reverse an evidentiary ruling absent a clear abuse of discretion.”
State v. Ali, 855 N.W.2d 235, 249 (Minn. 2014). “A district court abuses its discretion
when its decision is based on an erroneous view of the law or is against logic and the facts
in the record.” State v. Hallmark, 927 N.W.2d 281, 291 (Minn. 2019) (quotation omitted).
Waldron argues her statements were inadmissible under rule 403 because they were
“the unreliable ramblings of an incompetent person, . . . had very low probative value[,]
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and were extremely prejudicial, and confusing to the jury.” We disagree with this analysis.
The statements were quite probative of the issues at trial—whether Waldron drove the car
and whether she was under the influence of alcohol when she drove. And although the
statements were damaging to the defense, Waldron does not explain how they were unfairly
prejudicial—how they “persuade[d] by illegitimate means, giving [the state] an unfair
advantage.” See Schulz, 691 N.W.2d at 478. Because the statements were probative, and
Waldron fails to identify any unfair prejudice, we discern no abuse of discretion in the
district court’s decision to admit the statements in evidence at trial.
III. The district court erred by convicting Waldron of two DWI offenses based on
the same behavioral incident.
Waldron argues that the district court erred in entering convictions for both counts
of DWI—and the state agrees. Under Minnesota law, a criminal defendant “may be
convicted of either the crime charged or an included offense, but not both.” Minn. Stat.
§ 609.04, subd. 1 (2022). The supreme court has interpreted this section “to bar[] multiple
convictions under different sections of a criminal statute for acts committed during a single
behavioral incident.” State v. Jackson, 363 N.W.2d 758, 760 (Minn. 1985). When a
defendant is convicted of more than one charge for a single-behavioral incident the district
court must “adjudicate formally and impose sentence on one count only.” State v.
LaTourelle, 343 N.W.2d 277, 284 (Minn. 1984). Whether a conviction violates section
609.04 is a legal question that an appellate court reviews de novo. State v. Bonkowske, 957
N.W.2d 437, 443 (Minn. App. 2021).
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At sentencing, the district court stated that it was entering convictions for both DWI
offenses—one count for driving with an alcohol concentration over the legal limit as
measured within two hours of driving and one count for operating a motor vehicle while
under the influence of alcohol. 2 Because both of these offenses arose from the same
behavioral incident and involved the same conduct, this was error. We therefore reverse
and remand to the district court to vacate one of the two convictions.
Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
2
Generally, appellate courts “look to the official judgment of conviction in the district
court file as conclusive evidence of whether an offense has been formally adjudicated.”
Spann v. State, 740 N.W.2d 570, 573 (Minn. 2007) (quotations omitted). Here, no warrant
of commitment was filed, so we consider the district court’s oral pronouncement at
sentencing as evidence. See State v. Staloch, 643 N.W.2d 329, 332 (Minn. App. 2002).
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