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State v. Gianakos5/23/2002
On May 7, 1997, the body of Anne Marie Camp (Camp), the victim of an apparent homicide, was discovered on an abandoned farmstead in Clay County, Minnesota. A lengthy investigation eventually led authorities to suspect appellant and his wife, Jamie Dennis-Gianakos. The couple had married on February 14, 1997, at least in part for the purpose of invoking the marital privilege if charged in a motel robbery they had staged 18 days earlier. Approximately two weeks after their marriage, appellant and Jamie were charged in the robbery; appellant confessed, but Jamie pleaded not guilty. Appellant and Jamie learned that Camp was the state's key witness, and on May 1, 1997, Camp disappeared. Her body was found six days later.
On October 28, 1999, appellant and Jamie were indicted on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and aiding first-degree murder in Camp's death. Jamie pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain agreement and, over appellant's marital privilege objection, testified for the state at appellant's trial. Following a jury trial, appellant was convicted on all counts and sentenced to life in prison. The issues presented on appeal are whether the trial court erred in allowing appellant's wife Jamie to testify against him despite his request that her testimony be excluded based on the marital privilege set forth in Minn. Stat. § 595.02, subd. 1(a), whether there is sufficient evidence to support his conviction, and whether the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury sua sponte that a conviction cannot rest on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice. We reverse and remand.
At the time of her death, Camp was a friend of appellant and his wife Jamie. Camp also babysat for the couple's children on occasion, including the night of January 27, 1997, when Jamie and appellant staged a robbery at a nearby motel where appellant was employed. Appellant confessed to the robbery, minimizing Jamie's role in the crime.
On February 14, 1997, following a 17-month courtship, Jamie and appellant married. There is a discrepancy in the record regarding the motivation for and timing of their marriage: in appellant's initial statement to authorities he indicated that the reason they got married when they did was so that they could not be forced to testify against one another; he later clarified his statement by claiming that what he meant was that avoiding adverse testimony was part of his reason for marrying Jamie, but that he also married her because he loved her. Jamie was more consistent in her testimony, acknowledging the marriage was a "sham" and claiming that the purpose of their marriage was to prevent her and appellant from having to testify against each other. The evidence also indicated that their marriage had been contemplated a year earlier when the couple began attending premarital classes at church, but the idea was dropped when Jamie became pregnant. Appellant said Jamie told him she "didn't want to be fat in a dress" and that "it was just a piece of paper anyway."
In any event, both admitted the marriage was at least partially motivated by their desire to take advantage of the privilege against adverse spousal testimony with respect to their anticipated robbery charges, ultimately filed against them on February 27, 1997. Jamie pleaded not guilty, and as her trial for the robbery approached, she and appellant became aware that Camp had made various statements to police regarding Jamie's activities the night of the robbery. In fact, Camp was the only person who knew that Jamie had left her apartment on the night of the robbery. Jamie was ultimately convicted of robbery.
Initially, appellant and Jamie w
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