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State v. Gianakos5/23/2002
security during appellant's upcoming imprisonment.
In any case, appellant testified that Jamie and the girls then went to the house of Jamie's mother near Detroit Lakes where she could practice using the new .12 gauge shotgun. According to appellant, Jamie returned late that evening without the gun, explaining that she was concerned about transporting it without a case. Meanwhile, appellant claimed he spent most of the evening–approximately 9:15 p.m. until 12:15 a.m. – keeping his father company in his mother's absence. His parents testified to the same effect.
The medical examiner and others assisting in the investigation also testified at appellant's trial, describing the condition of Camp's body and the evidence found at the scene. A massive head wound was apparent to arriving authorities, and abrasion marks on Camp's torso as well as grass caught under her pushed up bra and jacket suggested that the body had been dragged by the feet face down to its current position just north of the farmhouse. Both the medical examiner and an investigator with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension testified that it was likely that at least two people were present at Camp's murder because, considering Camp's weight and the fact that she was probably already dead or at least unconscious at the time she was moved, it would have been extremely difficult for one person to drag her body to the place where it was found. Camp's throat had been slashed and a shotgun wad was found entangled in her hair. Blood spatter analysis of the north wall of the farmhouse indicated that the trauma to the head was probably inflicted in approximately the same location and position in which the body was discovered, lying face up about four feet from the house. Shotgun pellets found in and near Camp's body were consistent with those fired from a .12 gauge shotgun. A search of the surrounding area uncovered a pack of cigarettes, Camp's wallet and its scattered contents, and a pair of latex gloves.
Routine lab analysis revealed a blood alcohol level of .031 grams per deciliter, a level consistent with having consumed about one wine cooler, and indicated the presence of a common antihistamine, doxylamine succinate, in her urine. At the time of the initial autopsy, the medical examiner concluded that a shotgun wound to the front of the head was the cause of death and that Camp was probably already dead when the neck wound was inflicted. Later in the investigation the high level of doxylamine succinate discovered in Camp's system was added as a competing cause of death.
A farm neighbor who was outside on the evening of May 1, 1997, provided independent testimony of some events relating to the commission of the crime. He testified to seeing an unfamiliar car drive past at approximately 9-9:30 p.m., and turn into the farm where Camp's body was later found. He subsequently heard a gun shot from that direction on his way into the house. Investigators measured tire tracks found at the scene in an attempt to identify a vehicle make and model, but no conclusive match could be made.
The jury ultimately found appellant guilty of all charges and he was subsequently sentenced to life in prison.
I.
We first consider whether our jurisprudence supports a denial of the marital privilege in cases where one of the reasons the couple chose to marry was to invoke the privilege, and whether there is an exception to the marital privilege under Minnesota law relating to spouses who engage in joint criminal conduct. The availability of a privilege established under statutory or common law is an evidentiary ruling to be determined by the trial court and reviewed based on an abuse of discretion
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