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STATE OF MINNESOTA IN SUPREME COURT A07 - 2148 Hennepin County Adrian D. Williams, Appellant, vs. State of Minnesota, Respondent. ________________________ Filed: April 16, 2009 Office of Appellate Courts Anderson, G. Barry, J.

Adrian D. Williams, Rush City, Minnesota, pro se appellant. Lori Swanson, Attorney General, St. Paul Minnesota; and Michael O. Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney, Michael K. Walz and Lee W. Barry, III, Assistant County Attorneys, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for respondent. ________________________

SYLLABUS The postconviction court did not err in denying appellants petition for postconviction relief without a hearing. Affirmed. Considered and decided by the court without oral argument.

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OPINION ANDERSON, G. BARRY, Justice. Appellant Adrian D. Williams is currently serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. On direct appeal, we affirmed his conviction. State v. Williams, 586 N.W.2d 123 (Minn. 1998). Subsequently, Williams filed a petition for postconviction relief that was denied by the postconviction court without an evidentiary hearing. We affirm. Williams was charged by indictment for the shooting death of Artis T. Brown, Jr., and the case proceeded to a jury trial. Two days before voir dire began, the State disclosed several new police reports, one of which included a conversation between Officer Otto Wagenpfeil and Browns girlfriend, Tashawn Griffin. To remedy any

prejudice from the late disclosure, the district court offered defense counsel a two-day continuance. Defense counsel instead requested four days, and when the request was denied, declined the two-day offer. This conversation was not on the record and

Williams alleges that it was discovered in 2003 by volunteers from the Innocence Project. On the first day of trial, a juror reported being disturbed that the previous day Juror C.C. had described himself as a white supremacist and had pulled out a pocketknife. The informing juror also stated that Juror Three had been conversing with Juror C.C. during the incident. Williams waived his right to be present when the jurors were individually questioned, but a voice recording of the proceeding was made. Juror C.C. admitted saying that he was a white supremacist and showing his pocketknife, but characterized his comments and actions as a joke and a way to avoid jury duty. Juror Three only remembered seeing the pocketknife. The district court removed Juror C.C. 2

from the jury. Defense counsel moved for a mistrial, concerned that only one juror had reported Juror C.C. and that this failure to report suggested a tolerance for racism by other jurors. The district court denied the motion. At trial, the State objected when defense counsel questioned Officer Scott Gerlicher, the States lead investigator, about his report documenting a conversation with Tashawn Griffin that was disclosed just before trial. The bench discussion revealed that Griffin had told Wagenpfeil that Brown sold "fake dope" and that a friend of hers had told her that shortly before the shooting four men had come looking for Brown about the "fake dope" he had sold them. Defense counsel argued that Griffins statements should be provided to the jury to show that alternative theories were not investigated, but the statements were excluded as hearsay. Williams was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder based upon the following evidence developed at trial. On July 21, 1995, Artis T. Brown, Jr. was riding a bicycle at the corner of Pleasant Avenue and 31st Street in Minneapolis. Another bicyclist approached and fired five shots, killing Brown. Police questioned witnesses at the scene. From his second-story apartment

window overlooking Pleasant Street, Lloyd Anderson saw the shooters right hand go up and jerk, but did not see a gun. Anderson reported that the shooter fled east on his bicycle. Andersons 13-year-old niece, A.M., was outside and saw the shooters side profile and that he had a gun. Both Anderson and A.M. recognized the shooter but did not remember his name. A third witness, Yolanda Bowers, observed the shooting from a 3

half block away. She saw the shooter and saw him pull out a gun and shoot. At the scene, she described the shooter to police as a black male with an afro who was a "fat slouch" and wore a white shirt and dark jeans. At trial, Bowers testified that the shooter wore a black shirt. Rosalind Bakion observed the shooting from her vehicle. She drove an ice-cream truck in the neighborhood and recognized the shooter as a big spender. Bakion made eye contact with the shooter, and she was worried because he looked her in the face. When interviewed by police, Bakion recalled that she saw the shooter pull a gun, shoot, and recoil, but at trial she could not remember if she saw the actual shooting or a gun. She described the shooter as having striped tan and brown shorts and was sure that he fled west, not east, on his bicycle. Police also spoke with two other witnesses, Paul Howards and Timothy Wilson, who did not see the shooting but observed someone peddling west on a bicycle just after the shooting. Howards described the bicyclist as a 16-year-old male on a dark mountain bike with a "dark, flat, black complexion" and wearing a baggy light shirt, dark baggy pants with a plaid-type pattern, and a "cabby-type hat." Soon after the shooting, police apprehended a suspect headed west on a black bicycle. The suspect had a medium to thin build and wore black jeans and a white t-shirt. He was questioned and released. Sergeant Jim Kaju, who worked in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred, identified individuals who met the description of the shooter that Bowers and Anderson provided. Gerlicher used these individuals to prepare a photo lineup, but Bakion could not identify the shooter in this lineup. Kaju provided additional suspects after learning 4

that the victim had recently fought with "Doughboy." But A.M. and Anderson did not recognize the shooter in the second lineup. Gerlicher then spoke with his wife, who worked in the Juvenile Division, and learned that Williams, who matched the description, had been arrested four days earlier for narcotics possession near where the shooting occurred, but that he was not charged because the narcotics were fake. Based on this information, Gerlicher prepared a third photo lineup and A.M. identified Williams in this lineup. Gerlicher changed the order of the photos. Subsequently, both Anderson and Bowers identified Williams as the shooter. Based on the identification by Anderson, A.M., and Bowers, Williams was arrested. At trial, Anderson and A.M. testified that

Williams was the shooter. Bakion could not identify the shooter from either the third or fourth lineups, but testified that it was not Williams. After Williams was taken into custody, his probation officer, Hargraves, visited him. Williams told Hargraves that Brown had a lousy reputation for selling fake drugs. Later, in jail, Williams approached Derick Amundson, who was looking at an outdoor magazine, and, commenting on a nine-millimeter Glock or .45 Glock,1 said, "[t]hat looks like the gun I had." Williams proceeded to tell Amundson that Brown had sold him fake narcotics a couple of weeks before and that he had shot Brown. He told Amundson that he would have his family testify that he was not at the scene and that he might try to

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The gun used in the shooting was never recovered. At trial, a forensic scientist testified that the gun was likely a nine-millimeter semi-automatic weapon.

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frame a friend. Amundson shared the information with his fianc

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