ANDERSON, Justice.
A Hennepin County grand jury indicted appellant Manuel Guzman for first-degree premeditated murder, Minn. Stat. § 609.185(a)(1) (2016), for the fatal shooting of Rufino Clara-Rendon. Appellant filed several pretrial motions, including motions to quash the indictment, to compel production of the entire grand jury transcript, and to exclude recorded jail calls between appellant and his girlfriend. The district court denied each of appellant's pretrial motions and the matter was scheduled for a jury trial. During the trial, the court made a number of evidentiary rulings that appellant now challenges on appeal. The jury found appellant guilty as charged and the court sentenced him to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. On appeal, appellant contends that the district court committed reversible error in its pretrial and evidentiary rulings, as well as in its instructions to the jury. Because the court did not commit reversible error, we affirm.
The events that led to the fatal shooting of Rufino
At trial, A.J.'s testimony provided the following outline of events. Appellant, Guillermo, Rufino, Hector, A.J., and appellant's roommate were in the yard outside of appellant's home. Appellant told Rufino that he had 10 minutes to explain himself, and A.J. heard appellant and Guillermo say the word "snitch" throughout the conversation. At one point, Hector told appellant and Guillermo to "beat his *ss already," but Guillermo responded that "he wanted blood" and that he would "dump [Rufino] over the Minnehaha River." Later, the men went inside appellant's home, and appellant held a gun to Rufino's forehead. Rufino was "stuttering," his "hand movements were everywhere," and "[h]e was basically trying to explain himself, trying to basically beg for his life." A few minutes later, appellant, who was still holding the gun, told Rufino to follow him and Guillermo from the kitchen down the hallway that led to the bathroom. Shortly thereafter, Hector said, "F*ck it," and followed the three men down the hallway. "Almost instantly" after Hector went down the hallway, A.J. heard a gunshot.
A.J.'s testimony largely corroborated Hector's testimony. Hector testified as follows. When the men were outside of appellant's home, Guillermo made Rufino call J.R. twice, and during the second call, Guillermo took the phone and left a voicemail saying: "Hey, b*tch. I got your friend kidnapped. Call me at this number." After Guillermo left the voicemail, the men went inside appellant's home. Hector claimed that he did not go down the hall to the bathroom until after he heard the gunshot. When Hector entered the bathroom, he started to panic and go "into shock" because he saw Rufino in the bathtub with a "hole" in his forehead. Meanwhile, appellant and Guillermo started making plans to dispose of the body. Appellant and Guillermo took a mattress from the living room, Guillermo cut a hole in it, and then appellant and Guillermo put Rufino's body into the mattress. Guillermo used bleach to clean up the bathroom. Guillermo later drove his Chrysler Pacifica to the front door of the house where appellant and Guillermo put the mattress inside the SUV. Guillermo then drove appellant and Hector to a gas station, where appellant and Guillermo discussed buying gas to dispose of the evidence. After appellant purchased the gasoline, Guillermo drove the men to the "back of some apartments," near East 39th Street and Snelling Avenue in Minneapolis. Hector testified that he remained in the car while appellant and Guillermo attempted to put the whole mattress in a dumpster. As the two men lifted the mattress into the dumpster, Rufino's body fell out. Leaving the body where it fell, appellant poured gasoline on the body and the mattress and set both on fire. According to Hector, appellant and Guillermo told him not to talk to anyone about what he had seen.
Firefighters and police officers responded to the dumpster fire on the night of August 7, 2014. When they arrived, the fire was burning in the dumpster, and Rufino's burned body was on the ground next to the dumpster. The medical examiner determined that Rufino was already dead at the time he was burned because there was no soot in his airways. The medical examiner also determined that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and that the manner of death was homicide.
Sergeant Charles Green was assigned to the investigation. Rufino's body was so badly burned that initially it could not be identified. However, the medical examiner located a tattoo on Rufino's arm during the autopsy. Therefore, as part of Sgt. Green's investigation into the homicide, a depiction of Rufino's tattoo was released to the media. Two hours later, Sgt. Green had a telephone conversation with a caller who reported that Rufino had a similar tattoo and had been missing since August 7. Sgt. Green subsequently interviewed J.R., who disclosed that he had received a voicemail indicating that Rufino had been kidnapped. J.R. told Sgt. Green that he listened to the voicemail on the Sunday following the murder and did not recognize the caller's voice.
Sergeant Luis Porras assisted in the investigation. In speaking with Rufino's brother and cousin, Sgt. Porras learned that Hector was the last person they saw with Rufino. Hector talked to the police with his attorney present roughly one week after Rufino's death. During the interview, Hector told Sgt. Porras that appellant and Guillermo were involved in Rufino's murder, that the murder occurred at appellant's home, and where the gas used to burn Rufino's body was purchased. The next day, Hector also provided addresses
On August 20, 2014, the State filed a complaint charging appellant with second-degree intentional murder, Minn. Stat. § 609.19, subd. 1(1) (2016). The following day, appellant made his first court appearance. On September 8, 2014, the court held a hearing to discuss a discovery issue. At the close of the hearing, the court scheduled a follow up hearing for September 19, 2014, and asked the State to "notify the Court and [defense counsel] if there [was] a grand jury presentation as [the follow up] hearing would be pretty much useless if you're going to seek an indictment." Seventeen days later, on September 25, 2014, the State commenced grand jury proceedings. On November 6, 2014, the grand jury indicted appellant on the charge of first-degree premeditated murder, Minn. Stat. § 609.185(a)(1).
Appellant filed a number of pretrial motions, including motions to quash the indictment as untimely, to compel production of the entire grand jury transcript, and to exclude recordings of jail calls between appellant and his girlfriend. The district court denied these motions. Before trial, appellant also notified the State that he intended to offer alternative perpetrator evidence that suggested that Hector was the shooter. After considering the proffered evidence, the district court concluded that appellant had established the foundational requirements for the introduction of alternative perpetrator evidence against Hector.
On March 30, 2015, the parties appeared for trial. During the prosecutor's opening statement, she discussed the recorded calls between appellant and his girlfriend. As part of her discussion, the prosecutor explained that, at the time of the calls, appellant was incarcerated on an unrelated matter. After the prosecutor finished her opening statement, defense counsel requested a bench conference and objected to the prosecutor's opening statement. After defense counsel delivered her opening statement and the jury was excused, defense counsel moved for a mistrial, arguing that the prosecutor's reference to appellant's incarceration on an unrelated matter was highly prejudicial because it left the jury with the impression that he was a criminal. The court denied the motion, concluding that the reference to appellant's incarceration was necessary to explain why the State had a recording of appellant's phone calls with his girlfriend. The State then presented evidence, including testimony by Sgt. Porras that was consistent with the facts outlined above.
During his direct examination, Sgt. Porras described the process of making a telephone call from a jail or correctional facility, including the automated notification that all calls are recorded. When the prosecutor asked whether appellant was in custody on an unrelated matter during the period of August 19-20, 2014, defense counsel objected on the ground of undue prejudice. The district court overruled the objection. Sgt. Porras then testified that appellant made recorded phone calls to his
Later that same day, appellant made a third call to his girlfriend, during which he told her to sell "this sh*t I have" "for six or seven," but then said that he was not sure he wanted her to sell it because "there [could] be a war" and he was "going to be stuck in the middle of it." During cross-examination, defense counsel questioned Sgt. Porras both about the portions of the calls and about Sgt. Porras's opinion of appellant's intentions when he made certain statements during the calls. On redirect, the prosecutor asked Sgt. Porras his opinion of what appellant wanted to sell for "six or seven." Defense counsel objected on grounds of speculation, but the district court overruled the objection. Sgt. Porras then opined that appellant wanted to sell a gun for $600 to $700.
The State also called Hector as a witness. According to Hector, Rufino was already dead when Hector entered the bathroom. Defense counsel vigorously cross-examined Hector on several topics, including his presence in the bathroom and purported possession of a gun at the time of Rufino's death, his suggestion that appellant and Guillermo beat Rufino's "*ss already," and his possible motive to kill Rufino.
After the State rested, appellant proffered a witness summary for Guillermo's brother J.A.E., who was one of the men who robbed J.R. in the spring of 2014. According to the summary, J.A.E. was expected to testify to the following: Hector had a gun during the robbery of J.R. in the spring of 2014; Hector was drunk at the time of the robbery; Hector, J.R., and Rufino were all members of the Vatos-Locos gang; and Hector told J.A.E., Guillermo, and appellant that J.R. confronted him about the robbery. The State moved in limine to exclude most of J.A.E.'s testimony as inadmissible, irrelevant, or hearsay. After the district court ruled that most of J.A.E.'s proposed testimony was inadmissible, appellant rested without calling J.A.E. as a witness.
Following deliberations, the jury found appellant guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, and the district court sentenced him to life imprisonment without the possibility of release. On appeal, appellant contends that the district court committed reversible error in its pretrial and evidentiary rulings, as well as in its instructions to the jury.
We first consider appellant's claim that the district court erred by denying his pretrial motion to quash the first-degree murder indictment as untimely under Minn. R. Crim. P. 8.02, subd. 2. According to appellant, the State's commencement of grand jury proceedings on September 25, 2014, was untimely because the plain language of Rule 8.02 required the State to commence grand jury proceedings within 14 days of his initial appearance on August 21, 2014.
Minn. R. Crim. P. 8.02, subd. 2 (emphasis added).
We recently interpreted this language in Vang, 881 N.W.2d at 555.
For the reasons articulated in Vang, appellant's interpretation of Minn. R. Crim. P. 8.02, subd. 2, is unreasonable. Applying the plain language of Rule 8.02 to the facts of this case, we conclude that the 14-day deadline for commencing grand jury proceedings was not triggered in appellant's case because the State never notified the district court that the case would be presented to the grand jury and the charged offense was not punishable by life imprisonment.
We next address appellant's claim that the district court erred by denying his pretrial motion to disclose the entire grand jury transcript, including the prosecutor's arguments.
Requests for grand jury transcripts are governed by Minn. R. Crim. P. 18, which provides that the grand jury record
Before trial, appellant argued that he was entitled to a copy of the entire grand jury transcript for three reasons. First, there were three people who had information about the events on August 7, 2014, who were not called as witnesses during the grand jury proceedings. Second, the State's failure to call these three people, as well as inconsistencies in the testimony of the witnesses who were called, purportedly created gaps that must have been filled with improper argument by the State. Third, there was little need for continued secrecy. The district court rejected appellant's arguments, finding that he had failed to demonstrate a particularized need for the disclosure of the entire grand jury transcript.
Having reviewed the record, we conclude the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied appellant's request
Appellant also claims that the district court deprived him of a meaningful opportunity to present a complete defense when it excluded evidence of Hector's prior bad acts on several grounds, including relevancy and undue prejudice. "Although the right to present witnesses is constitutionally protected, the accused `must comply with established rules of procedure and evidence....'" State v. Richards, 495 N.W.2d 187, 195 (Minn. 1992) (quoting Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 302, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973)); see State v. Atkinson, 774 N.W.2d 584, 589 (Minn. 2009) ("A defendant's right to present a complete defense is not absolute.").
The district court had previously ruled that appellant could treat Hector as an alternative perpetrator. Evidence of Hector's prior bad acts are what we commonly refer to as "reverse-Spreigl evidence." State v. Jones, 678 N.W.2d 1, 16 (Minn. 2004) (citing Woodruff v. State, 608 N.W.2d 881, 885 (Minn. 2000)). "Spreigl refers to the standard used to determine the admissibility under Minn. R. Evid. 404(b) of evidence of `another crime, wrong, or act,' separate from the charged crime."
The Minnesota Rules of Evidence define "relevant evidence" as "evidence having
Here, the district court allowed appellant to present evidence that at the time of Rufino's death, Hector had consumed alcohol and possessed a firearm.
We conclude the district court did not abuse its discretion when it determined that the foregoing evidence was inadmissible under the rules of evidence. For example, we agree that the proffered testimony regarding Hector's consumption of alcohol and possession of a firearm during the spring 2014 robbery was irrelevant in appellant's case because it did not have a tendency to make the existence of any fact that was of consequence to the determination of appellant's guilt more or less probable. Because the evidence in question was inadmissible under the rules of evidence, the district court's exclusion of the evidence did not deny appellant a meaningful right to present a complete defense.
We next consider appellant's claim that the district court committed reversible error in its evidentiary rulings regarding the recorded telephone conversations between appellant and his girlfriend.
Rulings on evidentiary matters rest within the sound discretion of the district court, and we will not reverse such rulings absent a clear abuse of discretion. State v. Moua, 678 N.W.2d 29, 37 (Minn. 2004). To obtain reversal of an evidentiary ruling on appeal, the appellant must show "both that the district court abused its discretion in admitting the evidence and that the appellant was thereby prejudiced." Id. (citing State v. Nunn, 561 N.W.2d 902, 907 (Minn. 1997)). "When an alleged evidentiary error is harmless, an appellate court need not address the merits
Appellant contends that the district court erred when it concluded that references to his prior incarceration were necessary to explain why the State possessed the recorded telephone conversations between appellant and his girlfriend. In explaining its conclusion, the district court said,
We have previously held that "references to prior incarceration of a defendant can be unfairly prejudicial." State v. Manthey, 711 N.W.2d 498, 506 (Minn. 2006) (citing State v. Hjerstrom, 287 N.W.2d 625, 627-28 (Minn. 1979)). However, our prior decisions did not involve references that were preapproved by the district court to provide context to a recorded jailhouse phone call. Here, because the evidence of guilt was overwhelming, any error was harmless.
We next consider appellant's claim that the district court erred when it allowed Sgt. Porras to testify on redirect that during one of the recorded calls to his girlfriend, appellant was talking in code about selling a gun. At trial, appellant argued that Sgt. Porras's testimony was speculative. He now claims on appeal that Sgt. Porras's testimony should have been excluded on two different grounds: (1) the testimony referenced a prior bad act, and (2) the testimony constituted improper opinion evidence.
In State v. Rossberg, we considered the issue of whether the defendant preserved a confrontation clause objection for appeal when he asserted only an objection under Minnesota Rule of Evidence 807 at trial. 851 N.W.2d 609, 618 (Minn. 2014). We explained that we generally will not consider a challenge to the admission of evidence unless a timely objection appears of record and states "the specific ground of objection, if the specific ground was not apparent from the context." Rossberg, 851 N.W.2d at 617-18 (quoting Minn. R. Evid. 103(a)(1)); see, e.g., State v. Williams, 525 N.W.2d 538, 544 (Minn. 1994). Concluding that a confrontation clause objection was not apparent from the context of the defendant's Rule 807 objection, we reviewed the defendant's confrontation clause claim under the plain error standard set forth in State v. Griller, 583 N.W.2d 736, 740 (Minn. 1998). The plain error standard requires that the defendant show: "(1) error, (2) that was plain, and (3) that affected the defendant's substantial rights." Rossberg, 851 N.W.2d at 618 (quoting State v. Brown, 792 N.W.2d 815, 820 (Minn. 2011)). If the defendant establishes these three requirements, we then consider whether "the error must be addressed to ensure the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of the judicial proceedings." State v. Bustos, 861 N.W.2d 655, 663 (Minn. 2015) (citing Griller, 583 N.W.2d at 742).
Like the objection in Rossberg, we conclude that appellant's two new arguments were not apparent from the context of his objection at trial, which was based on the speculative nature of the answer. Consequently, our review is controlled by the plain error standard.
As mentioned above, appellant claims that the admission of Sgt. Porras's testimony regarding the interpretation of the phone call was erroneous for two reasons. First, the testimony referenced a prior bad act (his efforts to sell the gun), which was inadmissible under Minn. R. Evid. 404(b) (explaining that generally, "[e]vidence of another crime, wrong, or act is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith"). Second, the testimony was improper opinion evidence under Minn. R. Evid. 701 (providing that when a witness is not testifying as an expert, "the witness' testimony in the form of opinions or inferences is limited to those opinions or inferences which are (a) rationally based on the perception of the witness; [and] (b) helpful to ... the determination of a fact in issue"). In response to appellant's claims, the State argues that even if the testimony was inadmissible under Minn. R. Evid. 404(b) or Minn. R. Evid. 701, defense counsel "opened the door" to that testimony when she asked Sgt. Porras, "When [appellant] was talking about money on these jail calls, he could be talking about getting money in his account, needing money for his account?"
In State v. Valtierra, we explained how a defendant could "open[] the door" to the presentation of evidence of prior criminal convictions. 718 N.W.2d 425, 436 (Minn. 2006). "[D]istrict courts may permit inquiring into underlying facts when the defendant `opens the door.' `Opening the door' occurs when `one party by introducing certain material ... creates in the opponent a right to respond with material that would otherwise have been inadmissible.'" Id. (quoting 8 Henry W. McCarr & Jack S. Nordby, Minnesota Practice — Criminal Law and Procedure § 32.54 (3d ed. 2001)); see State v. Bailey, 732 N.W.2d 612, 622 (Minn. 2007); State v. Gutierrez, 667 N.W.2d 426, 435 (Minn. 2003). "The opening-the-door doctrine `is essentially
Here, in the State's case in chief, it did not elicit Sgt. Porras's opinion of what he believed appellant was attempting to sell for "six or seven." But, on cross-examination, Sgt. Porras read several sections of the jail phone call transcript. Appellant also questioned Sgt. Porras about his knowledge of how the jail call system works and whether inmates needed money in their accounts to buy things. In fact, appellant asked Sgt. Porras, "When [appellant] was talking about money on these jail calls, he could be talking about getting money in his account, needing money for his account?" Sgt. Porras responded, "That's not the way I understood it." This line of questioning by appellant continued, requiring Sgt. Porras to read portions of the jail call transcript in which appellant's girlfriend said she would try to deposit money into appellant's account. Appellant then asked Sgt. Porras whether "they were talking about putting money on the account so he could make phone calls," to which Sgt. Porras responded, "In that line, yes, ma'am." Under these circumstances, we conclude that appellant's line of questioning opened the door to Sgt. Porras's testimony about the content of the call.
On redirect, to counter appellant's questioning of Sgt. Porras, the State clarified Sgt. Porras's understanding of the context of the entire conversation. Sgt. Porras opined that "[appellant] wanted to sell a gun" and that six or seven referred to "[s]ix or seven hundred." Because defense counsel's cross-examination opened the door to Sgt. Porras's testimony on redirect, we conclude that the district court did not err, much less commit plain error, when it allowed the disputed testimony at trial.
Finally, we consider appellant's argument that the district court committed prejudicial error when it overruled his objection to a proposed jury instruction on the law on accomplice liability. The proposed instruction read:
Appellant objected to the italicized language, which for purposes of this opinion
Our review of jury instructions is controlled by the abuse of discretion standard because we have previously recognized the importance of allowing district courts "considerable latitude in choosing jury instructions." State v. Mahkuk, 736 N.W.2d 675, 681 (Minn. 2007). A district court abuses its discretion if the challenged instruction confuses, misleads, or materially misstates the law. State v. Larson, 787 N.W.2d 592, 601 (Minn. 2010). We read the relevant jury instructions as a whole to determine if they accurately describe the law. Id. If we conclude that the alleged error was harmless, we need not decide whether the district court erred in giving the instruction in question. Id. An erroneous jury instruction is harmless if, beyond a reasonable doubt, the instruction had no significant impact on the verdict. Id.
Based on our review of the record in appellant's case, we conclude the alleged error was harmless because it had no significant impact on the verdict. The parties did not present any evidence that appellant intended to aid and abet a crime other than murder. Moreover, during closing argument, the prosecutor never referenced the italicized language of the jury instruction or otherwise suggested that appellant intended to aid and abet any crime other than murder. Despite appellant's assertion to the contrary, there is no risk that the jury convicted appellant based on his involvement in disposing of Rufino's body because the murder was plainly not a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the post-murder efforts to burn the victim's body.
Finally, the evidence that appellant intended to aid and abet the premeditated murder of Rufino was overwhelming. Appellant pointed a gun at Rufino's head, after accusing him of being a "snitch" about the spring 2014 robbery. Appellant knew that Guillermo wanted blood and had suggested throwing Rufino's body into a river. As appellant and Guillermo escorted Rufino into the bathroom of appellant's home, appellant told his roommate to turn up the music. After Rufino was shot in the head, appellant said, "It had to be done. He was a liability." Having concluded that the alleged error was harmless, we need not decide whether the district court erred when it included the expansive-liability language in its jury instruction on the law of accomplice liability.
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the judgment of conviction for first-degree premeditated murder.
Affirmed.