April 3, 2024, Minnesota Supreme Court Caselaw Update:

The Minnesota Supreme Court concluded that a wood board constitutes a dangerous weapon in support of an assault-fear with a dangerous weapon conviction if the defendant is holding the wood board while making contemporaneous statements that he planned to beat the victim.

Today, April 3, 2024, in State v. Jones, A22-0172 (Minn. April 3, 2024), the Minnesota Supreme Court interpreted the second-degree assault statute, Minnesota Statutes section 609.222, subdivision1, which makes it a crime to cause a person to experience fear of great bodily harm as a result of being threatened with a dangerous weapon.   

The supreme court was specifically asked to decide whether the State presented sufficient evidence that Jones used a dangerous  weapon to commit an assault-fear offense. 

The court concluded that Jones’s statements expressing his plan to harm the victim, which were made while the assault was occurring and as Jones was brandishing the board, are direct evidence of his intent to use the board in a matter to produce great bodily harm and that a jury could reasonably conclude that the board was a dangerous weapon.

Second-degree assault-fear; Crow Wing County

OPA220172-040324.pdf (mncourts.gov)

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April 1, 2024, Minnesota Court of Appeals Caselaw Update: