## Facts

- A shooting occurred in South Minneapolis in September 2006; police found Bennie Hodges bleeding from a gunshot wound.
- Hodges identified the shooter by nickname (“Little Cuz”); the next day Hodges and his mother separately identified Antoine Delany Williams in photo lineups.
- A neighbor’s description of the shooter (African-American male, mid-20s, braids, light shirt, dark jeans) matched Williams.
- Williams was charged with first-degree assault, second-degree assault, attempted first-degree aggravated robbery (two counts), and felon in possession of a firearm.
- Williams had two recent felony drug convictions and moved to exclude them as impeachment evidence under Minn. R. Evid. 609(a).
- The district court applied the five-factor Jones test and ruled the drug convictions admissible for impeachment if Williams testified.
- Williams testified and disclosed the convictions on direct examination.
- The jury convicted Williams of first-degree assault, second-degree assault, and felon in possession of a firearm.
- At sentencing, the court imposed 60 months for felon in possession, then used that conviction to increase Williams’s criminal-history score (from 3 to 4) before imposing a 160-month presumptive sentence for first-degree assault, concurrent with the firearm sentence.

## Issues

1. Whether the district court abused its discretion under Minn. R. Evid. 609(a) by admitting Williams’s two recent felony drug convictions to impeach him if he testified.
2. Whether the district court erred under the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines by using the felon-in-possession conviction, sentenced at the same hearing, to increase Williams’s criminal-history score for sentencing on first-degree assault.

## Decision

- The Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed.
- The court held the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the prior felony drug convictions for impeachment under Rule 609(a) after applying the Jones factors.
- The court held the district court did not err in using the already-sentenced felon-in-possession conviction to raise Williams’s criminal-history score when calculating the presumptive sentence for first-degree assault.

## Legal Principles

- Under Minn. R. Evid. 609(a), a prior felony conviction may be used to impeach a testifying defendant if its probative value outweighs its prejudicial effect.
- Minnesota courts evaluate Rule 609(a) impeachment of a defendant using the Jones factors: (1) impeachment value, (2) recency and subsequent history, (3) similarity to the charged offense, (4) importance of defendant’s testimony, and (5) centrality of credibility.
- Felony convictions, including drug felonies, may have impeachment value by bearing on respect for the law; dissimilarity to the charged offense may reduce propensity risk and support admission.
- When credibility is central to a disputed identification, impeachment evidence has heightened probative value.
- Under the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines, a sentencing court may apply a sequential method in a multi-conviction proceeding: once a conviction is sentenced, it can be counted to calculate the criminal-history score for another conviction sentenced later in the same hearing, consistent with guideline methodology and not treated as impermissible double counting.

## Conclusion

The court upheld admission of Williams’s recent felony drug convictions for impeachment based on a reasoned Jones-factor analysis and approved sequential sentencing that allowed a same-hearing felon-in-possession sentence to increase the criminal-history score used to sentence a later-count first-degree assault conviction.


State v. Williams, 771 N.W.2d 514 (Minn. 2009)