New trial denied in Vick killing

Convicted cop killer Harry J. Evans ran out of options Thursday.

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that Evans, 35, is not entitled to a new trial in the 2005 killing of St. Paul police Sgt. Gerald Vick.

The high court found:

• The lower court -- Ramsey County District Court -- did not commit "plain error" when it allowed prosecutors to contact a juror after a hearing was scheduled to investigate allegations that a member of the jury had made racist statements at her neighborhood bar before the trial began.

• The lower court did not err when it found there was not sufficient evidence to prove the juror made racially-biased statements, the justices said.

• Evans' Sixth Amendment right to confrontation was not violated when the district court privately reviewed a witness's medical records and produced an edited copy of the records from the witness's visit to the hospital on the night of the crime.

• Evans didn't have to have known Vick was a police officers to be convicted of first-degree murder.

• The district court did not err when it declined to give the jury instructions on accomplice testimony.

• Evidence presented about Vick's life did not deny Evans a fair trial.

Justice Alan Page was the court's lone dissenter.

He said that because contact between attorneys and jurors is prohibited before a post-verdict hearing has been granted, it also should be prohibited after a hearing has been granted.

Page said that prosecutors' contact with the juror alleged to have made the racist remarks, although authorized by the district court, "affected Evans' substantial rights" because it made it "difficult if not impossible to assess the trustworthiness of the juror's testimony."

Page said he believed the court "must reverse Evans' conviction and remand for a new trial."

Pat Pheifer • 651-298-1551