The Minnesota Supreme Court has sent the case of a Hibbing man found guilty of first-degree murder back to the trial court.
Andy Prtine was convicted of killing his cocaine dealer, Brent Ward, on Nov. 8, 2007, in Ward's Hibbing apartment. In a decision released today, the Supreme Court said the trial court must determine whether Prtine acquiesced in his lawyer's decision to concede that Prtine intended to kill Ward.
Prtine, 34, claims his attorney made that concession without his consent. Hibbing defense attorney Jon Rice argued at trial that his client killed Ward, 45, in self-defense during a struggle when he was able to grab a knife away from Ward. Prtine testified that "it was me or him."
In his closing argument, Rice told jurors, "We understand that in order to raise the defense of self-defense, you have to, first of all, admit that you intentionally caused the death of someone. That has never been missing."
Justice Alan Page wrote: "Here, counsel's statement that Prtine intentionally caused Ward's death conceded guilt in regard to intent. While this concession may have been a valid strategy to build credibility with the jury and Prtine surely would have been convicted without the concession, whether or not to admit guilt at a trial is a decision that under our system can only be made by the defendant. ... When the record is unclear as to whether the defendant acquiesced in his counsel's concession, we have found a remand to the district court for fact-finding is the appropriate resolution."
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Jurors found Prtine guilty of intentional first-degree murder while committing aggravated robbery or a felony involving the unlawful sale of a controlled substance. He is serving a mandatory life prison sentence.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Jeff Vlatkovich.
Prtine testified that he was under the influence of drugs the night of the stabbing. He had smoked crack cocaine with the victim and he said he had taken OxyContin, a morphine-like narcotic intended to relieve chronic pain, that day. He introduced evidence that he was intoxicated at the time of the slaying. That in itself is not a defense to a crime, but jurors could have considered whether that affected Prtine's intent to kill Ward.
