OLIVIA -- The Minnesota State Supreme Court has rejected an appeal and affirmed the first degree, domestic abuse murder conviction and life prison sentence for Dirk Lionel Goelz, 45 in a ruling issued Thursday.
A Renville County jury had found Goelz guilty of the Jan. 30, 2006 shooting death of Kerrie Marie Robinson, 36, at their home in rural Franklin.
Goelz appealed his conviction by claiming that the District Court had allowed testimony and evidence at his Sept. 2006 trial that it should not have. He similarly sought to have a grand jury indictment dismissed.
The state high court's rejection of his challenges should exhaust the defendant's appeals options in the state court system, according to Renville County Attorney David Torgelson.
The ruling was welcome news to the surviving family members of the victim, according to Jan Egge of Grove City, Kerri Robinson's sister.
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Egge said the family has continued to experience the anguish of Robinson's murder with every new turn in what has seemed a lengthy legal process.
"Everything has been another chapter to the story,'' said Egge. "Now we can finally put 'the end' to the book.''
In his appeal, Goelz claimed that the court should not have allowed as evidence at his trial an order-for-protection that had been granted to his ex-wife Denise Goelz. He also argued that the court should not have allowed testimony on a fake suicide.
Goelz also sought to have a grand jury first degree murder indictment overturned. The grand jury had heard testimony and instructions from the court that it should not have, his appeal claimed.
The Court rejected all of the claims, but focused much of its attention on the order-for-protection issue.
It agreed with Goelz that the order-for-protection should not have been allowed in trial.
The Court referred to it as "weak'' evidence, pointing out that the order had been issued without testimony or challenge by Goelz.
But the Court found that its admission in the trial represented "harmless evidence.'' There was no reasonable possibility that it significantly affected the verdict, the Court ruled. There was so much other evidence to support the prosecution's claim of domestic abuse.
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The ruling by Justices Russell Anderson, Alan Page and Lorie Skjerven Gildea came with a separate, concurring opinion from the chief justice. Justice Anderson wrote that he believed the order for protection was admissible evidence.
The Court dismissed Goelz's claim that his purported, fake suicide should not have been allowed as testimony. The Court pointed out that Goelz affirmed much of the testimony about the incident himself and did not attempt to block its admission as evidence at the trial. A defendant cannot use his own trial strategy as grounds for an appeal, the opinion noted.
The Court rejected Goelz' claims that certain testimony about past domestic abuse and instructions heard by the grand jury were unfair.
Goelz admitted fatally shooting Robinson, but argued he was guilty of "heat of passion'' manslaughter. He claimed that he lost control because she was going to falsely accuse him of molesting a teenage girl.
Egge said her sister's death is very much a story of domestic abuse. Kerri Robinson was in the process of moving out of the home when Goelz fatally shot her.
Victims of domestic abuse are in the greatest danger- and most in need of support and help- at the point when they decide to leave, said Egge.
Goelz, who will mark his 46th birthday next month, is currently serving his sentence at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater, according to the Department of Corrections.
