Lawrence Scott Dame

Case details

Lawrence Scott Dame was convicted in connection with the deaths of his sister, Donna Mimbach, her husband, Todd Mimbach, and their three children, Daniel Mimbach, age 22 months; Amber Duval, age 9; and John Mimbach, age 12.

The offence

During the evening of October 18, 2000, Dame took a hammer from the Mimbachs' garage and severely bludgeoned his sister's family to death and then cut four of the victims' throats.

The victims were identified as Donna Mimbach, 29; Todd Mimbach, 32; Daniel Mimbach, 22 months; Amber Duval, 9; and John Mimbach, 12.

Dame pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental illness.

Investigation

Police said that Donna Mimbach called Lino Lakes police for help the night before she and her family were killed by her brother. Lino Lakes Police Chief Dave Pecchia addressed the fact that officers could not legally arrest Larry S. Dame from her home unless she evicted him, stating: “We did everything legally possible to assist Donna Mimbach on the night of October 18,”

Police said that, according to the police report, the morning after Dame beat the Mimbach family with a hammer and stabbed all but his sister with a kitchen knife as they slept.

A man recognized Dame at a video store from news reports and called police, who arrested him at a nearby parking lot. Authorities in Rockford recovered a bag.

An autopsy determined that Todd Mimbach, 32, and the children all died of multiple blunt- and sharp-force head and neck injuries. Donna Mimbach, 29, died of only multiple blunt-force head injuries.

While Dame confessed, he did not say why he killed the victims. Inspector Scott Bechthold of the Anoka County sheriff's office said: “He was lucid and he was calm” during interrogation and did not verbally express remorse, and he declined to speculate on whether Dame acted remorseful.

Arrest

Police in Minnesota arrested an ex-convict Lawrence Scott Dame for the murders of his sister, her husband and their three young children on October 20, 2000.

Dame had been released the day before the killings from the Anoka County jail where he was being held for allegedly stealing one of the family's cars.

Trial

Dame was charged in Anoka County District Court with five counts of second-degree murder and one count of auto theft in the deaths of Donna and Todd Mimbach and their children ages 22 months to 12 years old.

Dame was convicted of five counts of murder in the first degree, in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.185(a)(1) (2002), in connection with the deaths of Donna Mimbach, Todd Mimbach, and their three children.

Pursuant to Minn. R.Crim. P. 20.02, the district court bifurcated the trial into a guilt phase and a mental-illness phase. During the jury voir dire, Dame waived his right to a jury trial for the guilt phase and submitted those issues to the court on stipulated facts. The court found that the state had proven the elements for each of the five counts of first-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt.

The mental-illness phase was conducted before a jury.

Three forensic psychiatrists testified as expert witnesses about Dame's mental status at the time of the crime. Dame's expert testified that Dame suffered from a mental illness diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia and that although Dame knew the nature of his acts, he did not know that his acts were wrong. The state's expert and the court-appointed expert testified that Dame was not suffering from any mental illness but only from an extreme character or personality disorder characterized as psychopathy, and both testified that Dame did know the nature of his acts and that they were wrong and diagnosed Dame as malingering.

The jury found Dame guilty of five counts of first-degree murder, rejecting Dame's mental-illness defense.

Sentencing

Dame was sentenced to five consecutives life sentences in prison in 2002.

Appeals

Supreme Court of Minnesota

Supreme Court of Minnesota STATE v. DAME STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Lawrence Scott DAME, Appellant. No. C8-02-1597. October 23, 2003 Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.

John M. Stuart, State Public Defender, Davi E. Axelson, Assistant Public Defender, Minneapolis, MN, for Appellant. Mike Hatch, Attorney General, St. Paul, MN, Robert M.A. Johnson, Anoka County Attorney, Robert D. Goodell, Assistant County Attorney, Anoka, MN, for Respondent.

Opinion and rulings

The court affirmed. Dame argued that (1) the district court erred in admitting crime-scene and autopsy photographs during the mental-illness phase of a bifurcated trial, (2) the district court erred by delaying jury deliberations after closing arguments, (3) it was prosecutorial misconduct for the state to question a witness regarding a matter that had been ruled inadmissible by the district court, and (4) the accumulation of these errors deprived him of a fair trial. The court affirmed and rejected the arguments.

Regarding photographs, the court stated that the district court carefully reviewed each of 78 crime-scene and autopsy photographs offered by the state and excluded 42 based on probative value versus prejudicial effect. After commencement of the mental-illness phase, the district court re-examined the state's offered photographs and excluded an additional 12, resulting in the admission of 13 colored photographs and 4 photographs of x-rays. When the state's forensic pathologist used diagrams to assist testimony on the issue of Todd Mimbach's death, the court sustained Dame's objection to the photographs of Todd Mimbach and ruled the state could introduce either the diagrams or the photographs, but not both, excluding 7 photographs of Todd Mimbach.

The court concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in allowing autopsy and crime-scene photographs to be admitted in the mental-illness phase.

Regarding delay, the court stated that summation was completed on Friday, May 31, 2002, and due to a commitment of one of the jurors for the weekend, the judge delayed jury instructions and deliberations until the following Monday, June 3, 2002. The court concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion when delaying jury instructions and deliberations until the following Monday.

Regarding alleged prosecutorial misconduct, after much discussion the court announced testimony concerning Dame's medical treatment after his arrest was not relevant to the determination of mental illness at the time of the offense. During direct examination of the court-appointed forensic psychiatrist, the state asked whether Dame was taking medication after his arrest. Dame objected; the court sustained the objection and the witness was not allowed to answer. After a recess, Dame moved for a mistrial, claiming misconduct, and the court denied it. The court concluded that the state's single question was not misconduct and, in any event, was not prejudicial, and affirmed.

Footnote 1 defined malingering at trial as “feigning or exaggeration of psychiatric symptoms for secondary gain.”

Other details

Release and pre-offence context

Dame was released from prison in February after serving four years for slashing a man's throat.

Family members said unsuccessfully tried admitting Dame to the hospital.

Don Ilse, director of field services for Anoka County Community Corrections, told the newspaper that as a condition of his release, Dame was supposed to report to a hospital for a mental health crisis intervention, and that Dame spoke with a mental health professional at the hospital.

Family members said they unsuccessfully tried admitting Dame to the hospital.

Hannah Dame told the Pioneer Press Dame had been acting strangely and recently claimed to hear voices. She quoted Dame as saying: “The spirits said your family is going to kill you. Well, I better kill everyone before they kill me.”

Relatives have said Dame had been hearing voices lately. Todd Mimbach tried unsuccessfully to get him admitted to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation the night before the killings.

Relatives said Donna loved her brother.

Walter Dame, 23, said Larry drank to quiet the voices. Walter Dame said the voices told Larry Dame that his family was out to kill him because they were trying to commit him to a mental hospital.

At the courthouse meeting, Donna Mimbach later told her father that the probation agent asked the couple to take Larry Dame to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids to be admitted. Jail records showed Larry Dame was released at 4:20 p.m.

Before going to Mercy, Todd Mimbach dropped Donna Mimbach at the family's home in the 500 block of Chippewa Trail. Todd Mimbach took Larry Dame to the hospital and waited several hours while he underwent a mental health evaluation. Dame was sent back to the Mimbach home.

911 call quotation

Donna Mimbach called 911 at 9:26 p.m., saying: “Um, it's regarding, OK my brother got discharged from the um jail today and the consequences were that he was supposed to go to the hospital because he hears voices and he stole my car and all this stuff. My husband brought him to the hospital and the hospital will not take him, and so my husband is bringing him back here because we can't get ahold of his parole officer. Well, I can't have him stay here. He has to go back to jail or something.”

In relation to the officer call-back, Chief Pecchia said Donna told the officer Dame was hearing voices again, but she also said he was not threatening her or her family members and was not making any suicidal statements.

Chief Pecchia stated that the officer told Donna that if she wanted Dame to leave and he did not, he could arrest Dame for trespassing.

Chief Pecchia said: “Donna did not want him taken to jail,”

Chief Pecchia said they also discussed putting an “emergency hold” on Dame, but that it was not possible because of the lack of threats or suicidal statements.

Confession and interrogation observations

Inspector Scott Bechthold said investigators did not know why he went to Rockford or why he returned.

Bechthold also said, “He was lucid and he was calm” during interrogation and did not verbally express remorse.

Bechthold declined to speculate on whether Dame acted remorseful.

Prior history mentioned

Dame had been troubled and in trouble for at least a decade.

In May 1991, Dame was living in an Osseo apartment when he and another man took Dame's .22-caliber rifle into the yard and began firing randomly. Dame, 18, later admitted in court he had been drunk and that he fired shots that struck a parked van. After pleading guilty to a felony property-damage charge in Hennepin County District Court, he was sentenced to three months in the county workhouse and ordered not to use alcohol or drugs and to get drug treatment during three years of probation. The account stated he did not get treatment and did not pay restitution, and he was arrested and returned to jail for several weeks in 1993 and 1994 on probation violations, then completed his sentence in September 1994.

In July 1995, Dame used a knife to slash a man's throat after arguing near Little Falls, Minn. He served four years for first-degree assault before being released in February.

The account stated that under his probation conditions, he was not allowed to use alcohol. He moved back to the Lino Lakes home of his parents and youngest brother, Walter, who said Larry was fine for about a week before he started drinking again.

The account stated that he often hung out about five blocks away at the Mimbach home.

Other people and details

Dave Clark, owner of Information Technology Partners, said Todd Mimbach picked up Dame because “He said, 'I need to pick him up because nobody else will,'" and Clark said it was the last time Larry S. Dame's life intersected with the Mimbach family.

Officer and community details included that at least 30 officers spent Friday looking for Dame.

The account stated that police were working Friday to determine whether Dame had been found to have a mental illness or was taking medication for one.

The account stated that Dame's mother, Hannelore Dame, said, “He hears spirits.”

Judy Koppy, Circle Court manager, said police responded to a suicide call at Larry Dame's place last month.

Christopher Langhoff, 21, said: “Todd was a very giving person. He tried helping Larry with anything,” and that he lived next door to Mimbach for seven years.

Langhoff said: “The voices talked to him at his cottage,”

Walter Dame said: “He said he drank to get rid of the voices,” and said: “He said, 'They don't come to me when I am drunk.'”

Supreme Court opinion section included that Dame's appellate arguments concerned crime-scene and autopsy photographs, delaying jury instructions and deliberations, and a prosecutorial misconduct claim about questioning on medication after arrest, and that these did not warrant reversal.

Vehicles and descriptions for law enforcement

Authorities said Dame should be considered armed and dangerous and anyone who saw him or the car should call 911 immediately.

Dame's description, 5 feet 6 and 150 pounds, was released to law enforcement agencies nationwide.

Authorities said Dame may be driving a gold 1999 Saturn station wagon with Minnesota license plate number DDY-957.

Legal issues and trial procedure details from appeal

The Supreme Court quoted the test for mental illness in Minnesota as: [T]he person shall not be excused from criminal liability except upon proof that at the time of committing the alleged criminal act the person was laboring under such a defect of reason, from one of these causes, as not to know the nature of the act, or that it was wrong. Minn.Stat. § 611.026 (2002) (this test is commonly referred to as the “M'Naghten Rule”).