Frederiksen’s murder conviction upheld

EVELYN MILLER KILLING

Frederiksen’s murder conviction upheld

Possible error excluding Patrie statements was harmless, ruling says

An appeals court announced Wednesday that it upheld the conviction of Casey Frederiksen, the Floyd man found guilty of raping and killing Evelyn Miller, 5, in 2005.

The Iowa Court of Appeals says “substantial evidence” points to Frederiksen as the perpetrator who killed Evelyn and dumped her body in the Cedar River.

Miller was the daughter of Frederiksen’s live-in girlfriend, who came home from work to find her daughter vanished.

Frederiksen had been a suspect in the death because he had been watching her, but it took prosecutors seven years to charge him. A jury convicted him last year of first-degree murder and sexual abuse, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

According to the court’s summary of the case posted on its website, Frederiksen challenged the convictions on three grounds: “He disputes the sufficiency of the state’s proof that he was the perpetrator; he contends the district court improperly excluded out-of-court statements made by a third party; and he argues the court erred in admitting evidence of his possession of child pornography.”

In its ruling, the appeals court said: “Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, we find substantial evidence to identify Frederiksen as the offender. On the evidentiary questions, we conclude exclusion of the out-of-court MURDER, turn to page 2 statements was (a) harmless error and admission of the child pornography was proper. Accordingly, we affirm.”

The appeal was heard by Appeals Court Chief Judge David Danilson and Judges Anuradha Vaitheswaran and Mary Tabor.

The 26-page ruling was authored by Tabor.

“This case is a whodunit,” Tabor wrote about the court’s analysis of the sufficiency of the evidence. “The only element of the crimes contested by Frederiksen is his identity as the perpetrator.

Frederiksen argues that even after 10 years of investigation, the state offered ‘only weak circumstantial evidence’ that he was the person who sexually assaulted and murdered E.M. On appeal, he attacks several aspects of the prosecution, including (1) his limited window of opportunity to commit the crimes, (2) the reliability of the bloodhound evidence, (3) the credibility of fellow inmate Carter, and (4) the probative value of Frederiksen’s admissions to being sexually aroused by E.M. …”

After noting that his appellate arguments would be “better directed at jurors who are charged with judging credibility and deciding the weight to give certain evident,” she said, “When viewed in its totality, we find the state’s evidence was sufficient for a reasonable jury to determine beyond a reasonable doubt that Frederiksen sexually assaulted and murdered E.M.”

The error noted by the court was the exclusion of five out-of-court statements made by Randy Patrie, who the defense attempted to paint as a suspect.

“The State presented strong evidence showing Frederiksen’s motive and opportunity to commit the sexual assault and murder,” Tabor wrote. “No similar evidence linked Patrie to the crimes. Therefore, even if the district court improperly excluded Patrie’s statements under the hearsay rule, their exclusion was harmless error.”

By Chris Baldus cbaldus@charlescitypress.com