Hadley v. State

771 S.W.2d 943, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 825, 1989 WL 60906
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 9, 1989
DocketNo. 15955
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 771 S.W.2d 943 (Hadley v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hadley v. State, 771 S.W.2d 943, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 825, 1989 WL 60906 (Mo. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

GREENE, Judge.

Russell Hadley was jury-convicted of sodomy, § 566.060,1 first degree robbery, § 569.020, and armed criminal action, § 571.015. Thereafter, he was sentenced as a first offender to a term of 30 years’ imprisonment for each offense, with the sentences to run consecutively. The offenses in question consisted of breaking into the mobile home of an 82 year-old widow, robbing her after threatening her with a knife, and brutally sodomizing her. The convictions and sentences were affirmed on direct appeal. State v. Hadley, 736 S.W.2d 580 (Mo.App.1987).

Hadley then filed a Rule 29.15 motion seeking to vacate his judgments of conviction and the ensuing sentences. The motion, as amended, alleged approximately 25 examples of ineffective assistance of trial counsel through lack of adequate preparation and incompetent trial performance. Since the motion contained allegations of material facts which, if true, would entitle Hadley to relief, the circuit court held an evidentiary hearing. Subsequently, the court made findings of fact and conclusions of law, and entered «judgment denying relief.

On appeal, Hadley relies on three points of claimed error, all of which attack the hearing court’s findings, conclusions, and judgment. Appellate review of the court’s rulings and actions in post-conviction proceedings is limited to a determination of whether the findings and conclusions of the motion court were clearly erroneous. Rule 29.15(j). Those findings and conclusions cannot be deemed erroneous unless, after a review of the entire record, the appellate court firmly believes that material mistakes of fact or law are the basis for such findings and conclusions. Cook v. State, 752 S.W.2d 483, 484 (Mo.App.1988).

[945]*945The first complaint on appeal raised by Hadley is that his trial counsel was ineffective by allowing the victim of the robbery and sodomy to testify concerning an attempted break-in at her mobile home that occurred subsequent to the date of the crimes charged against Hadley. Hadley contends this was prejudicial to him because there was no evidence connecting him with the subsequent attempt.

In connection with this point, the motion court found and concluded as follows:

[Mjovant also claims that he was coerced into testifying by his counsel’s failure to object to evidence of the second break-in at the victim’s residence. The court had already stated that such evidence would be permitted because it bore directly on the issues of identity, motive, and common scheme of plan. Therefore, counsel knew that any objection would be overruled. In any event, the Court finds that the decision had already been made prior to trial that movant would take the stand and testify in his own behalf, therefore, this ground is ruled against movant.

An examination of the record indicates that trial counsel had filed a motion in limine in an attempt to have the trial court exclude the evidence in question, but that such motion was overruled. In addition, it appears in the trial transcript, of which we take judicial notice, that when defense counsel was relating his objections to testimony concerning the subsequent break-in, the trial court observed:

Well, as I indicated before we started the trial this morning,’ I think that most important probative value of this is the bearing it has on the question of motive. As I indicated then the ... for a 23 year old man to have sexual desires towards an 82, 83 year old woman is rather bizarre and the attempt to break in on the 15th indicates that that person had a ... that kind of motive to get into that mobile home.

There is nothing in the record to indicate that further objections by defense counsel would have been to any avail. It is not ineffective assistance of counsel to fail to make useless objections. State v. Jones, 652 S.W.2d 223, 225 (Mo.App.1983). The findings and conclusions of the motion court on the issue are not clearly erroneous.

Hadley’s second point relied on is that he was denied effective assistance of trial counsel because of his attorney’s “failure to effectively cross-examine the victim and challenge her perceptions with known facts such as appellant’s height and weight and the victim’s hearing and sight deficiencies .... ” The question of the reliability of the victim’s identification of Hadley as the perpetrator of the vicious crimes in question was extensively litigated, and decided adversely by this court on appeal. State v. Hadley, 736 S.W.2d at 591. On this issue, the motion court found and concluded:

[Mjovant claims that counsel should have been more vigorous in cross-examining the victim. The victim was an elderly widow, date of birth December 22, 1902, who has lived alone since the death of her husband and who had testified on direct that in addition to being sexually abused and sodomized, she had been robbed of what little money she had and of her husband’s ring and of a bracelet that had been given to her by her son who ‘did not come back from the war’. Obviously, this lady deserved and received a good deal of sympathy from the jury and defense counsel wisely exercised caution in his cross-examination. In doing this, the Court finds that he did not fail to exercise the customary skill and diligence required of him. Thus, movant failed to sustain the performance prong on this claim.

The trial transcript reveals that trial counsel did cross-examine the victim at length regarding her identification of Had-ley as the person who committed the crimes in question. He established that the attack on her was at night, that she could only see the outline of her assailant’s face, that he had dark hair, and that she never saw his full face. He also established that the victim used eye glasses when reading and driving, but that she did not have them on at the time of the assault. The record [946]*946indicates that trial counsel adequately examined the issue, while at the same time recognizing that hostile and abusive questioning could very well alienate the jury. They, understandably, would be sympathetic with the plight of an 82 year-old widow who was assaulted in her own bed, in her own home. The motion court’s findings and conclusions were not clearly erroneous.

In his final point relied on, Hadley contends the motion court erred in “failing to enter specific findings of fact and conclusions of law concerning the issues of whether appellant was denied effective assistance of counsel by counsel’s failure to make timely objections, timely motions, and cogent cross-examination of the vic-tim_” He argues that Rule 29.15 requires such findings in that they are necessary for this court to engage in a meaningful review to determine whether the findings, conclusions and judgment of the motion court are clearly erroneous.

On this issue, the motion court found and concluded:

Movant has listed some 25 failures on the part of his trial counsel. The standards to be applied to a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel are set out by the Court of Appeals in Boggs v. State, 742 S.W.2d 591 (Mo.App.1987).
“In Sanders v. State, 738 S.W.2d 856 (Mo.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
771 S.W.2d 943, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 825, 1989 WL 60906, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hadley-v-state-moctapp-1989.