Heistand v. State

740 S.W.2d 282, 1987 WL 3950
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 28, 1987
DocketNos. 14969, 15000 and 15007
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 740 S.W.2d 282 (Heistand 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
Heistand v. State, 740 S.W.2d 282, 1987 WL 3950 (Mo. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

CROW, Chief Judge.

On this Court’s motion, these three appeals were ordered consolidated June 16, 1987. They will, however, be dealt with individually in this opinion.

Appeal 15007

This appeal is from circuit court case CR581-12-FX-4, wherein appellant was convicted in 1983, per jury trial, of robbery in the first degree, § 569.020, RSMo 1978, and assault in the second degree, § 565.060, RSMo 1978, and sentenced as a persistent offender by the trial court to life imprisonment for the robbery, and ten years’ imprisonment for the assault, the sentences to run consecutively.

Appellant perfected an appeal to this Court, whereupon we asked the Supreme Court of Missouri to transfer the appeal there prior to opinion, to resolve an assignment of error regarding the receipt in evidence of a letter from appellant to his wife. The Supreme Court accepted the appeal and, in State v. Heistand, 708 S.W.2d 125 (Mo. banc 1986), resolved the issue adversely to appellant and retransferred the case to us for consideration of the other assignments of error briefed by appellant.

We thereafter considered those points and, in State v. Heistand, 714 S.W.2d 842 (Mo.App.1986), upheld the jury’s verdicts of guilty of both crimes. We did, however, rule that a 1977 conviction of fraudulent use of a credit card, one of the two convictions relied on by the State to establish that appellant was a persistent offender, was a misdemeanor conviction, not a felony conviction. Pointing out that the other conviction relied on by the State, a 1979 conviction for possession of a controlled substance, was a felony conviction, and that by reason thereof appellant was a prior offender as defined by § 558.016.2, RSMo Cum.Supp.1984, and consequently subject to sentencing by the trial court and not the jury, § 557.036.4, RSMo Cum.Supp.1984, we vacated the two sentences and remanded the case to the trial court for resentenc-ing per § 557.036.

After our mandate issued, appellant, by counsel, filed in the trial court a written “Request for Presentence Investigation” asking the trial court to order a presen-tence investigation and report pursuant to § 557.026, RSMo 1986.

The trial court, on November 7, 1986, took up the motion, remarking:

court does believe it’s discretionary and in the exercise of that discretion ’ court feels that pre-sentence investigation would not be of assistance to the court on the question of sentencing.
I do have a good recollection of the offense and circumstances of the case [284]*284having been the trial judge at the time of the trial.
So, the court would overrule the request for pre-sentence investigation.”

The trial court thereafter granted allocution, and sentenced appellant to life imprisonment for the robbery, and five years’ imprisonment for the assault, the sentences to run consecutively to each other and consecutively to the sentence imposed in circuit court case CR581-141-FX-1. That case is the subject of appeal 15000, discussed infra.

Appellant thereupon perfected the instant appeal to this Court, briefing three assignments of error, the first of which avers that the trial court erred and abused its discretion in refusing to order a presen-tence investigation, in that “a probation officer was available [and appellant] did not waive a presentence investigation.”

The point brings to our attention the discordance between § 557.026.1, RSMo 1986, and Rule 29.07(a)(1), Missouri Rules of Criminal Procedure (17th ed. 1986). Section 557.026.1, a part of The Criminal Code effective January 1, 1979, provides, in pertinent part:

“When a probation officer is available to any court, such probation officer shall, unless waived by the defendant, make a presentence investigation in all felony cases and report to the court before any authorized disposition under section 557.-011.”

The above-quoted segment has remained unchanged since it took effect.

Rule 29.07(a)(1), effective January 1, 1980, applies to felonies and misdemeanors. It provides, in pertinent part:

“When a probation officer is available to the court, such probation officer shall, unless otherwise directed by the court, make a pre-sentence investigation and report to the court before the imposition of sentence or the granting of probation.”

As observed in State v. Phroper, 619 S.W.2d 83, 90-91 (Mo.App.1981), there is a patent inconsistency between the statute and the rule. The statute requires a pre-sentence investigation and report in all felony cases when a probation officer is available to the court, unless such investigation is waived by the defendant. The rule, however, requires a presentence investigation and report when a probation officer is available to the court, unless otherwise directed by the court.

Phroper held that the rule takes precedence over the statute, consequently the use of presentence investigations and reports in felony cases is discretionary with the trial court, rather than mandatory. 619 S.W.2d at 91[11], In subsequent cases presenting the same issue, Phroper has consistently been followed. State v. Barnard, 678 S.W.2d 448, 452[7, 8] (Mo.App.1984); State v. Jennings, 649 S.W.2d 448, 455[25] (Mo.App.1983); Cole v. State, 641 S.W.2d 439, 440-41 (Mo.App.1982).

In the argument under his first point, appellant, as we understand him, maintains that the trial court was compelled by the statute to grant the request for a presentence investigation, or, in the alternative, the trial court abused its discretion in denying the request.

Phroper and its progeny answer the first component of appellant’s argument, and we can add nothing to what is said in those decisions. Appellant’s contention that the trial court was required by § 557.026.1, RSMo 1986, to grant the request for a presentence investigation is without merit.

Having decided that, we do not reach the issue of whether an accused who predicates error on the denial of his request for a presentence investigation bears the burden of showing that a probation officer was “available to the court.” Availability of a probation officer, it will be recalled, is a condition precedent to a presentence investigation and report under both the statute and the rule. In the instant case, the transcript of the sentencing hearing after remand shows that appellant made no effort to show that a probation officer was available to the court. Whether it was appellant’s obligation to do so is a question we need not address.

In support of his assertion that the trial court’s denial of the request for a presen-[285]

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Related

State v. Sanchez
217 S.W.3d 923 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2007)
State v. Chandler
908 S.W.2d 181 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1995)
State v. Pitts
852 S.W.2d 405 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1993)
State v. Miller
851 S.W.2d 715 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1993)
Heistand v. State
814 S.W.2d 19 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1991)
State v. Cooksey
787 S.W.2d 324 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1990)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
740 S.W.2d 282, 1987 WL 3950, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heistand-v-state-moctapp-1987.