Salvador Tolentino-Geronimo v. State of Missouri

CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 24, 2024
DocketWD86603
StatusPublished

This text of Salvador Tolentino-Geronimo v. State of Missouri (Salvador Tolentino-Geronimo v. State of Missouri) 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
Salvador Tolentino-Geronimo v. State of Missouri, (Mo. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

IN THE MISSOURI COURT OF APPEALS WESTERN DISTRICT SALVADOR TOLENTINO-GERONIMO, ) ) Appellant, ) ) v. ) WD86603 ) STATE OF MISSOURI, ) Opinion filed: December 24, 2024 ) Respondent. )

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF PETTIS COUNTY, MISSOURI THE HONORABLE ROBERT KOFFMAN, JUDGE

Division Two: Alok Ahuja, Presiding Judge, Edward R. Ardini, Jr., Judge and W. Douglas Thomson

Salvador Tolentino-Geronimo appeals the judgment of the Circuit Court of Pettis

County denying his Rule 29.15 motion for postconviction relief after an evidentiary

hearing. Tolentino-Geronimo was convicted, after a jury trial, of one count of first-degree

rape and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The victim (“Victim”) was Tolentino-

Geronimo’s eleven-year-old niece. Victim had also been sexually assaulted by her father,

and in Tolentino-Geronimo’s postconviction motion, he alleged his trial counsel was

ineffective for failing to “properly raise” and introduce “evidence regarding [Victim’s]

father’s crimes against her.” Tolentino-Geronimo also asserted in his postconviction

motion that the trial court’s judgment contained a clerical error, in that it did not conform to the oral pronouncement of his sentence. He requested a nunc pro tunc order to correct

this error. The motion court denied Tolentino-Geronimo’s claim of ineffective assistance

of counsel and request for a nunc pro tunc order.

The State argues on appeal that Tolentino-Geronimo’s claim of ineffective

assistance of counsel is not properly before this Court because it was raised in an untimely

amended postconviction motion. We disagree and find that Tolentino-Geronimo’s

amended motion was timely filed. We further find that the motion court did not clearly err

in denying Tolentino-Geronimo’s ineffective assistance claim, but—as the State concedes

on appeal—the motion court did err in denying Tolentino-Geronimo’s request for a nunc

pro tunc order. Accordingly, we remand with directions that the criminal judgment be

corrected, and affirm the motion court’s judgment in all other respects.

Factual and Procedural Background 1

Underlying Criminal Case

In June of 2017, Victim’s friend contacted a detective with the Pettis County

Sheriff’s Office and provided information that prompted the detective to set up an interview

for Victim at Child Safe, a child advocacy center. During the Child Safe interview, Victim

disclosed that Tolentino-Geronimo had raped her. Following an investigation, Tolentino-

1 “On appeal from the motion court’s ruling on a 29.15 motion, we view the facts in the light most favorable to the verdict.” Goodwater v. State, 560 S.W.3d 44, 49 n.1 (Mo. App. W.D. 2018). The facts of the underlying case are in part summarized from our opinion affirming Tolentino- Geronimo’s conviction on direct appeal in State v. Tolentino-Geronimo, 571 S.W.3d 214 (Mo. App. W.D. 2019), without further attribution. 2 Geronimo was charged with rape in the first degree (victim less than twelve years of age)

pursuant to section 566.030, RSMo. 2

At trial, Victim testified that one afternoon near the end of fifth grade—which was

in the year 2014—she visited the home of Tolentino-Geronimo and his wife, who was her

aunt (“Aunt”). Victim was in the main bedroom watching television with Tolentino-

Geronimo and his infant son, when Aunt said she was going to take a shower. After Aunt

went to shower, Tolentino-Geronimo began touching Victim’s chest “inappropriately.” He

then held Victim down, pulled her pants down, and put his penis in her vagina, but it was

painful and “difficult to go in.” Victim testified that she was uncomfortable and she

believed Tolentino-Geronimo saw her discomfort, so he stopped; Victim then pulled up

her pants and ran from the house. Victim told Aunt about the rape in a text message, and

Aunt offered to take Victim for a rape examination, but Victim refused, causing Aunt to

conclude that Victim was lying. Because Aunt did not believe her, Victim did not tell her

parents or anyone else about the rape, fearing that no one would believe her. Victim also

acknowledged that she had stolen money from Tolentino-Geronimo around the time of the

rape, but she insisted that the money had nothing to do with her allegation.

The jury found Tolentino-Geronimo guilty of first-degree rape. At the sentencing

hearing, the trial court orally sentenced Tolentino-Geronimo “in accordance with [section

566.030], [to] serve life without parole under the statute as defined.” The written judgment

2 All references to section 566.030 in this opinion are to RSMo Cum. Supp. 2013. All other statutory references are to RSMo 2016. 3 provided that Tolentino-Geronimo was sentenced to “[l]ife without parole.” Tolentino-

Geronimo’s conviction was affirmed on appeal.

Postconviction Proceedings

The appellate court mandate was issued on May 1, 2019. On July 30, 2019,

Tolentino-Geronimo’s Rule 29.15 motion was timely filed . 3 The motion was signed and

subscribed by Tolentino-Geronimo, but it was electronically filed by an attorney (“Filing

Attorney”).

On September 6, 2019, PCR Counsel filed an entry of appearance “as attorney of

record for” Tolentino-Geronimo. PCR Counsel and Filing Attorney worked at the same

law firm. Later that afternoon, Filing Attorney filed a motion for extension of time,

requesting the motion court grant Tolentino-Geronimo a thirty-day extension to file his

amended motion pursuant to Rule 29.15(g). The motion court granted that request, and an

amended motion was filed on December 5, 2019.

In his amended motion, Tolentino-Geronimo asserted Trial Counsel was ineffective

by failing to “properly use evidence of other abuse.” He alleged that in 2017, “a few months

before” Victim accused Tolentino-Geronimo of rape, Victim’s father (“Father”) was

“arrested and charged with continually raping [Victim] for many years previous, beginning

in around 2014.” He alleged that Victim was interviewed at Child Safe on April 7, 2017

about her father, and during that interview she “said nothing about that she had been raped”

by Tolentino-Geronimo.

3 Rule references are to the Missouri Supreme Court Rules (2019).

4 Tolentino-Geronimo alleged that Trial Counsel “was aware of the prior allegation

of sexual abuse by [Father],” and “[h]ad counsel properly noticed up and litigated the rape

shield matters in this case, it is likely that the issues would have fully been explored by

counsel and the court, and certain helpful evidence admitted trial.” Tolentino-Geronimo

asserted that Missouri’s “rape shield” statute (section 491.015) “would not have barred

evidence that [Father] had been credibly accused of raping [Victim]—the evidence would

not be of [Victim’s] ‘prior sexual conduct’ but that her father had been charged with raping

her, and had fled the country, which would have provided additional support for

[Tolentino-Geronimo’s] credible defense that [Victim] had accused him of an act of rape

to deflect attention from the fact she had been caught by her mother stealing money from

[Tolentino-Geronimo] and his wife.” He further alleged that “[w]ithout knowledge of the

charges against [Father], the jury was left to speculate how an 11-year-old would be

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