Spica v. State

457 S.W.2d 683, 1970 Mo. LEXIS 766
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedSeptember 14, 1970
DocketNo. 54708
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 457 S.W.2d 683 (Spica v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Spica v. State, 457 S.W.2d 683, 1970 Mo. LEXIS 766 (Mo. 1970).

Opinion

DONNELLY, Presiding Judge.

Appellant, John Paul Spica, Jr., was convicted of murder in the first degree by a jury in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, Missouri, and his punishment was assessed at life imprisonment. On direct appeal, his conviction was affirmed. State v. Spica, Mo.Sup., 389 S.W.2d 35 (decided March 8, 1965). The pertinent facts were set forth in the Spica case, supra, in summary form, as follows:

“On June 8, 1962, John Myszak, a realtor, went to a residence in St. Louis County pursuant to arrangements previously made by telephone to show the premises to a person he thought to be a prospective purchaser. As he stood in the driveway near the street he was shot to death by the occupant of an automobile who then drove away. About a month later the murder weapon, a .38 colt automatic, was found in a nearby grassy vacant area. Neither the person firing the shots nor the automobile in which he was riding was identified.
“John Myszak and his wife had previously had domestic difficulties, and she had talked to appellant about her troubles and asked him if he could arrange to have her husband killed. On June 20, after her husband had been killed, Mrs. Myszak called appellant and asked him to come to her home. When appellant arrived, with the knowledge and consent of Mrs. Myszak, Detective Edwards was concealed under some shrubbery near the front entrance of the house. Appellant talked to Mrs. Mys-zak within the hearing of Detective Edwards, and the substance of that conversation was that Mrs. Myszak thought that the plan to have her husband killed had been ‘dropped,’ but that appellant stated that her husband’s death ‘definitely’ was the result of their previous conversations and he wanted $5,000, the amount previously agreed to.
“Six meetings were had thereafter between Mrs. Myszak and appellant. With the cooperation of the police Mrs. Myszak had concealed on her person a small battery powered radio transmitter. Police officers were located nearby with a receiving set and a tape recorder, and the conversations between appellant and Mrs. Myszak at five of these six meetings were recorded. Without detailing the exact conversations, it may be said that appellant told Mrs. Myszak [685]*685that he had arranged to have her husband killed, and he demanded the payment of $5,000. At the last meeting, Mrs. Myszak gave appellant $1,000 in marked bills furnished to her by the police, and immediately thereafter he was arrested.”

On October 31, 1968, appellant filed in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, Missouri, his amended motion to vacate sentence under S.Ct. Rule 27.26, V.A.M.R. Evidentiary hearings were held, with appellant and counsel present, on October 31, 1968; January 22, 1969; January 29, 1969; March 27, 1969; and April 23, 1969. The motion to vacate was denied. This appeal followed.

Appellant first contends that the trial court “erred in failing to sustain appellant’s motion to vacate pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 27.26 in view of the fact that there had been admitted into evidence tape recordings and motion picture films of conversations between appellant and Mrs. Myszak and the testimony of Detective Edwards as to an overheard conversation on the grounds that said evidence resulted from an illegal search and seizure, invasion of privacy and violated appellant’s rights under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States and Article 1, Section 15, 18-A, 18-B and 19 of the Constitution of the State of Missouri [V.A. M.S.].”

This contention was raised and rejected on direct appeal. State v. Spica, supra, 389 S.W.2d 35, 43-46. This Court followed Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 48 S.Ct. 564, 72 L.Ed. 944; Goldman v. United States, 316 U.S. 129, 62 S.Ct. 993, 86 L.Ed. 1322; On Lee v. United States, 343 U.S. 747, 72 S.Ct. 967, 96 L.Ed. 1270; and Lopez v. United States, 373 U.S. 427, 83 S.Ct. 1381, 10 L.Ed.2d 462.

On his present appeal, appellant relies on Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (decided December 18, 1967), wherein the United States Supreme Court overruled Olmstead, supra, and Goldman, supra, and held that because “the Fourth Amendment protects people rather than places, its reach cannot turn on the presence or absence of a physical intrusion into any given enclosure.” We need not speculate as to whether Katz, supra, overruled On Lee, supra, and Lopez, supra (see concurring opinion of Justice White in Katz, supra, 389 U.S. 347, 363, 88 S.Ct. 507, 517, 19 L.Ed.2d 576; United States v. White, 7th Cir., 405 F.2d 838; and Doty v. United States, 10th Cir., 416 F.2d 887).

Appellant’s contention is without merit because: (1) Katz, supra, imposes the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, and the exclusionary rule incident thereto, only on evidence sought to be admitted in federal prosecutions (Cf. Lee v. Florida, 392 U.S. 378, 88 S.Ct. 2096, 20 L.Ed.2d 1166, which dealt with state prosecutions, and which expressly did not reach issues under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments) ; and (2) in any event, “Katz is to be applied only to cases in which the prosecution seeks to introduce the fruits of electronic surveillance conducted after December 18, 1967.” Desist v. United States, 394 U.S. 244, 254, 89 S.Ct. 1030, 1036, 22 L.Ed.2d 248. The surveillance attacked under this point was conducted in 1962.

Appellant next contends that the trial court “erred in dismissing appellant’s motion to vacate pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 27.26 when it was established that a wire tap had been employed in the instant case.” This contention involves alleged electronic surveillance of Mrs. Myszak’s telephone line and was not raised on direct appeal.

According to evidence developed at the 27.26 hearings, Mrs. Myszak’s telephone line was tapped and monitored. In Lee v. Florida, supra, the United States Supreme Court held that recordings of illegally intercepted telephone conversations are not admissible in state courts in view of the express federal prohibition (§ 605 of the Federal Communications Act of 1934, 48 [686]*686Stat. 1103, 47 U.S.C. § 605) against the interception and divulgence of recordings so procured.

However, the 27.26 hearings conducted by the trial court were extensive (Cf. Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 186, 89 S.Ct.

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State v. Collor
502 S.W.2d 258 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1973)
State v. Madison
459 S.W.2d 291 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1970)

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457 S.W.2d 683, 1970 Mo. LEXIS 766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spica-v-state-mo-1970.