State ex rel. Seals v. Holden

579 S.W.3d 235
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 1, 2019
DocketNo. SD 35902
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 579 S.W.3d 235 (State ex rel. Seals v. Holden) 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
State ex rel. Seals v. Holden, 579 S.W.3d 235 (Mo. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

WILLIAM W. FRANCIS, JR., P.J.

Felix M. Seals ("Seals") seeks a writ of prohibition or mandamus commanding the Honorable Calvin Holden ("the trial court") to sustain his motion to dismiss with prejudice Counts I and II, as charged by the second amended felony information, and prohibiting the trial court from conducting any further court proceedings in this matter. This Court issued a preliminary writ of prohibition, and the Greene County Prosecutor's Office filed an answer on behalf of the trial court. For reasons stated below, we now quash the preliminary writ.

Factual and Procedural History

On May 31, 2014, the State of Missouri ("the State") filed an amended felony information charging Seals with the class C felony of domestic assault in the second degree1 (Count I), for events occurring on March 12, 2013; the class D felony of domestic assault in the third degree2 (Count II), for events occurring on February 6, 2013; and the class C felony of attempted victim tampering3 (Count III), for events occurring between March 16, 2013 and April 26, 2013.

On August 6, 2014, a jury trial commenced wherein the jury found Seals *237guilty of all three counts.4

On direct appeal, Seals asserted the trial court: (1) abused its discretion in admitting evidence of an uncharged assault on the victim; and (2) plainly erred in failing to instruct the jury regarding self-defense for the charge of second-degree domestic assault (Count I).

On February 17, 2016, this Court issued its opinion reversing and remanding for a new trial as to Count I due to instructional error, but affirming as to Counts II and III. State v. Seals , 487 S.W.3d 18 (Mo. App. S.D. 2016).

On March 23, 2016, in a letter to the trial court, the State dismissed Count I:

On March 7, 2016, the Court of Appeals issued a mandate in SD33621-1. [Seals'] conviction on Count I, Domestic Assault in the Second Degree, was reversed and remanded for a new trial. In the interest of judicial economy the State dismisses Count I.

On July 18, 2016, Seals filed an amended Rule 29.155 post-conviction relief motion. Seals asserted, in part, that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to include in Seals' direct appeal brief that in the event the trial court reversed the second-degree domestic assault charge (Count I), it must also reverse the victim tampering charge (Count III). Seals argued:

If [Seals] acted in self-defense as to Count I, then he was not guilty of that offense and there was no victim with which to tamper. In order to convict a defendant of victim tampering, the state must prove that the alleged victim of tampering or attempted tampering was in fact the victim of some crime. If the jury were to acquit [Seals] of the offense of domestic assault in the second degree, it could not convict him of the victim tampering charge.

An evidentiary hearing was held on October 11, 2016. On June 26, 2017, the motion court filed its "Order Denying Movant's Motion to Vacate, Set Aside or Correct Judgment and Sentence Under Rule 29.15." The motion court denied Seals' motion finding that no evidence existed that had the claim been included it would have required reversal. The motion court took note of Seals' reliance on State v. Owens , 270 S.W.3d 533 (Mo. App. W.D. 2008), but distinguished it because Owens was "acquitted of the underlying crime[,]" and Seals was not. (Emphasis in original). The motion court, relying on State v. Dooley , 851 S.W.2d 683 (Mo. App. E.D. 1993), indicated that "[a] defendant need not be found guilty of every predicate offense which could render the object of the tampering the 'victim of a crime;' nevertheless, it plainly assumes that the jury must find that the targeted [sic] of the persuasion was the victim of some underlying offense." (Emphasis in original). The motion court found that Seals failed to show that raising this claim on appeal would have resulted in reversal.

Seals appealed the motion court's order, asserting two claims for ineffective assistance of trial counsel, and one claim for ineffective assistance of appellate counsel.

On June 29, 2018, this Court issued its opinion affirming the motion court's order as to Seals' claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel, but found merit in his claim of ineffective assistance of appellate *238counsel. Seals v. State , 551 S.W.3d 653 (Mo. App. S.D. 2018). Specifically, this Court reversed Seals' victim tampering conviction (Count III) because Seals' appellate counsel should have raised the issue on direct appeal. This Court vacated Seals' conviction and sentence for Count III (victim tampering) because:

Nothing in the record reflects any reasonable basis for [appellate counsel]'s decision not to request reversal of the attempted victim tampering conviction where [appellate counsel] had requested reversal of the second-degree domestic assault conviction. [Appellate counsel] did not offer a basis, nor did the motion court, nor the State on appeal. Here, the claimed error was sufficiently serious that it created a reasonable probability that had it been raised, the outcome of the appeal would have been different. [Appellate counsel]'s failure to raise this issue under these circumstances was not a reasonable legal strategy.

(Footnote omitted). This Court remanded the case back to the trial court for a new trial on Count III.

On August 27, 2018, the State filed a second amended felony information charging Seals with second-degree domestic assault (Count I), and attempted victim tampering (Count II, previously Count III).6 A motion for leave to file the second amended information was also filed, but was never taken up by the trial court.

On September 25, 2018, Seals filed a motion to dismiss with prejudice, based on the charges as filed in the second amended felony information, arguing that: (1) Count I was barred by double jeopardy because the State dismissed it after a jury was empaneled; and (2) the State could not proceed on the attempted victim tampering (Count III) without Count I.

A hearing was held on October 19, 2018. At the beginning of the hearing, the State withdrew the second amended felony information and indicated that Count I could not be refiled:

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Bluebook (online)
579 S.W.3d 235, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-seals-v-holden-moctapp-2019.