State of Missouri v. Charles David Girardier III

484 S.W.3d 356, 2015 Mo. App. LEXIS 1255
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 8, 2015
DocketED102764
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 484 S.W.3d 356 (State of Missouri v. Charles David Girardier III) 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 of Missouri v. Charles David Girardier III, 484 S.W.3d 356, 2015 Mo. App. LEXIS 1255 (Mo. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

ROY L. RICHTER, Judge

Charles D. Girardier III (“Appellant”) was convicted of one count of the Class B misdemeanor of trespass in the first degree, in violation of Section 569.140, RSMo (2000), following a bench trial in the Circuit Court of Warren County. He was sentenced to six months’ incarceration in the Warren County Jail. We affirm.

I. Background

On October 16, 2014, Abel’s Quik Stop gas station in Wright City had a no-smoking policy in effect, communicated by four-inch ' signs with a picture- of a red slash through a cigarette. Additionally, the women’s restroom — containing only stalls and sinks — was contained within four walls within the store with one entrance and exit door. It was marked by a sign in the hallway leading to the restrooms with a picture of a female and the word “women,” as well as a sign on the door to the restroom itself that read, “women.” The men’s restroom was directly across from the women’s room and was marked by a sign that read, “men,” on the door.

During October 16, 2014, around 6:48 a.m., Yvonne Redmon was working as *358 Abel’s Quik Stop store manager and entered the women’s restroom. She noticed someone in the handicap stall wearing blue jeans and white tennis shoes and the smell of cigarettes. Ms. Redmon returned to the women’s restroom later that morning and noticed the same pair of blue- jeans and tennis shoes in the same stall and that there was still an odor of cigarette smoke. Ms. Redmon asked the person in the stall to stop smoking and informed the person that smoking was not permitted in the store. The person did not respond. About thirty minutes later, Ms. Redmon returned to check the restroom for a third time and saw the same blue jeans and tennis shoes in the stall. Ms. Redmon notified the police, who were dispatched a few minutes before 8 a.m.

Jennifer Beach was also working as. a sales associate at the Abel’s Quik Stop gas station on the date in question. She entered the women’s restroom around 8 a.m. to clean and saw a person wearing jeans and white tennis shoes in the handicap stall; she was unable to. clean and left. Ms. Beach returned later and told the same person in the stall to stop smoking. The person responded with “uh-huh” in a deeper tone but sounded “woman like.”

Wright City Police Officer Bryan Thomas responded to a dispatch call in reference to a person smoking in the women’s, restroom at the Abel’s Quik Stop on October 16, 2014. Officer- Thomas knocked on the door to the women’s restroom and announced that he was a law enforcement officer. Upon receiving no response from the person in the women’s restroom, Officer Thomas entered and again announced that he was a law enforcement officer. A person then responded in an unidentified and muddled deep female tone. Officer Thomas could not understand what the person was saying. Eventually, he gave another command for the person to come out, and then Appellant exited the stall and was identified as a male. At first, Officer Thomas asked Appellant why he was in-the female restroom and Appellant answered he was sorry and unaware. As Officer--Thomas escorted Appellant out, he showed Appellant the sign saying “women’s” and asked why he was in there for two hours. Appellant responded that he had to defecate “really bad.”

Officer Thomas received consent from Appellant to search his person and found a pornographic magazine and a bottle of hand lotion on him, later marked as State’s Exhibit 1. At trial, defense counsel objected to the admission of this evidence because it was not relevant. The State argued that it went to Appellant’s motive. The trial court admitted State’s Exhibit 1. Officer Thomas read Appellant his Miranda 1 warning.

At the end of trial, the trial court found Appellant guilty of the class B misdemean- or of trespass in the first degree. The trial court sentenced Appellant to serve six months in the Warren County Jail consecutive to his sentence in a separate Montgomery County case, No. 14AA-CR0Q042-01.' This appeal follows.

II. Discussion

Appellant raises two points on appeal. In his first point, Appellant alleges the trial court erred in overruling Appellant’s motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of all evidence and in imposing judgment and sentence against him for first-degree trespass. Appellant alleges the trial court violated his rights to due process and to be tried only for the offense with which he is charged, guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Sections *359 10, 17, and 18(a) of the Missouri Constitution, in that the State did not prove that Appellant “remained unlawfully” in the women’s restroom of the Abel’s Quik Stop because he was never asked to leave even though employees made contact with him on four different occasions while he remained in the restroom.

Second, Appellant alleges the trial court abused its discretion in admitting State’s Exhibit 1 into evidence, in violation of Appellant’s rights to due process and a fair trial as guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Article I, Sections 10 and 18(a) of the Missouri Constitution; Appellant argues that the exhibit, a pornographic magazine, was both logically and legally irrelevant to the issue of whether Appellant committed trespass in the first degree by remaining unlawfully at Abel’s Quik Stop, and Appellant was prejudiced by the evidence because the trial court specifically relied on the evidence when it found Appellant guilty.

We will address each point separately in the order they were raised.

A Point I: Appellant “remained unlawfully” in the women’s restroom.

Appellant first alleges the trial court erred in overruling his motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of all evidence because the evidence did not show that the employees of Abel’s Quik Stop asked Appellant'to leave the restroom.

1. Standard of Review

Generally, an appellate court’s review of the sufficiency of the evidence is limited to whether the State has introduced sufficient evidence for any reasonable juror to have been convinced of the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Nash, 339 S.W.3d 500, 508-09 (Mo. banc 2011). This is not an assessment of whether the Court believes that-the evidence at trial established' guilt beyond a reasonable doubt but rather a question of whether, in light of the evidence most favorable to the State, any rational 'fact-finder' “could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id., quoting State v. Bateman, 318 S.W.3d 681, 687 (Mo. banc 2010) (internal quotations omitted). In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, all evidence favorable to the State is accepted as true, including all favorable inferences drawn from the evidence. Bateman, 318 S.W.3d at 687. All evidence and inferences to the contrary are disregarded. Id.

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Bluebook (online)
484 S.W.3d 356, 2015 Mo. App. LEXIS 1255, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-missouri-v-charles-david-girardier-iii-moctapp-2015.