State v. Campbell

612 S.W.2d 371, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 3332
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided December 23, 1980·No. No. 40306·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

KELLY, Chief Judge.

Tony Lee Campbell was convicted in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis of first degree murder § 559.005 RSMo. Supp. 1975, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He appeals, raising three Points Relied On as grounds for reversal of his conviction. We affirm.

Mr. Campbell, hereinafter the appellant, does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s finding; therefore a short statement of the facts supporting the verdict will suffice at this stage of the opinion.

Patricia Malone, 15 years of age at the time of this occurrence, September 13,1976, came to her untimely demise in a vacant house at 3835 Cottage Avenue, in the City of St. Louis. Her nude body was found in the basement of the house sometime after noon of the date aforesaid. According to the autopsy report she had been dead for perhaps two or three days and the cause of death was a compound fracture of the skull with a fractured neck and hemorrhage re-troperitoneal, i. e. hemorrhage inside the abdominal cavity, the peritoneum.

The police learned of Ms. Malone’s death through an informant and went to the scene where they were met by Alva Murray and Regina McCurry, who later identified appellant as the murderer. Appellant was arrested at his home at approximately 1:00 p. m. the same afternoon, given his Miranda rights, and he confirmed that he had told three witnesses that he had killed Ms. Malone and that he had taken the three witnesses to view the body in the basement. He told the police, however, that he had only made up the story and was, in fact, innocent of the killing. Later that same day appellant, without request or encouragement from any of the police officers, asked for a piece of paper and a pencil and made a drawing of the intersection of Van-deventer and Lindell in the City of St. [373] Louis and told homicide investigator Joseph Marcinkiewicz that he could find what he was looking for at the northeast corner of those streets. A plastic bone handle of a knife or a fork, was found at this intersection and laboratory analysis of this item showed the presence of human blood on the handle.

The following morning the appellant repeated the statement he had previously made and when he was returned to his cell he related to a cell mate, James Hahn, that he had killed a young girl because she had refused to be a prostitute for him; that he had used an iron pipe to kill her and had thrown the pipe between some flooring. Subsequent investigation by the police at the house on Cottage Avenue following Mr. Hahn’s relating his conversation with appellant, led to the discovery of a piece of pipe in the ceiling.

On September 15, 1976, appellant was again questioned and, after again being advised of his Miranda rights, requested a paper and pencil and drew what appeared to be a pipe, a knife, a fork, a razor, the body of a girl and three profiles of faces. Upon completion of this drawing he asked: “Are these what you are looking for?” One of the officers present, Officer McCoy, asked the appellant if the drawing represented the murder weapons and he replied “Yes.” Appellant continued drawing and while doing so told the officers present that he had killed the girl because she was “messing around on him and he was in love with her and she was a prostitute for him.” On the drawing representing the murder weapons, he wrote “I didn’t do it.”

Appellant took the stand in his own defense and denied that he had killed Ms. Malone.

Appellant’s first contention, as we perceive it, is that on the date of the murder for which he was charged, there were three potential maximum punishments which could be imposed upon one found guilty of murder in Missouri; life imprisonment (§ 559.010 RSMo. 1969), death (§ 559.-005 RSMo. Supp.1975) or life imprisonment with no parole until he had served a minimum of 50 years imprisonment (§ 559.011 RSMo. Supp.1975); but that it was error for the trial court to impose sentence upon him pursuant to the provisions of the latter section of the statute because said statute was not in effect on September 13, 1976.

This same question was decided contrary to appellant’s position in State v. Garrett, 595 S.W.2d 422, 434[30] (Mo.App.1980) and State v. Hanson, 587 S.W.2d 895, 900[3] (Mo.App.1979). We rule this Point against appellant.

Appellant’s next Point is that the trial court erred in overruling his Motion in Li-mine to quash the Indictment in this cause because he had been in custody for eight months before the Grand Jury voted this Indictment on April 14,1977, and his constitutional guarantee to a speedy trial was thereby violated.

In his brief appellant makes reference to a prior indictment, but the record is devoid of any evidence of a prior indictment. The only indictment we have before us is the indictment of April 14, 1977, charging appellant with murder in the first degree, § 559.005 RSMo. Supp.1975. The only indication we have that there might have been a prior indictment is a reference to one in appellant’s motion to quash filed on October 18, 1977, and a memorandum filed by the state wherein it is stated that he was, on September 16, 1976, indicted for the crime of murder in the first degree.

The ultimate responsibility for the preparation and filing of the transcript on appeal is, under Rule 81.12(a), upon the appellant. He has not complied with this requirement of Rule 81.12(a) and, therefore, we do not consider this possibility in disposing of appellant’s claim that he was denied his right to a speedy trial.

Appellant was taken into custody on September 13, 1976, and we conclude, remained in custody thereafter. The indictment in this case was not filed until April 14, 1977, seven months and one day thereafter. However, appellant explains this hiatus between arrest and this indictment by [374] conceding that he was, in the intervening period, under indictment for this murder. What efforts he made, if any, to bring that case to trial on that indictment is not before us. In the state of the record we are unable to make a determination whether his constitutional right to a speedy trial between the date of his arrest and the voting of this indictment was, in fact and law, violated; we shall, however, consider this issue on the basis of the record we have before us as applicable to the period between April 14, 1977, and January 4, 1978, when the trial of this cause commenced.1

After the filing of the indictment in this cause appellant requested and obtained continuances of this cause on the following dates: August 22, November 7, and December 8,1977. He took no affirmative action to bring this cause to trial prior to January 1, 1978. Where appellant fails to take affirmative action to obtain a speedy trial he is deemed to have waived that right. State v. Harper, 473 S.W.2d 419, 424[3] (Mo. banc 1971), and where he has contributed to the delay by asking for and being granted continuances he cannot later successfully allege the denial of his constitutionally guaranteed right to a speedy trial. State v. Yates, 442 S.W.2d 21, 24[3] (Mo.1969).

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State v. Campbell, 612 S.W.2d 371, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 3332 (Mo. Ct. App. 1980).

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