State v. Cannady

670 S.W.2d 948, 1984 Mo. App. LEXIS 4572
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 24, 1984
DocketNo. 45333
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 670 S.W.2d 948 (State v. Cannady) 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 v. Cannady, 670 S.W.2d 948, 1984 Mo. App. LEXIS 4572 (Mo. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

SIMON, Judge.

Defendant, Melvin Cannady, was tried for robbery in the first degree, § 569.020 RSMo 1978, felonious restraint, § 565.120 RSMo 1978, and forcible rape, § 566.030 RSMo 1978, in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis. The jury found him guilty of stealing from a person, § 570.030 RSMo 1978, a lesser included offense of robbery, and felonious restraint but could not reach a verdict on the forcible rape count and a mistrial was declared as to it. Defendant appealed the stealing and felonious restraint convictions, contending that the introduction into evidence of a rape lab kit without establishing a chain of custody was prejudicial. We affirmed the judgment holding that the disputed evidence related only to the rape count which ended in a mistrial and, therefore, defendant was not prejudiced. State v. Cannady, 655 S.W.2d 826 (Mo.App.1983).

Defendant was subsequently tried and convicted on the forcible rape charge and was sentenced to twenty-five (25) years concurrent with the sentences on the stealing and felonious restraint. The jury found, pursuant to the verdict directing, instruction, that defendant displayed a deadly weapon in a threatening manner in the course of the rape.

On appeal, defendant contends that the trial court erred in overruling his objection to the admission of the gun and to testimony concerning the gun prior to and during the rape because the evidence violated his right not to be placed twice in jeopardy as provided by the Fifth Amendment. He argues that the prior jury had acquitted him of the contemporaneous robbery with a deadly weapon by finding him guilty of the lesser included offense of stealing from a person and, therefore, concluded no weapon had been used in the continuous episode of stealing and rape.

The evidence in this trial is substantially identical with that introduced in the first trial. In the early evening, the victim left a grocery store, and was putting her purchases in her car on the store parking lot. The defendant, Melvin Cannady, walked up to her, opened his coat and pointed a gun at her. She was told to give him money and she gave him about $60 in cash and some food stamps.

The defendant told her to get into her ear. She entered the front seat from the driver’s side and sat next to the passenger's door in the front seat. He entered the car and sat next to her. At this time, two other men joined the defendant and sat in the front seat of the car. The defendant [950]*950gave the gun to the man seated next to him. The men then drove the car to a nearby vacant lot with the gun pointed at the victim. Upon arriving at the vacant lot, the two men, who had joined the defendant, jumped into the back seat.

The man with the gun was now in the back seat and pointed the gun at the victim’s head and demanded money. The victim told him that she had already given her money to the defendant. With the gun pointed at the victim’s head, the defendant went through her coat pockets and found additional food stamps. He then searched inside the victim’s bra for additional money, but found none.

' With the gun still pointed at the victim’s head by one of the men in the back seat, the defendant put his hand inside the victim’s shirt and felt her breasts. He then put his hand inside her pants. At this point, the men in the back seat said, “no, don’t, we ain’t got time.” Defendant made the victim lie down on the front seat of the car. He pulled the pants off one of her legs, removed her underpants, and proceeded to rape her. While the rape was in progress, one of the two men in the back seat pulled the victim’s leg over the back of the seat. The two men in the back seat had left the car while the rape was in progress. A witness, who lived next to the lot, became suspicious when she saw the victim’s car and the men standing around it on the lot and she called the police. The police arrived, the defendant’s two accomplices warned the defendant and then the accomplices fled; they were caught shortly afterwards. The defendant told the victim to tell the police that she was with him or otherwise he would kill her. A police officer asked the defendant and the victim to get out of the car. The defendant told the officer that they had just been robbed by the two men who had fled. The officer asked the victim if she was alright and she replied that she was with the defendant.

The officer drove the victim and defendant to the police station. When the two were separated, the victim explained what had occurred and the defendant was arrested and made a statement admitting he raped and robbed the victim.

In the first trial, the charge of robbery in the first degree was submitted under MAI 23.02, which required the jury to find:

“that in the course of stealing the [victim’s] property, the defendant displayed or threatened the use of what appeared to be a deadly weapon,”

The jury was also instructed on the lesser and included offenses of robbery in the second degree and stealing from a person. As noted, the instruction on robbery in the first degree required findings of appropriation, a threat of physical force to induce relinquishment of possession and display or threat to use what appeared to be a deadly weapon. The instruction on robbery in the second degree required findings of appropriation and physical force inducing relinquishment of the property, and the instruction on stealing from a person required findings of appropriation, intent to permanently deprive and a physical taking. The difference between stealing from a person and robbery in the first degree, significant here, is that the stealing charge simply required a physical taking while the robbery charge required threat of physical force with the display of or threat to use what appears to be a deadly weapon. According to defendant, since the jury found him guilty of the lesser offense of stealing, the jury necessarily found him not guilty of the greater offenses of robbery first and second degree; and, thus, in effect, found that he did not use a gun while appropriating the victim’s property.

In the second trial, the forcible rape offense was submitted under MAI 20.02.1 which required the jury to find:

“from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, in the course of this offense [rape] displayed a deadly weapon in a threatening manner, then you will find the defendant guilty of rape.”

Defendant contends the state was estopped from adducing the evidence supporting this instruction; i.e. the state should have been precluded from presenting evidence show[951]*951ing his use of a gun during the course of the stealing and the rape. More specifically, defendant argues that because the jury in the first trial found he did not use a gun during the stealing, a contrary finding during the rape is precluded.

In support of his contention, defendant relies on Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970) and State v. Lewis, 599 S.W.2d 94, 98[9] (Mo.App.1980). Defendant’s reliance is misplaced.

Ashe explained collateral estoppel by stating, “[i]t means simply that when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future law suit.” 397 U.S.

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Related

State v. Curtis
921 S.W.2d 1 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1996)
Moton v. State
772 S.W.2d 689 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1989)

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Bluebook (online)
670 S.W.2d 948, 1984 Mo. App. LEXIS 4572, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cannady-moctapp-1984.