State v. Childs

684 S.W.2d 508, 1984 Mo. App. LEXIS 4883
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 4, 1984
Docket48555
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 684 S.W.2d 508 (State v. Childs) 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. Childs, 684 S.W.2d 508, 1984 Mo. App. LEXIS 4883 (Mo. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

CRANDALL, Judge.

Defendant Willie Earl Childs was convicted after a jury trial of two counts of kidnapping, three counts of forcible rape, and one count of sodomy. He was sentenced as a persistent offender to concurrent ten-year prison sentences on the kidnapping counts, a consecutive five-year term for the sodomy count, and three consecutive five-year terms for the three rape counts for a total of thirty years’ imprisonment. On appeal, defendant alleges that the three rape convictions relate to a single offense of rape, thus subjecting him to double jeopardy in violation of the Missouri Constitution and U.S. Constitution. Mo. Const. Art. 1, § 19; U.S. Const. Amend. V.

Defendant has not properly preserved his allegation of error for appellate review because it is not included in his motion for new trial. We therefore review his point under plain error. Rule 30.20. “No precise method exists for determining plain error but it can be said that plain error includes prejudicial error which so substantially affects the rights of the accused that a ‘manifest injustice or miscarriage of justice inexorably results if left uncorrected.’ ” State v. Valentine, 646 S.W.2d 729, 731 (Mo.1983). Finding no error, plain or otherwise, we affirm.

Defendant’s double jeopardy contention is, in effect, a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence to support separate *510 convictions of rape. State v. Henderson, 669 S.W.2d 573, 575 (Mo.App.1984). In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, accepting the State’s evidence as true and disregarding all adverse evidence and inferences. State v. Jones, 672 S.W.2d 707, 708 (Mo.App.1984).

Defendant lived with a woman and her three children in a house in Meacham Park in St. Louis County, Missouri. The defendant and the woman were not married. Defendant came home at about 4 a.m. on September 9, 1983, and tore the telephone off a kitchen wall saying he was in trouble and he was “tired of all this.” He began attacking the woman using a telephone cord and his hands. He also began attacking the woman’s teenage daughter.

Defendant’s violent behavior continued into the daughter’s bedroom where he took another phone out of the wall and tore up furniture. He then forced the daughter and her mother into the master bedroom and threatened to kill them. He tore up furniture in that room and barricaded the door with the broken furniture so they could not escape and continued attacking them, now using a leg he had torn off of a sewing machine cabinet to strike them.

Defendant then told both the daughter and her mother to undress. He abused them verbally, saying he would “make whores out of them,” he would put them on the “Stroll,” and said he would make the daughter have his baby.

At approximately 7 a.m. he began fondling the breasts of the daughter. He subsequently had intercourse with her three times, starting on top of her, then entering her from behind, then getting on top of her again. After these three attacks, he then committed sodomy on her. Since the rapes are the focus of the appeal, more detail regarding them is necessary.

The mother testified that the sexual assaults began after 7 a.m. She testified that the defendant fondled the daughter’s breasts, then got on top of the daughter and had sex with her. The mother did not state how long this act lasted, stating only it seemed like forever.

The mother stated that then the defendant got off the daughter. The daughter, who had been lying on her back during the first attack, turned on her side to see her mother, and subsequently the defendant “started having sex with her again from the back.” There was no mention by the mother of what period of time elapsed, if any, between the time the defendant got off the daughter and began the second rape.

The mother testified that at some point that attack stopped, and the defendant then “got back on her” and had sex with the daughter. Again, there was no mention of any time periods by the mother, other than that the sexual assaults began after 7 a.m. and the entire ordeal was over around noon.

The daughter testified that the defendant began “playing with my chest” and began “talking about that he was going to make me have his baby” around 7 a.m. She stated he then got on top of her and raped her. She testified that when he later got off of her, she turned on her side so she could see her mother, and the defendant “inserted his penis again” while lying behind her. She stated this second rape lasted about fifteen minutes. She then testified that the defendant turned her over on her back and got on top of her again and began a third rape. She stated this third attack lasted half an hour. The daughter did not state what amount of time, if any, elapsed between the rapes.

After these acts, the defendant laid his arms and legs across the two women hoping to prevent them from escaping as he began to fall asleep. The mother unsuccessfully tried to get out from underneath him once and was beaten again for trying to escape. She was successful on the second attempt and summoned the police. The ordeal ended around noon.

The defendant denied any sexual contact with the daughter. He testified that she and her mother had been physically attacking him, so he barricaded himself in the master bedroom to keep them out.

“In determining double jeopardy, Missouri follows the separate or several *511 offense rule rather than the same transaction rule.” State v. Treadway, 558 S.W.2d 646, 651 (Mo. banc 1977), cert denied, 439 U.S. 838, 99 S.Ct. 124, 58 L.Ed.2d 135 (1978), meaning a defendant can be convicted of several offenses arising from the same set of facts without violation of double jeopardy. The determining factor as to whether several charges are identical is whether each offense necessitates proof of an essential fact or element not required by the other. State v. Chambers, 524 S.W.2d 826, 829 (Mo. banc 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1058, 96 S.Ct. 794, 46 L.Ed.2d 649 (1976).

Defendant claims the sexual acts alleged in the three rape counts were one continuing act, but “[generally rape is not a continuing offense, but each act of intercourse constitutes a distinct and separate offense.” State v. Dennis, 537 S.W.2d 652, 654 (Mo.App.1976). In State v. Brown, 547 S.W.2d 217, 219 (Mo.App.1977), the court stated:

The state cannot split a single crime and prosecute it in parts. However, several distinct offenses may be committed in the course of the same general transaction.

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Bluebook (online)
684 S.W.2d 508, 1984 Mo. App. LEXIS 4883, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-childs-moctapp-1984.