State v. Eacret

456 S.W.2d 324, 1970 Mo. LEXIS 943
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 13, 1970
DocketNo. 55154
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 456 S.W.2d 324 (State v. Eacret) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Eacret, 456 S.W.2d 324, 1970 Mo. LEXIS 943 (Mo. 1970).

Opinion

STOCKARD, Commissioner.

Defendant was found guilty of the offense of burglary, second degree, and when the jury could not agree on the punishment, pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 27.03, V.A.M.R., the court assessed the punishment at imprisonment for a term of five years.

This case presents the unusual situation where with the consent of counsel defendant took the witness stand and judicially admitted under oath that he had committed the offense for which he was charged, but appeals and contends that even so he was entitled to an error free trial. We will briefly relate the circumstances.

In the early morning of February 8, 1969, Officer Brewer of the Platte City Police Department observed a 1951 Chevrolet in a ditch near the north entrance of the high school, and he made a record of the license number. The next morning he investigated a burglary at the school and noticed a footprint with a distinctive mark similar to a footprint where he had seen the automobile. On February 11, Officer Campbell stopped an automobile operated by defendant with the same license number as the automobile in the ditch. Defendant was taken to the police station, and later turned over to Deputy Sheriff Stevens who interrogated defendant and obtained a written confession from him that he had burglarized the school, and in which he implicated his brother-in-law, Gary Lindsey.

Defendant was charged with burglary of the high school with intent to steal, but he was not charged with stealing in connection with the burglary. Prior to trial defendant filed a motion to suppress his confession, and to suppress as evidence all property obtained by the police pertaining to the burglary and any statement of Gary Lindsey. At the hearing on the motion to suppress, Deputy Sheriff Stevens testified he told defendant that “if he would name his accomplice and tell me where I could recover the stolen merchandise from the burglaries [two schools were broken into, but in this case defendant was charged with burglary of the high school], and that if his [federal] parole officer would indicate he would violate [revoke?] his parole, I [326]*326would ask the prosecutor not to file charges against him on this.” Defendant then made the statement in which he admitted his part in the burglary and in which he implicated his brother-in-law, and he had his wife bring the stolen merchandise to the sheriff’s office which included two watches and a transistor radio. The court sustained defendant’s motion to suppress.

At trial the written confession of defendant was not offered in evidence. However, the two watches and the radio were admitted in evidence over defendant’s objection that they were items included in the motion to suppress. In addition, on the basis that defendant by his cross-examination of Officer Brewer had opened up the matter, the statement of Gary Lindsey, in which he stated that defendant had committed the burglary, was read to the jury.

Because of the result we have reached on this appeal we will make only a general statement of the contentions of defendant. He asserts it was error to admit into evidence Exhibits Nos. 1 and 3 (the watches), No. 2 (the radio), No. 4 (the paper upon which the officer had written the license number of the automobile in the ditch near the school), and No. 6 (the statement of Gary Lindsey), because they were the product of his illegally obtained confession, and also (except as to Exhibit No. 4) because “no proper chain of custody was shown.” Defendant also contends it was error to admit the testimony of Officer Brewer “because said testimony violated the rights of defendant and was subject to defendant’s motion to suppress.” We note that there is no indication of what specific testimony of Officer Brewer is claimed to be objectionable except in argument it is stated that defendant’s cross-examination “never opened the door for re-direct examination and contents of the statement made by the accomplice Lindsey.” Defendant also asserts it was error to refuse to strike the testimony of Officer Campbell “derived from an unlawful arrest by said officer.”

The contentions, when reduced to their basic issues, are that Exhibits 1, 2 and 3, the statement of Gary Lindsey, and the other evidence were obtained by reason of improper conduct on the part of the police officers, particularly Officer Stevens, in obtaining the confession of defendant, . and for that reason were not admissible in evidence. We deem it unnecessary to rule these issues, but for the purposes of this opinion shall assume that some of these contentions have some merit. However, as previously noted, defendant took the witness stand with the consent of his counsel, after being advised by the court out of the hearing of the jury that he need not do so and that no comment nor inference could be drawn from his failure to do so, and he admitted under oath that he was guilty of the offense charged. By his testimony he also admitted the authenticity of the exhibits, and in substance he admitted the truth of the statement of Gary Lindsey.

In Motes v. United States, 178 U.S. 458, 20 S.Ct. 993, 44 L.Ed. 1150, a case of particular significance on the issue of prejudice resulting from the admission in evidence of the statement of Gary Lindsey even if it should be determined that defendant did not first inject this matter into the trial, the Supreme Court of the United States said: “ [I]t would be trifling with the administration of the criminal law to award * * * [the accused] a new trial because of a particular error committed by the trial court, when in effect he has stated under oath that he was guilty of the charge preferred against him.” A similar rule is followed in Missouri. See State v. Ussery, 357 Mo. 414, 208 S.W.2d 245; State v. Brown, Mo., 404 S.W.2d 179; State v. Walker, Mo., 416 S.W.2d 134; State v. McGee, Mo., 447 S.W.2d 270. In State v. Brown, supra, the defendant contended that a confession by him was not voluntary. This court said: “We have decided that we need not determine the contention as to whether the court erred in admitting the confession. This for the reason that, assuming arguendo (but not deciding) that [327]*327the statement should have been excluded, its admission could not have been prejudicial to defendant because he subsequently testified to every material fact contained therein. ‘[W]hen the truth of a confession is established by the very person who made it under such solemn circumstances as on oath in open court, he may not be permitted to claim error because of the use of the confession on the ground it was involuntary.’ ” There then followed the citation of numerous cases from this and other jurisdictions. In this case defendant’s confession was not admitted in evidence, but other evidence was admitted which defendant contends came into the possession of or became known to the prosecution as the fruit of his improperly obtained confession. Such evidence tended to establish defendant’s guilt, but perhaps not as persuasively as his confession would have done. We see no reason why the less persuasive evidence should be afforded greater standing than the confession.

Defendant acknowledges that what we have said presents the previously applied rule in this State. He contends, however, that Harrison v.

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Bluebook (online)
456 S.W.2d 324, 1970 Mo. LEXIS 943, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-eacret-mo-1970.