State v. Edwards

530 S.W.3d 593
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided October 10, 2017·No. ED 103663·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

Lisa P. Page, Judge

Thomas Edwards (“Defendant”) appeals the trial court’s judgment entered upon a jury verdict convicting him of second-degree murder and armed criminal action. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

At approximately 10 P.M. on April 21, 2013, Renee Nelson (“Nelson”) was standing outside her home, located in the City of St. Louis, conversing with neighbors. During the conversation, a man wearing a black hoodie passed the group and greeted Nelson by her neighborhood-nickname “Anya.” As a thirty-year resident of the neighborhood, Nelson recognized the man as Defendant.

Defendant continued walking across the street before halting at a parked automobile. After Defendant conversed with the occupant of the parked vehicle (“Victim”) for approximately 30 seconds, Nelson heard gunshots. As Defendant was leaving the scene, he turned around and fired additional gunshots towards the Victim. An autopsy revealed Victim was shot seven times.

Law enforcement arrived and concluded the crime scene resembled a drug transaction gone awry. Pursuant to the investigation, Nelson was interviewed the night of the incident. She informed law enforcement that, immediately before the commission of the crime, Defendant walked within arms-length of her. Shortly thereafter, Nelson heard gunfire and witnessed Defendant discharging a gun in the direction of Victim. Although she had lived in that neighborhood for approximately thirty years and had known Defendant for approximately twenty years, Nelson provided law enforcement with the incorrect name of Defendant that night. Nelson, nevertheless, supplied law enforcement with Defendant’s correct name around the time she examined a photographic lineup, infra.

At that photographic lineup, a few weeks after the commission of the crime, Nelson examined six photographs as chosen by a computer. Defendant was the only one of the six photographs who lived in or around Nelson’s neighborhood. Prior to viewing the photographic lineup, it is alleged the police explicitly instructed Nelson to select “the person that did the shooting.” Nelson chose Defendant’s photograph, naming him as the shooter. Law enforcement then informed Nelson that they had already arrested Defendant, seized guns and paraphernalia during his arrest, and that Defendant admitted he committed the murder.

The State charged Defendant with first-degree murder, in violation of Section 565.0201 (Count I), armed criminal.action, in violation of Section 571.015’ (Count II), unlawful possession, of a firearm, in violation of Section 571.070 (Count III), and possession- of a controlled substance, in violation of Section 195.202 (Count IV). Defendant pled guilty to Counts III and IV, but proceeded to trial upon Counts I and II.

During trial, the court denied Defendant’s motion to suppress and exclude evidence. of Nelson’s pretrial and in-court identifications. The trial court refused to submit. Defendant’s proffered jury instruction for eyewitness testimony (“Instruction A”)., The jury was instructed on the charged offense of first-degree murder and on the lesser-included offense of second-degree .murder. The trial court also refused- to submit Defendant’s proffered instructions for voluntary manslaughter (“Instruction B”) and involuntary manslaughter (“Instruction C”).

The jury found Defendant guilty of second-degree murder and armed criminal action. Defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment for second-degree murder and ten years’ imprisonment for armed criminal action, with sentences to run concurrently.

This appeal now follows,

■-DISCUSSION

Defendant advances three points on appeal.- In his first point, Defendant contends the trial' court erred in overruling his motion to suppress Nelson’s out-of-court and in-court identifications because the pretrial procedures employed by law enforcement were unduly suggestive and, therefore, tainted both identifications.

In his second point, Defendant asserts the trial court erred in refusing his proffered' jury instruction (“Instruction A”), which was modeled after the adopted-but-not-yet-effective MAI-CR 3d 310.02 (2016). Defendant contends his proffered instruction clarified important factors relating to the reliability (or lack" thereof) of eyewitness identifications.

In his third point on appeal, Defendant maintains the trial court committed reversible error in refusing to instruct on his proffered instructions of the lesser-included offenses of voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.

Point I—Trial Court Did Not Err in Admitting Nelson’s Identifications

- In his first point on appeal, Defendant avers the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress Nelson’s out-of-court and in-court identifications because the photographic lineup employed by law enforcement was impermissibly suggestive.

Standard of Review

“In reviewing the trial court’s "denial of a motion to suppress, we consider the evidence presented at both the suppression hearing and at trial to determine whether sufficient evidence exists in the record to support the trial court’s ruling.” State v. Nelson, 334 S.W.3d 189, 193 (Mo. App. W.D. 2011). This court reviews the facts and inferences therefrom in'the light most favorable to the trial court’s rilling, and we disregard all contrary evidence. State v. Murray, 428 S.W.3d 705, 709 (Mo. App. E.D. 2014). We will not disturb the trial court’s decision to admit or exclude the identification testimony unless there has been an abuse of discretion. State v. Green, 469 S.W.3d 881, 883 (Mo. App. E.D. 2015).

Analysis

A. Two-Step Analysis

“A defendant has a due process right to exclude identification testimony which results from procedures that are unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to an irreparably mistaken identification.” State v. Hoopingarner, 845 S.W.2d 89, 93 (Mo. App. E.D. 1993). Where pretrial identification testimony is challenged on appeal, this court engages in a two-step analysis. Foster v. State, 348 S.W.3d 158, 161 (Mo. App. E.D. 2011).

First, we assess whether the procedures employed by .law. enforcement during the pretrial identification were impermissibly or unduly suggestive. State v. Hunter, 43 S.W.3d 336, 340 (Mo. App. W.D. 2001). Second, if the procedures employed by law enforcement are unduly suggestive, we then proceed to evaluate “whether the suggestive procedures have so tainted the identification as to lead to a substantial likelihood that the pre-trial identification was not reliable.” State v. Chambers, 234 S.W.3d 501, 513 (Mo. App. E.D. 2007).

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State v. Edwards, 530 S.W.3d 593 (Mo. Ct. App. 2017).

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