State v. Felton

834 S.W.2d 883, 1992 Mo. App. LEXIS 1214, 1992 WL 174162
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 28, 1992
DocketNos. 58742, 60758
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 834 S.W.2d 883 (State v. Felton) 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. Felton, 834 S.W.2d 883, 1992 Mo. App. LEXIS 1214, 1992 WL 174162 (Mo. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

CRANE, Judge.

A jury found Lewis Felton, Jr. guilty of the offenses of second degree murder in violation of § 565.021 RSMo 1986 and armed criminal action in violation of § 571.015 RSMo 1986. The trial court sentenced him to concurrent sentences of twenty-two years imprisonment for second degree murder and three years imprisonment for armed criminal action. Felton filed a Rule 29.15 motion for post-conviction relief which was denied without an evidentiary hearing. Felton appeals both the judgment of the trial court and the order of the motion court.

On his direct appeal Felton contends that the trial court erred in denying his request that the jury be instructed on voluntary manslaughter, in denying a motion for a mistrial based on juror misconduct, and in finding two child witnesses to be competent to testify. In his appeal from the order of the motion court, Felton asserts that the motion court erred in denying his motion [885]*885for post-conviction relief without an eviden-tiary hearing. In his motion he claimed he was denied his right to effective assistance of counsel when his retained attorney failed to object to statements made by the prosecutor in closing argument. We affirm both the judgment of the trial court and the order of the motion court.

DIRECT APPEAL

The sufficiency of evidence to sustain Felton’s conviction is not in dispute. The evidence at trial reveals that on May 29, 1989, Felton shot Mark Roberts, Sr. who died from the bullet wounds the next day. The shooting took place on a city street in the presence of numerous witnesses. Prior to the shooting, the victim had come to the scene as a passenger in an orange vehicle driven by his fiance, Diane Woods. Three of Woods’ children were also in the vehicle, Frederick Patrick, then age six, Brandon Patrick, then age four, and Mark Roberts, Jr., an infant. Frederick and Brandon Patrick were Woods’ children by Willie Patrick. Mark Roberts, Jr. was the victim’s son. The victim and Woods had come to the scene to pick up Woods’ daughter, Fredericka Patrick, who was living with Willie Patrick. Willie Patrick came up to the vehicle and made derogatory comments about the victim to Woods. Woods drove the automobile down the street and walked back to pick up Fredericka. She and Willie Patrick got into an argument which ended in a fist fight. The testimony conflicted on whether Felton, who was Willie Patrick’s stepbrother, and who was called “Old Folks” by some of the witnesses at trial, was at the scene during the fight. Shortly after the fight, Felton and another man walked toward the car in which the victim was still sitting, holding his infant son. Willie Patrick pointed the victim out as the one in the orange car. When Felton looked in the car, the victim put the baby down, got out with his hands up and began running down the street. Felton’s father told Felton not to shoot the victim, but Felton fired three shots, hitting the victim with one of the shots. The victim continued to run, then collapsed. Felton ran away. Fel-ton subsequently gave the police a recorded statement denying his involvement in the shooting.

For his first point Felton asserts that the trial court erred in refusing his request that the jury be instructed on voluntary manslaughter. He argues that there was evidence that he hardly knew the victim and from that evidence “it is conceivable that he acted out of the provocation provided by his relationship with his stepbrother and the sudden passion thereby aroused during the altercation in the street.” Felton was charged with first degree murder and the jury was instructed both on this offense and the lesser included offense of second degree murder. The trial court denied Felton’s request for an instruction on voluntary manslaughter.

An instruction on a lesser included offense is required only if there is a basis for a verdict acquitting the defendant of the offense charged and convicting him of the included offense. Section 556.046.2 RSMo 1986. To justify the submission of an instruction on voluntary manslaughter there must be evidence of sudden passion arising from adequate cause. Section 565.-023.1(1) RSMo 1986; State v. Merchant, 791 S.W.2d 840, 842 (Mo.App.1990). Here the state’s evidence was that Felton, without provocation, shot the victim, who had been sitting in an automobile holding a baby during a fist fight between the victim’s fiance and Felton’s stepbrother. When Felton approached the victim, the victim got out of the car and began running away. Felton’s evidence was that he did not have a gun, did not know the victim, and was not the person who shot the victim.

When a defendant denies the commission of the act charged and there is no evidence which mitigates the offense or provides a different version of it, instructing down is not required. State v. White, 738 S.W.2d 590, 592 (Mo.App.1987). Felton denied committing the offense. The circumstances leading up to the shooting do not indicate that Felton was acting under the influence of sudden passion arising from adequate cause. There was no evidence to [886]*886form a basis for acquittal of second degree murder and conviction of voluntary manslaughter. Felton’s first point is denied.

Felton next asserts that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a mistrial based on juror misconduct. Felton had moved for a mistrial during trial when two courthouse spectators reported they overheard a juror tell people in a hallway, during a recess, “Well, he’s going to jail. I got a murder case, he’s going to jail.” Upon being apprised of this situation by Felton’s counsel, the court held a hearing. The witnesses testified out of the presence of the jury and the court examined the jurors individually in chambers.

The first witness, who was in the courthouse to watch a trial in another courtroom, testified she saw a female juror in the hallway talking to two other women wearing jurors’ badges. She heard the juror say, “Well, I’m in this court here.” The others indicated that they were jurors in a case down the hall. She heard the first juror say, “Well, he’s going to jail. I got a murder case, he’s going to jail.” The witness then told her companion that the jurors should not be talking like that. Her companion said he knew Doris Black, Fel-ton’s trial counsel, and he would report it to her. The companion, who was in the courthouse to watch the same trial as the first witness, was the second witness to testify. He stated that the juror was speaking to four women jurors and said, “I’m tired of it.... That fellow in this courtroom going to jail. He going to jail.” He then reported the matter to Felton’s attorney, whom he knew from his previous employment.

The court then examined the jurors individually in chambers. Juror 622, who was identified as the juror who was speaking in the hallway, was examined first. She denied discussing the case with anyone. She testified that when she returned from lunch she saw two jurors from another courtroom sitting on a bench. They said, “Are you still here?” She replied, “Yes, I got picked yesterday. I’m on this one over here.” She testified she did not say that the defendant was going to jail and that she had not prejudged the case. Juror 748 stated that she came to the hallway after lunch and saw Juror 622 talking to some women sitting on the bench. She left her coat with them, got a soda, and briefly joined them. She became uncomfortable because some of the trial spectators came into the hallway and sat directly across from them.

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936 S.W.2d 592 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1996)
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856 S.W.2d 685 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1993)
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847 S.W.2d 935 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1993)

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Bluebook (online)
834 S.W.2d 883, 1992 Mo. App. LEXIS 1214, 1992 WL 174162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-felton-moctapp-1992.