State v. Franks

793 S.W.2d 543, 1990 Mo. App. LEXIS 980, 1990 WL 89546
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 26, 1990
Docket55028, 56841
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 793 S.W.2d 543 (State v. Franks) 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. Franks, 793 S.W.2d 543, 1990 Mo. App. LEXIS 980, 1990 WL 89546 (Mo. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

STEPHAN, Judge.

Doyle Franks appeals from the judgment of the trial court following his conviction by a jury of second degree murder as defined then by § 565.004, RSMo 1978 (repealed effective October 1, 1984). The trial court sentenced him as a prior and persistent offender to life imprisonment with his sentence to run consecutively to a sentence previously imposed in a different case. Doyle Franks also appeals the judgment of the trial court denying his Rule 29.15 motion without an evidentiary hearing. The two appeals have been consolidated. We affirm.

The sufficiency of the evidence to support appellant’s conviction is not in dispute. We relate the evidence in a light most favorable to the verdict. Appellant, Reginald Griffin, Arbary Jackson, Wyvonne Mozee, Paul Curtis and James Bausley, the victim, were all inmates at the Moberly Training Center for Men in Moberly, Missouri. A dispute concerning Bausley’s television set triggered a fight resulting in Bausley’s murder. On July 11, 1983, Baus-ley told Mozee that he had lent his television set to “Bo”, another inmate, who had sold it to Griffin for fifty dollars. Bausley asked Mozee to help look for the set. Moz-ee checked the rooms along his wing, with no success.

The next day, on July 12, 1983, Bausley told Mozee he had made a deal to buy back his television from Griffin. Shortly after looking in Griffin’s room for the television, Bausley and Mozee encountered Griffin and appellant. In a heated exchange, Griffin told Bausley he was changing the terms of the deal and wanted an additional forty dollars because Griffin had also given “Bo” a gold chain for the television. Appellant asked Mozee how he was involved. Mozee answered that he was trying to avoid further confusion and to get the television back. Appellant told Mozee to keep out of the argument; Mozee told appellant to do likewise.

Mozee and Bausley left, went to an old gymnasium to work out and talk. Mozee advised Bausley to report the situation to prison officials. Bausley headed toward the prison captain’s office.

Shortly after Bausley left the gym, Moz-ee saw Griffin walk through the gym, accompanied by Jackson, appellant, and another inmate, “Static Steve” Taylor. Moz-ee followed them out of the gym, but stopped briefly to speak with another inmate. Once outside, he saw the group standing around Bausley arguing. Baus-ley was facing Griffin. Jackson and appellant were on either side of Griffin. Jackson tried to grab Bausley, but Bausley broke free. Both Mozee and Paul Curtis, another inmate who was watching the fight from a different spot, witnessed Griffin stab Bausley in the chest with a homemade *545 knife. Bausley collapsed and the others fled from the yard.

Curtis later testified he saw both Jackson and appellant grab at Bausley and that Griffin punched Bausley in the back. Bausley then turned to face Griffin, and Griffin stabbed him. Curtis never saw appellant make any physical contact with Bausley. According to Mozee, appellant kicked Bausley in the face after Bausley had fallen to the ground.

Bausley died almost immediately. Appellant was placed in administrative segregation that same day. On July 15, he gave prison officials a statement that he had been present in the yard when Bausley was stabbed and had heard the argument about the television, but did not see the stabbing. In a second interview on August 25, 1983, he told another investigator that he had been in the immediate area and had seen the crime, that he knew who stabbed Baus-ley, but would not identify him.

Paul Curtis was also placed in administrative segregation on an unrelated matter. From July 19 to August 3,1983, Curtis was in the room next to appellant’s cell. During their time in administrative segregation, the two inmates would converse through a hole in the wall between their cells. Curtis asked appellant why Bausley was stabbed. Appellant replied that Baus-ley had come to get his television back, that they ran him off, and told him not to come back. When he did return, they killed him. Appellant called it a “force play”, and, according to Curtis, tried to represent that he killed Bausley. After Curtis told appellant he saw Griffin stab Bausley, appellant told Curtis to keep his mouth shut.

Curtis, appellant, and the other inmates involved in the stabbing were later transferred to the Missouri State Penitentiary. Capital murder charges for the death of Bausley were eventually filed against appellant. A jury found him guilty of second degree murder.

Appellant has raised three issues on his direct appeal. His first point asserts the trial court erred in refusing his request to give a manslaughter instruction. His second point avers the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss based on the state’s failure to prosecute his case in timely fashion. His final point claims the second degree murder instruction, as given, was improper.

Appellant’s first point contends the trial court erred in refusing to submit his proffered instruction on conventional manslaughter. 1 Appellant’s point fails for several reasons. First, the instruction which appellant tendered at trial was based on MAI-CR2d 15.18 for conventional manslaughter. The instruction concerning culpable negligence which appellant argues the evidence supports is based on MAI-CR2d 15.20. Appellant did not request at trial or in his motion for new trial an instruction patterned on MAI-CR2d 15.20. Any allegation of failing to instruct on manslaughter based on culpable negligence has not been properly preserved for appellate review under Rules 28.03 and 29.11(d). Thus, we review only for plain error whether the trial court’s failure to give an instruction based on MAI-CR2d 15.20, Manslaughter: Culpable Negligence, affected appellant’s substantial rights resulting in manifest injustice or miscarriage of justice. Rule 29.12(b).

Appellant argues the evidence showed that appellant did not act with the purpose to cause the death of or to do serious physical injury to the victim and that appellant caused the victim’s death by culpable negligence, through his reckless disregard of the substantial and unjustifiable risk that his fellow inmate might stab the victim. Appellant’s argument confuses MAI-CR2d 15.20 and MAI-CR2d 15.18. The distinction between the two instructions was clearly drawn in State v. Ericson, 638 S.W.2d 806 (Mo.App.1982). In *546 Ericson, Judge Smith eruditely observed as follows:

Sec. 565.005, RSMo 1978, creates only one crime of manslaughter which is a killing of a human being by ‘the act, procurement or culpable negligence of another.’ Sec. 565.031, RSMo 1978, provides one range of punishment for manslaughter. The statute does not create separate crimes of manslaughter. MAI-CR 15.18 is to be used when manslaughter must be instructed on as a lesser included offense, ... MAI-CR 15.20 is to be used only when the manslaughter as charged in the information or indictment is by culpable negligence. MAI-CR 15.-18 is sufficiently broad to encompass all aspects of the crime of manslaughter; MAI-CR 15.20 is a more refined instruction limited to the specific charge of manslaughter arising from culpable negligence.

Id. at 807-08.

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Bluebook (online)
793 S.W.2d 543, 1990 Mo. App. LEXIS 980, 1990 WL 89546, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-franks-moctapp-1990.