State v. Gordon

851 S.W.2d 607, 1993 Mo. App. LEXIS 284, 1993 WL 51142
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 1, 1993
DocketNo. 18534
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 851 S.W.2d 607 (State v. Gordon) 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. Gordon, 851 S.W.2d 607, 1993 Mo. App. LEXIS 284, 1993 WL 51142 (Mo. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

PARRISH, Chief Judge.

John D. Gordon, Jr. (defendant) is charged with murder in the second degree, § 565.021.1(1),1 and with armed criminal action, § 571.015. The charges were filed in Texas County. The case was transferred to the Circuit Court of Pulaski County on a change of venue. This appeal is from an order the trial court entered that suppressed evidence seized by law enforcement officers in the course of executing a search warrant. The interlocutory appeal is permitted by § 547.200. This court affirms in part and reverses in part.

In reviewing the trial court’s order suppressing the evidence in question, the facts and reasonable inferences therefrom are to be stated favorably to the order challenged on appeal. State v. Blair, 691 S.W.2d 259, 260 (Mo. banc 1985). The correctness of the trial court’s decision is measured by whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain the finding. Id.; State v. Cross, 757 S.W.2d 613, 614 (Mo.App.1988).

State v. Woods, 790 S.W.2d 253, 254 (Mo. App.1990).

Defendant and the victim, Valerie Taylor (Valerie), lived together in California. They came to Missouri intending to live in a trailer they had placed on property in Texas County owned by defendant’s mother, Paula Gordon. They changed their plans and moved into the home of Paula Gordon in Mountain Grove, Missouri.

Sergeant Douglas Loring of the Missouri State Highway Patrol was contacted by members of Valerie’s family in July 1991 who reported that Valerie was missing. Valerie was last seen on July 10. Defendant was interviewed and stated that he had seen Valerie on that date; that they “had been at a tavern drinking some”; that defendant had taken Valerie’s children2 to his mother’s residence; that defendant and Valerie left the residence, got into an argument and he “let her out near Wal-Mart store in Mt. Grove on Highway 60, business route.”

On July 23, 1991, law enforcement officers obtained the consent of defendant and his mother to search the mother’s farm where defendant’s trailer had been taken. The gate to the farm was locked. “[T]he Gordons opened the gate and allowed [the officers] to go through with them.” Valerie’s body was found in a wooded area. The body ..was “very decomposed.” The body was not positively identified at the time it was discovered, but the shoes, hair and jeans matched descriptions of the victim’s appearance and clothing when she was last seen. There was also a ring near the body like one she was known to wear. Sergeant Loring thought her body had been dragged because of “[t]he arrangement of the clothing that she was wearing.” He testified at the suppression hearing:

Her top was pulled up over her head. She had been — the way the clothing was, she had been dragged. You could tell, because it was up over her head.

He believed the body was Valerie Taylor and “that she had been killed.”

There were three .12 gauge shotgun shell casings found at the property where [610]*610the body was discovered. The shotgun shell casings were found a considerable distance from the body, “at least three hundred feet from where the body was found.”

On July 23, 1991, the day the body was discovered, a search warrant was obtained from the Circuit Court of Wright County to search the residence of Paula Gordon3 in Mountain Grove for “a .12 gauge shotgun and evidence of destruction of personal items belonging to Valerie Taylor.” The application for the search warrant was made by a deputy sheriff of Wright County, Dan Parker, as permitted by § 542.-276.1, RSMo Supp.1990. It was supplemented by the affidavit of Deputy Sheriff Parker. §542.271.3, RSMo Supp.1990.

After obtaining the search warrant, a search was conducted by the Wright County Sheriff. Property and material were seized. Defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence. After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court granted the motion. It ordered that the property and material seized as a result of the search be suppressed; that it be excluded from evidence.

The state’s brief purports to set out four points relied on. However, none of those points comply with the requirements of Rule 30.06(d). They do not “state briefly and concisely what actions or rulings of the court are sought to be reviewed and wherein and why they are claimed to be erroneous.” Id. They present nothing for appellate review. See Thummel v. King, 570 S.W.2d 679, 685 (Mo. banc 1978); see also Bentlage v. Springgate, 793 S.W.2d 228, 229-31 (Mo.App.1990); and State v. Ruhr, 533 S.W.2d 656, 658 (Mo.App.1976). Because of the deficiencies in the points relied on, this court’s review is limited to a determination of whether the trial court committed plain error that affected substantial rights so as to result in manifest injustice or a miscarriage of justice. State v. Johnson, 586 S.W.2d 437, 441 (Mo.App. 1979); Rule 30.20.

The trial court found that the search warrant was invalid. It found that: (1) the application for the search warrant was defective because “it was executed by a law officer and not the Prosecuting Attorney or his designated assistant;” (2) neither the application for the search warrant “nor any ... supporting documents” provided a basis upon which the issuing judge could have found “probable cause to issue the warrant;” and (3) the judge who issued the warrant was provided information that was not part of the application for search warrant or the affidavit that was filed in support of that application.

THE APPLICATION FOR SEARCH WARRANT

The application for search warrant was not signed by a prosecuting attorney. It was signed by Dan Parker who, in an affidavit given in support of the application, stated that he was “a duly commissioned Deputy of the Wright County Sheriff’s Department.” At the suppression hearing, Deputy Sheriff Parker stated his occupation or profession to be “a Deputy Sheriff.” He testified that he was a deputy sheriff of Wright County in the month of July 1991.

Section 542.276, RSMo Supp.1990, prescribes who may apply for search warrants and the applicable procedures. The pertinent part of the statute states:

1. Any peace officer or prosecuting attorney may make application under section 542.271[4] for the issuance of a search warrant.
2. The application shall:
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(8) Be signed by the prosecuting attorney of the county where the search is to take place, or his designated assistant.
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[611]*611Section 542.276.2(8), RSMo Supp.1990, was enacted in 1989 (Conference Committee Substitute for House Committee Substitute for Senate Bills 215 and 58, 1989 Mo. Laws p. 597). It became effective August 28, 1989.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
851 S.W.2d 607, 1993 Mo. App. LEXIS 284, 1993 WL 51142, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gordon-moctapp-1993.