State v. Griffin

662 S.W.2d 854, 1983 Mo. LEXIS 456
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 20, 1983
Docket63315
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 662 S.W.2d 854 (State v. Griffin) 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. Griffin, 662 S.W.2d 854, 1983 Mo. LEXIS 456 (Mo. 1983).

Opinions

BILLINGS, Judge.

Defendant Larry Griffin, 26 years old at the time of trial, was convicted of the capital murder of Quintín Moss by a jury in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis and sentenced to death. He seeks reversal, contending there was prejudicial error in the court’s instructions to the jury and in admitting certain evidence in the guilt phase of his trial. He also avers prejudicial error was committed in the reception of other evidence at the penalty stage of the trial and that the death penalty violates the Federal Constitution. We affirm.

Although defendant does not directly attack the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction, we think it helpful in considering his several points to set forth in some detail the facts and reasonable inferences arising therefrom which the jury could reasonably have found in arriving at their verdict, ignoring contrary evidence and inferences. State v. Franco, 544 S.W.2d 533 (Mo. banc 1976), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 957, 97 S.Ct. 2682, 53 L.Ed.2d 275 (1977).

Quintín Moss, a 19-year-old black male, lived with his parents in St. Louis. The record in this case leaves little room for doubt that he was involved in the illicit trafficking of drugs and that he plied his illegal trade near the intersection of Sarah and Olive Streets in St. Louis, six blocks from his parent’s place of abode.

Defendant, a black male, was the brother of Dennis Griffin. Reginald Griffin was a nephew of defendant and Dennis. Prior to the killing of Quintín Moss, the defendant and Reginald lived together with defendant’s sister.

In the early hours of January 2, 1980, Quintín Moss and Dennis Griffin arrived at the Moss apartment, awaking Mr. and Mrs. Moss by knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell. Following an argument between Quintín and his father, the latter objecting to his son’s bringing “that kind of person home with him”, Dennis departed the premises. A short time later he was killed in an alley behind the Moss apartment. About a week later Quintín Moss was arrested for this killing but subsequently released by the authorities. Thereafter, according to Mrs. Moss, she was the recipient of telephoned threats against her son’s life because of the killing of Dennis Griffin. She opined the unidentified telephone caller was a “black male”.

May 13, 1980: At about 2:00 or 2:15 in the afternoon, Quintín Moss and Robert Campbell, a black male, were together near the intersection of Sarah and Olive Streets. About 2:30 p.m. a black over brown older model Cadillac automobile, occupied by two black males, drove up and stopped. One of the occupants stepped out of the vehicle and fired four or five pistol shots in the direction of Quinton Moss and Robert Campbell, one bullet striking and wounding Campbell. The Cadillac, containing the two unidentified black males, then sped away. A short time later Quintín Moss was seen beneath his bicycle at the scene of the shooting.

Mrs. Moss was at her home when she saw her son ride up on his bicycle. Quintín was visibly disturbed and upset and exclaimed he had just been shot at and showed her a dent on his new bicycle. He asked his mother to take him back to the scene of the shooting and she did so.

[856]*856At about 3:00 p.m., a police officer saw defendant and Reginald Griffin in a black over brown 1968 Cadillac automobile about three miles from the shooting scene. Reginald was driving the vehicle. When the officer, driving an unmarked police car, pulled up alongside the Cadillac and displayed his badge, the Cadillac accelerated and drove away. A chase ensued for some distance before the police officer’s car and another detective’s car forced the Cadillac to a stop. Reginald Griffin was arrested for multiple traffic violations. No weapons were found.

June 26, 1980: Officer Jones, off duty at the time, was driving past 3656 Cook Street at about 4:00 p.m. He saw three black males near the house. He recognized defendant (“known to be a police character”), a second person wearing a red and white baseball cap, and a third person carrying what appeared to the officer to be a shotgun. Because of heavy traffic, Officer Jones was delayed in circling the block to investigate what he had observed. By the time he returned, the three men had disappeared.

State’s witness Robert Fitzgerald, a white male, was standing beside his car at about 4:30 p.m. near the intersections of Sarah and Olive Streets while two other men were attempting to repair it. Fitzgerald had earlier observed Quintín Moss in the vicinity and concluded Moss was engaged in selling narcotics. Moss was standing on the sidewalk near Fitzgerald’s car when Fitzgerald saw a faded blue 1967 or 1968 Chevrolet drive up and stop behind his car. There were two black males in the front seat and a third in the rear seat. There was a burst of gunfire from the Chevrolet and Fitzgerald saw the defendant firing a pistol through the open window of the passenger side of the front seat of the car. The person in the rear seat was firing a semi-automatic rifle. The direction of the shots was towards Moss and he was struck 13 times by bullets. A passerby, Wallace Connors, was struck in the buttocks by one of the bullets. Fitzgerald had an unobstructed view of the defendant throughout the shooting and as the Chevrolet drove away. Fitzgerald saw the license plate on the rear of the car and memorized the number. He provided this information to the police and accompanied the officers to the police station where he identified defendant from a group of photographs as being the person firing the pistol from the front seat of the Chevrolet. A short time later Fitzgerald identified the Chevrolet as the vehicle which had been at the scene of the killing.

The 1968 Chevrolet was parked behind an apartment building and was unoccupied. In the vehicle the officers found a .30 caliber semi-automatic rifle, which contained a clip containing seven live rounds of ammunition, empty rifle shell casings, a .38 caliber revolver, a red and white baseball cap, and a court receipt bearing the name “Reginald Griffin”. When fully loaded the clip for the carbine would hold 31 rounds of ammunition. There was expert testimony that a bullet fragment found at the scene of the killing of Quintín Moss had been fired by the carbine, which Officer Jones testified was similar in appearance to the firearm one of the black males was carrying at the Cook Street address about 4:00 p.m. Officer Jones also testified the red and white cap was similar to the one he saw being worn by one of the two unidentified black males earlier. A .38 caliber bullet fragment found at the shooting scene was of the same general classification of the revolver found in the Chevrolet. Fitzgerald testified this revolver was similar to the one he saw defendant firing at Moss.

Defendant first asserts1 that “the trial court committed prejudicial error in not properly instructing the jury regarding the proof required to find defendant guilty as a coparticipant in the charged events because the verdict director instruction failed to conform to the required MAI-CR [857]*8572d form in that the first paragraph of the verdict director instruction contained language significantly different than that prescribed in MAI-CR 2d 2.12.”

Instruction No. 6 reads as follows:

“If you find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt:

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Bluebook (online)
662 S.W.2d 854, 1983 Mo. LEXIS 456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-griffin-mo-1983.