State v. Harrelson

636 S.W.2d 83, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3567
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 4, 1982
DocketNo. 42527
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 636 S.W.2d 83 (State v. Harrelson) 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. Harrelson, 636 S.W.2d 83, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3567 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

SATZ, Judge.

A jury convicted defendant of selling cocaine, a Schedule II controlled substance, § 195.017, RSMo 1978. The court sentenced him to 12 years imprisonment. Defendant appeals. We affirm.

Defendant raises six points on appeal. As one of his points, defendant contends the state failed to make a submissible case. We disagree.

To determine whether the state made a submissible case, we consider as true the evidence and reasonable inferences most favorable to the state. State v. Longmeyer, 566 S.W.2d 496, 499 (Mo.App.1978). We disregard evidence and inferences to the contrary. Id. at 499. Viewed in this light, the record shows that on the evening of May 4, 1978, St. Louis County Police Officers Louis Dorough and Thomas Robinson met with an informant in St. Louis County. The informant and Officer Do-rough drove in the informant’s van to a prearranged location for meeting defendant. Officer Robinson followed them in an unmarked police vehicle and parked across the street from the prearranged site to observe the transaction. Robinson equipped himself with a pair of police department binoculars. A few minutes later, defendant arrived. He parked alongside the informant’s vehicle and entered it. The informant introduced defendant to Dorough as Terry. Dorough told defendant he was the person interested in cocaine and defendant replied: “he had it.” Defendant then gave Dorough a plastic bag containing cocaine in exchange for one hundred dollars. From this vantage point across the street, Officer Robinson used the binoculars to observe defendant get in and out of the informant’s van. The area was well lighted by lights from a large advertising sign and lights from the interior of a near-by store. Both Dorough and Robinson identified defendant at trial.

Unquestionably, this evidence was sufficient to make a submissible case and to convict defendant of selling cocaine. Defendant’s complaint against this evidence centers on asserted differences between it and defendant’s evidence. These differences, however, simply raised issues for the jury’s consideration, and the jury resolved the issues in the state’s favor.

Defendant next complains about the trial court’s failure to give a requested instruction concerning inconsistent testimony of Officer Robinson. This testimony arose in the following context. Defendant’s defense was alibi. He claimed he was at home at the time of the sale in question. Thus, the officers’ identification of defendant was critical. Defendant attacked Officer Robinson’s identification of him. In a deposition taken prior to trial, Officer Robinson was asked how far he was from defendant at the time he observed defendant getting in and out of the informant’s van. Robinson replied: “Probably a hundred fif[85]*85ty (150) yards maybe a little bit more.” At trial, however, Robinson changed his estimate of this distance and testified he was 100 feet from the van at the time he observed defendant. Because of this discrepancy, defendant’s trial counsel requested the court to give MAI-CR(2d) 3.52 to the jury. This instruction specifically instructs the jury that it may consider a witness’ inconsistent testimony in “deciding the believability of the witness and the weight to be given to his testimony.”1 The court refused counsel’s request. Defendant argues this refusal was prejudicial error. We disagree. The court’s refusal to give the instruction was error but the error was not prejudicial.

Rule 28.02(a) requires the court to give criminal instructions in the 3.00 series, such as MAI-CR(2d) 3.52, if the instruction is requested to be given and the instruction is “applicable.” Applicability simply means the instruction is supported by the evidence. See State v. Shivers, 458 S.W.2d 312, 316 (Mo.1970); State v. Crews, 585 S.W.2d 131, 135-136 (Mo.App.1979). Here, Officer Robinson’s deposition testimony that he viewed defendant at a distance of 150 yards clearly was inconsistent with his testimony at trial that he viewed defendant at a distance of 100 feet. Obviously, MAI-CR(2d) 3.52 was “applicable” to this inconsistent testimony, and, since the instruction was requested, it was error for the court to refuse to give this properly requested, applicable instruction.

The failure to give this instruction, however, worked no prejudice against defendant. The state does forcefully argue that Robinson’s use of the binoculars made the discrepancy in the viewing distance irrelevant. We do not agree with this argument. Although Robinson’s use of the binoculars to observe defendant would reduce the importance of the distance in proportion to the power of magnification of the binoculars, there is no evidence the binocular’s magnification of the scene would create an identifiable image at the distance of 150 yards. Absent evidence of the binocular’s power of magnification, we cannot say the binoculars rendered the viewing distance irrelevant.

However, Officer Dorough identified defendant as well as Officer Robinson. Do-rough testified he spent six minutes face to face with defendant. With this testimony, the jury could have reached its verdict by believing Dorough’s identification testimony and disbelieving Robinson’s identification testimony, or by believing Robinson and disbelieving Dorough, or by believing both Dorough and Robinson. Obviously, we cannot definitely establish which path the jury chose to reach its verdict. However, since Officer Dorough viewed defendant for six minutes face to face in a well lit area, common sense dictates that the jury chose to believe Dorough’s identification testimony, and Robinson’s testimony was simply cumulative. In this context, we cannot say defendant was prejudiced by the court’s failure to formally and explicitly instruct the jury on the method it should use to evaluate Robinson’s testimony.

Defendant next contends the court erred in ruling on an answer given by Officer Dorough during cross-examination. During cross-examination, the following exchange took place:

Defense Counsel: “Did I understand you had not personally observed an individual by the name of Terry Harrelson?”
Officer Dorough: “I had not observed him other than photographs.”

Defense counsel immediately objected on the grounds that the answer was unresponsive. The trial judge overruled the objection, declined to strike the testimony and denied defense counsel’s request for a mis[86]*86trial. Defendant argues the rulings constitute reversible error. We agree that the court’s failure to sustain the objection and strike the answer was erroneous but we do not find this failure was prejudicial.

Taken literally, Officer Dorough’s answer was unresponsive to defense counsel’s question. Therefore, defense counsel’s objection should have been sustained and Officer Do-rough’s answer stricken. The answer, however, gives rise to several equally sensible inferences, only one of which could have been prejudicial. From the answer, the jury could have inferred Dorough was referring to “mug” shots of defendant and from this further inferred that defendant had a prior criminal record. Obviously, this could have prejudiced defendant. However, the photographs remained unde-scribed. They were not shown to the jury. Thus, as far as the jury was concerned, they could have come from a neutral or innocuous source.

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Related

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252 S.W.3d 178 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2008)
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809 S.W.2d 83 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1991)
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673 S.W.2d 83 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1984)

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Bluebook (online)
636 S.W.2d 83, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3567, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-harrelson-moctapp-1982.