State v. Hines

377 S.W.3d 648, 2012 WL 4618229, 2012 Mo. App. LEXIS 1249
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 3, 2012
DocketNo. SD 30845
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 377 S.W.3d 648 (State v. Hines) 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. Hines, 377 S.W.3d 648, 2012 WL 4618229, 2012 Mo. App. LEXIS 1249 (Mo. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

GARY W. LYNCH, P.J.

Christopher J. Hines (“Defendant”) was found guilty by a jury of the class C felony of child abuse, see section 568.060, and sentenced to a term of fifteen years’ incarceration in the Department of Corrections.1 On appeal, Defendant makes two claims: first, the evidence was insufficient to establish that he inflicted cruel and inhuman punishment and that he did so knowingly, and, second, the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on endangering the welfare of a child in the second degree as a lesser-included offense. Finding no merit in either claim, we affirm.

Factual and Procedural Background

The evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, State v. Wilson, 359 S.W.3d 60, 65 (Mo.App.2011), established the following. Defendant and Cary White had an on-and-off relationship that began when they were in high school. They had a son and a daughter together. Their daughter (hereinafter “Child”) is the victim in this case.

In 2005, Defendant and White’s intimate relationship ended. In 2007, White began dating Jacob Logan, and they later moved in together. Nevertheless, between 2005 and October 2009, Defendant and White remained friendly, and Defendant intermittently participated in his children’s lives. During a period when Defendant was unemployed in 2008, he stayed at the home White and the children shared with Logan. However, during his stay, Defendant drank heavily, and when the living situation became “very conflictual [sic] and [652]*652chaotic” for White and the children, she asked Defendant to leave.

White believed that it was important for the children to have a relationship with their father, and in July 2009, when Defendant was again unemployed, White allowed Defendant to return to live with them. Defendant lived in the garage and helped to get the children ready for school and sometimes cared for them after school. White and Logan, who were both employed, financially supported the household. Defendant had a girlfriend at the time, Felicia Black, whom White and Logan allowed to visit Defendant in their home.

Shortly after Defendant’s return in 2009, the situation in the home again became chaotic. White testified that Defendant drank heavily, “had taken over ... [h]e was the king, he said[,]” and she began to feel like it was not her home anymore. Logan testified that Defendant berated them parenting of the children and “steamrolled” over them, and became increasingly assertive. When he drank alcohol, he often drank too much and became “unruly” when he did not get his way.

On the evening of October 9, 2009, White was resting in her bedroom while Defendant, Black, and Child were in the living room. Logan was in the kitchen getting dinner ready. Defendant had already consumed several beers and was wrestling and rough-housing with Child. The playfulness escalated to a point that Child became scared and upset and wanted Defendant to stop. She began yelling at Defendant to stop tickling her, started crying, and attempted to get away. Black and Logan both told Defendant to stop, but he continued while Child kicked and flailed her arms to keep him off of her. Two or three times, she threw a stuffed animal or toy at Defendant. When she hit him with one, she ran from Defendant down the hallway into her mother’s bedroom as Defendant chased after her.

When Child ran into White’s room, she was screaming, panicking, and very afraid. According to White, Defendant was angry and told Child, “I’m going to get you for this. You are going to pay.” Child jumped onto White’s bed and tried to hide behind her mother. A CPAP machine,2 to which a hose and mask were attached, sat on a table by the bed. Defendant grabbed the hose and “wrapped the hose around [Child’s] neck and pulled with both hands.” Although she tried, White “could not get [her] fingers between the hose and [Child’s] neck, it was so tight.” White “could see that [Child’s] eyes were kind of rolling back in her head. She was having trouble breathing.” When White was able to insert her finger between Child’s neck and the hose and release the tension, Child “fell to the bed[,]” gasping for air. Once she recovered her breath, Child then began yelling at Defendant. Defendant smacked her in the mouth so hard she almost fell off the bed. At that point, White, who was angry and upset, told Defendant to leave, get out of her house and away from her children. Defendant told her he was not going anywhere. Defendant was cursing and angry. White and Logan asked Black to get Defendant out of there, but she refused.

Defendant, Logan, and White stepped outside onto the back porch to discuss what had happened. Defendant kept telling everyone not to overreact and then told Logan that if he “called the police, if [Defendant] spent an hour, even an horn' in jail, that he would hunt [Logan] down and kill him.” Defendant then went outside to the driveway and began deflating tires on [653]*653White’s vehicle, while shouting and “making a scene.” Defendant threatened to slash the tires on all of the vehicles there because he did not want anyone to leave. White sent a text message to a neighbor to ask her to call the police and report a domestic disturbance.

About that time, Catherine Nall, a friend of White’s, arrived with her daughter. When they exited their vehicle, Defendant approached her and told her she “needed to burn out.” She ignored him and walked toward the front door. Defendant told her if she did not leave, he would slash her tires.

Nall called the police. When the police arrived, Defendant left through the back door and told Logan, who was in the kitchen, that he was “fucking dead[.]” Police searched the house and garage for Defendant but could not find him nearby.

The adults present were questioned together by the police regarding allegations that Defendant had a knife with which he was slashing tires on the vehicles and threatening harm if police were contacted. Initially, while in Black’s presence, White was hesitant to divulge much information or to agree to press charges against Defendant. When Black was allowed to go inside the house to get her cell phone, White indicated to an officer that she wanted to cooperate and pursue charges. Black returned to the front doorway with her cell phone in hand, and Nall suggested to the police that Black might be in contact with Defendant. Black resisted handing her phone to an officer when he first requested to see it, and when she did comply as requested, the officer retrieved a text message sent by Black to Defendant telling him “it was okay to come back because nobody had said anything about [Child].” When the officer made contact with Child, who was inside the house, Child reported the choking incident. The officer observed “a red mark on the lower right side of her neck and [it] looked like one ... was kind of developing on the left side.” He later photographed Child’s neck.

Defendant was later located two blocks away and placed under arrest. After Defendant was read his rights, he told the officer that Child “had kicked him 11 times and sometimes he goes too far.” At police headquarters, Defendant told an officer “that he wanted to get in a cell quick because he wanted to hit something.... He was very irate....

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
377 S.W.3d 648, 2012 WL 4618229, 2012 Mo. App. LEXIS 1249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hines-moctapp-2012.