State v. Madewell

603 S.W.2d 692, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 3221
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 8, 1980
DocketNo. 11569
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 603 S.W.2d 692 (State v. Madewell) 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. Madewell, 603 S.W.2d 692, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 3221 (Mo. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

FLANIGAN, Chief Judge.

A jury found defendant guilty of uttering a forged instrument, § 561.011 RSMo 1969, and he was sentenced to a term of six years. Defendant appeals.

Defendant’s first point is “the trial court erred in ruling on defendant’s motion to suppress after defendant had filed an application for disqualification of judge prior to said ruling for the reason that the ruling judge had no jurisdiction to enter said order and was biased and prejudiced against defendant, thus depriving defendant of due process of law.”

Before August 2, 1979, the case was set for jury trial on August 13. On August 2 an evidentiary hearing was held before Hon. John C. Crow, Judge of Division 2 of the Circuit Court of Greene County. The motion had been filed four weeks previously. At the conclusion of the hearing Judge Crow gave each side permission to file briefs on or before 5. p, m. on August 6. On the morning of August 6 the state filed its brief and at 4:22 p. m. on that date defendant filed his brief.

On Tuesday morning, August 7, Judge Crow, after reviewing the evidence and the briefs, “concluded that the motion should be denied.” As a courtesy to counsel, Judge Crow asked his secretary to notify counsel of the ruling and the secretary did so by telephone. Later that morning the defendant, through his attorney Blythe Crist-Brown, filed an affidavit to disqualify Judge Crow. Later that day Judge Crow made a docket entry reading as follows:

“Court determines that deft’s motion to suppress identification testimony should be denied. Attys Thomas and Crist-Brown advised by phone and further advised that Court’s findings will be dictated into record at outset of trial. Affidavit in support of disqualification of judge filed by atty for deft. Court’s findings and ruling on motion to suppress identification dictated to Court Reporter Rader. Motion to suppress identification testimony denied. Application for disqualification of judge sustained. Cause transferred to Division 1.”

At the time of the instant proceedings, Rule 30.12, Missouri Rules of Court, 1979, was in effect. That rule provided that an affidavit seeking to disqualify a judge on the ground of prejudice “must be filed not less than five days before the day the case has been set for trial.” Rule 31.01, also in effect at that time, provided in part: “When the allowed period is less than seven days, intermediate Sundays and legal holidays, if any, shall be excluded in the computation.”

In determining whether the five-days requirement of Rule 30.12 was met, the day of filing (August 7), Sunday (August 12), and the trial setting date (August 13) are not counted. Defendant’s affidavit to disqualify Judge Crow was not timely filed. State v. Lue, 598 S.W.2d 133, 136[1] (Mo. banc 1980).

[694]*694It is unnecessary to determine whether Judge Crow effectively ruled on the motion before the affidavit was filed. Defendant’s affidavit, being untimely, did not have the automatic effect of disqualifying Judge Crow, State v. Light, 484 S.W.2d 275 (Mo.1972); State v. Thompson, 472 S.W.2d 351, 353[1] (Mo.1971); State v. Crow, 388 S.W.2d 817, 822[13] (Mo.1965), and thus its filing was no bar to Judge Crow’s ruling upon the motion to suppress. Indeed there are civil cases, under similar rules concerning disqualification of judges, to the effect that a timely affidavit of disqualification does not interfere with the power of the disqualified judge to rule upon motions argued and submitted to him prior to the filing of the application. Jenkins v. Andrews, 526 S.W.2d 369, 373 (Mo.App.1975); Natural Bridge Development Co. v. St. Louis County Water Co., 563 S.W.2d 522, 526[4, 5] (Mo.App.1978).

Defendant has not challenged the propriety of Judge Crow’s order transferring the cause to another division. At least in the absence of such objection, it was not error for Judge Crow to sustain the untimely application. State v. Euell, 583 S.W.2d 173, 174[1, 2] (Mo. banc 1979); see also State v. Tyler, 587 S.W.2d 918, 929[23, 24] (Mo.App.1979).

Defendant’s first point has no merit.

Defendant’s second point is that the trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion for a mistrial arising out of testimony of state’s witnesses Jacobs and Jennings to the effect that the check involved in the instant offense was “stolen.” It is defendant’s position that the challenged testimony was inadmissible under the general rule, stated in State v. Tillman, 454 S.W.2d 923, 926 (Mo.1970), “that evidence that accused has committed another crime independent of, and unconnected with, the one on trial is inadmissible; it is not competent to prove one crime by proving another.” It is unnecessary to determine whether the testimony was admissible under any of the exceptions to the general rule.

The state’s evidence entitled the jury to find that on July 22, 1977, defendant went to the K-Mart store in Springfield. Susan Jacobs, a store employee, was on duty at the service desk. Defendant presented Mrs. Jacobs with a “bonded” payroll check which was drawn on the First National Bank of Pierce City, Missouri, and which bore the purported signature of Bill Kahre. The check, dated July 22, 1977, was made payable to Steve Bass and was in the amount of $169.43.

Mrs. Jacobs was the first witness called by the state. During her testimony the following occurred:

“Q. (By prosecutor) Now, once again directing your attention to that occasion, what if anything occurred which later turned out to be unusual on that occasion—
“A. Yes.
“Q. And what was that?
“A. I took — I cashed a check that later turned out to be stolen.”

Defense counsel made an objection, on the basis of the rule in Tillman, and asked the court to strike the answer or to declare a mistrial. The court informed the jury that the answer was stricken and instructed the jury to disregard it.

During the testimony of Dale Jennings, another store employee, the following occurred:

“Q. (By prosecutor) And on that occasion, what if anything unusual occurred.
“A. Well, we later found it was — we later learned and found out it was a stolen and forged check.”

At that point defendant’s attorney made a general objection which the court sustained. The court instructed the jury to disregard the question and the answer and ordered the testimony stricken.

The following then occurred:

“Q. (By prosecutor) Now, was there anything unusual that occurred on that occasion that later — was there anything that occurred on that occasion that later turned out to be unusual?
“A. Yes, sir.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
603 S.W.2d 692, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 3221, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-madewell-moctapp-1980.