State v. Madison

302 S.W.3d 763, 2010 WL 309024
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 27, 2010
DocketNo. SD 29325
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 302 S.W.3d 763 (State v. Madison) 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. Madison, 302 S.W.3d 763, 2010 WL 309024 (Mo. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

DON E. BURRELL, Judge.

Robert Madison (“Defendant”) was charged with first-degree assault, second-degree murder, first-degree burglary, and two counts of armed criminal action in connection with a home invasion that resulted in the wounding of Marcus Robinson (“Victim”) and the death of Shekiah Robinson (‘Victim’s wife”). Following a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of one count of first-degree assault pursuant to section 565.050 and one count of armed criminal action pursuant to section 571.015.1 The jury acquitted Defendant of the second-degree murder charge as well as the first-degree burglary charge and its corresponding armed criminal action count.

Defendant was sentenced as a persistent felony offender and received concurrent eighteen year terms of imprisonment on each conviction. Defendant now appeals those convictions, alleging the trial court abused its discretion by: 1) allowing an arresting officer to testify that Defendant asked him if he was “being arrested for a sales charge[;]” and 2) refusing to allow Defendant to question Victim about a petition for an ex parte order of protection his wife had filed against him a year prior to her death. Finding no merit in either of these contentions, we affirm the convictions.

Facts

Defendant does not contest the sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions. Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdicts, that evidence was as follows.

Defendant lived about a half-mile away from the mobile home in which Victim and his wife resided (“Victim’s house”). Victim testified that he had known Defendant for about ten years and characterized their relationship as follows:

[766]*766A. Well, at the time we was ‘gettin’t2 ] along, we was cool, rode around, talked every once in a while, and then it was like I stopped ‘talkin’ to him. We was ‘gettin’ along good though. I ain’t never seen no problems.
Q. Was this a situation where you would seek out him to be your friend or did he seek out you?
A. He would come to me. I didn’t go to him.

A few days before the shooting that resulted in the death of Victim’s wife, Nathan Winfield gave Defendant a ride to Victim’s- house. On the way there, Defendant told Winfield that “everybody got a good side and a bad side.” When they arrived at Victim’s house, Winfield dropped Defendant off and left quickly. Defendant was wearing camouflage gloves and camouflage pants and a blue latex glove was hanging out of one of his pockets.

Victim saw Defendant and came outside. Victim watched Defendant walk to one end of Victim’s house, pause, walk to the other end, then pause again. Defendant then said to Victim, “Man, I got a good side and I got [a] bad side.” Defendant told Victim he had something to tell him, but that his “bad side says don’t tell” and “the good side says tell.” Defendant pointed to the side of Victim’s house where Victim had posted a “beware of dog” sign that showed a man with a revolver and had lettering that read, “Don’t be aware of the dog, be aware of the owner.” Defendant then said, “Don’t be aware of God, be aware of the owner.”

Defendant finally said, “God sent me over here to kill you all.” When Victim asked Defendant to repeat what he had just said, Defendant said, “God sent me over here to kill you all [ ... ] Nah, you know what? You’re a good man, I ain’t ‘gonna’ even do with all that.” Defendant then told Victim he was going to go get something to eat and walked away.

Victim told a friend, his wife, and law enforcement about the threat Defendant had made. Detective Bobby Sullivan (“Detective Sullivan”) told his supervisor about the threat and advised Victim to stay off the streets and avoid Defendant.

On the night of the fatal shooting, Lewis “Kit-Kat” Wiggons, an acquaintance of both Defendant and Victim, testified that he was leaving his house to go to the store when Defendant approached him and asked if he could use Wiggons’s cell phone to call Victim. Wiggons gave Defendant his phone but did not overhear Defendant’s conversation. Victim, who had caller-ID, answered the phone thinking it was his friend, “Kit-Kat.” When Victim realized it was Defendant, he was suspicious because Defendant had never called him “out of the blue” before. After Defendant’s call, Victim and his wife began looking for a .40 caliber handgun they had previously hidden somewhere in their house.

Martez Williams testified he was driving around his neighborhood on the night of the shooting. Defendant flagged him down and asked for a ride “across the tracks” toward Victim’s house. Williams let Defendant get in, and Defendant placed a chrome-colored gun on the center console of Williams’s car. When Williams asked Defendant what he was going to do with the gun, Defendant replied, “I’m about to go kill an ol’ boy.” When Williams asked Defendant who he intended to kill, Defendant responded, “[Victim].” [767]*767Williams told Defendant to get out of the car because Williams was on probation and could not be around guns. Defendant got out of Williams’s vehicle and started walking in the direction of Victim’s house.

Victim testified that just before Defendant arrived, Victim and his wife had located and loaded their gun, were seated at their kitchen table, and Victim was showing his wife how to shoot the pistol. Victim’s dogs started barking, and Victim and his wife heard a noise at their screen door. Victim’s wife went to the door to see what the noise was, and Defendant entered the trailer displaying a chrome-colored revolver. Defendant pointed the revolver at Victim and began firing. Victim, who still had the couple’s loaded gun in his hand, returned fire. Victim testified “the whole time I was ‘shootin’ the gun with one hand. So I felt like if I was ‘shootin’ it with both hands [Defendant] ‘woulda’ got hit.” Victim fired his gun at least five times, and Defendant fired his gun at least twice.

After the shooting began, Defendant started backing up toward the door, then turned and ran outside. At that point, Victim turned and saw his wife lying on the floor. Victim then had his daughter dial 9-1-1 for him as he looked for his car keys.3 As a result of the shots fired, Victim had one gunshot wound to his side, and Victim’s wife had three gunshot wounds: one to her head, one through her chest, and one to her elbow. Victim’s wife died as a result of the gunshot wounds to her chest and head. Defendant was not wounded in the gun battle.

Approximately seven officers responded to the scene, and later the Southeast Missouri Major Case Squad4 became involved in the investigation. Officer Franklin Adams (“Officer Adams”), a K-9 handler with the Sikeston Department of Public Safety, was the first officer to arrive. Officer Adams testified that when he arrived, Victim was outside screaming, “My wife has been shot in the head, [Defendant] shot me, shot my wife, and I think I shot him before he left.” After checking Victim’s wife’s body for a pulse and finding none, Officer Adams heard other officers arrive. Officer Adams advised the arriving officers of the situation and took his dog out to try and get a track on Defendant. The dog followed a human track for about 150 yards before losing the scent.

While investigating Victim’s house, officers found thirteen grams of crack cocaine beneath Victim’s wife’s body.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Madison v. State
353 S.W.3d 365 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2011)
State v. Smith
330 S.W.3d 548 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
302 S.W.3d 763, 2010 WL 309024, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-madison-moctapp-2010.