State v. Martin

428 S.W.2d 489, 1968 Mo. LEXIS 939
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 10, 1968
DocketNo. 53264
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 428 S.W.2d 489 (State v. Martin) 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. Martin, 428 S.W.2d 489, 1968 Mo. LEXIS 939 (Mo. 1968).

Opinion

BARRETT, Commissioner.

Roosevelt Martin, a Negro boy, age 18, and four other Negro boys, Steve John Morris, Calvin Lee Hayes, Torrence Henderson and James Allen Caldwell, were jointly indicted for the forcible rape of Cathy, a white girl, age 18. State v. Harris, 150 Mo. 56, 51 S.W. 481. Upon a separate trial a jury found Roosevelt guilty and fixed his punishment at life imprisonment. In the trial of his case he was represented by hired counsel, a lawyer experienced in the defense of criminal cases. He has been allowed to prosecute this appeal as a poor person, has been furnished a full transcript and is represented in this court by the Legal Aid and Defender Society of Kansas City.

In very brief outline the facts were that on July 16, 1966, about 11:30 in the evening Cathy and her boyfriend Charles, aft[490]*490er attending a show and a party, were parked in his automobile in a secluded area near the ball diamond in Swope Park. Five Negro boys, after a fight with Charles, took Cathy from the automobile, gang-raped her, beat her about the head, broke her jaw and otherwise assaulted her. They also beat and otherwise assaulted Charles. Upon this appeal there is no question as to the sufficiency of the evidence ; two questions only have been briefed and argued, (1), it is contended that Damon Jenkins, a state’s witness, was an accomplice and that the court prejudi-cially erred in refusing to give an instruction that the “testimony of an accomplice should be received with a great caution,” and (2) that the court erred in overruling his motion to be permitted “to make a transcription of the testimony given before the grand jury.”

The first assignment of error has to do with these circumstances: In addition to Cathy and Charles the only other eyewitness to the circumstances surrounding the attacks and particularly to the identity of the five boys involved was Damon Jenkins. Damon said that he spent the evening with Roosevelt, riding around in an automobile driven by Roosevelt. They went to a private party for a short time and about 11 o’clock six of them got in the automobile and Roosevelt drove to the ball diamond in Swope Park. They all got out of the car and in a few minutes they heard “a car pull up and go into the bushes.” At first he said “All of us” went toward the bushes but he stopped and stood beside the automobile he came in while the other five “were by the bushes.” Shortly Damon heard a girl screaming and he moved over where the five boys were and he saw the white girl lying on the ground and the five boys, including Roosevelt, standing around her. Damon stayed 3 or 4 minutes without touching the boy or girl, and did not spit on either of them, and then returned to the automobile he came in and in five minutes or so the five boys returned and they all left with Roosevelt driving. In about three months Damon was arrested and answered “a lot of questions” for the police.

As stated, Damon did not say anything to Charles or Cathy and he did not touch either of them and he did not see any of his five companions in the act of raping Cathy. There was no possible doubt, however, as to the fact of the gang-rape and Cathy’s injuries, the state’s medical evidence corroborated Cathy in detail. Roosevelt’s defense, supported by his family and girl friend, was an alibi; that he was at the home of his mother and stepfather with his girl friend from 7 o’clock on July 16th until 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning. Roosevelt’s four co-indictees did not testify and since he claimed an alibi he did not testify that Damon took part in the assault on Cathy. Nevertheless the appellant points to the fact that Damon rode to Swope Park with the five boys in an automobile driven by Roosevelt, that he, together with the other five boys, got out of their vehicle and went toward Charles’ automobile. Appellant says that all of them, including Damon, “were standing near or over the girl” and all got in Roosevelt’s automobile and drove away. In conclusion he says, “even though Jenkins did not assault the young lady or injure her in any way he looked on without protest while some of them were assaulting her. Upon returning to Kansas City, he did not report the matter to the police.”

In these circumstances it is said that Jenkins was an “accomplice” of the defendant and his associates in the commission of the crime and therefore he contends that the court erred in refusing to instruct the jury “that the testimony of an accomplice should be received with a great caution.” As indicated by the direct quotations from the record the appellant’s statement that Damon looked on “while some of them were assaulting her” is not supported. It is not necessary to consider the technical distinctions in accessories before and after the fact (RSMo 1959, §§ 556.-170, 556.180, V.A.M.S.), it is sufficient to [491]*491say that the latter is not an “accomplice.” State v. Umble, 115 Mo. 452, 22 S.W. 378. There is no fact in this record or a circumstance from which it is a fair inference that Damon committed an independent crime, as when the defendant, knowing that there was a jug of moonshine liquor in an automobile, drove it away. State v. Nichols, 330 Mo. 114, 49 S.W.2d 14. And it is not as if he had aided and abetted, even though not shooting the deceased, in standing by and saying, “Shoot the son-of-a-bitch, shoot the son-of-a-bitch.” State v. Lunsford, Mo., 331 S.W.2d 538. An “accomplice” is “one who knowingly, voluntarily, and with a common interest with others participates in the commission of a crime either as a principal or as an accessory before the fact." 21 Am.Jur.2d (Criminal Law) § 118, p. 196; State v. Umble, supra. There is no evidence here of an aiding and abetting by Damon and it is not as if he had been present and in some manner employed the fruits of the crime, as in a jailbreak crawling through the hole sawed by another. State v. Butler, Mo., 310 S.W.2d 952. At most it may only be said that the proof shows Damon’s presence at the scene, in the company of those who committed the crime and that circumstance alone is insufficient to establish that he was either a principal or an aider and abettor. State v. Irby, Mo., 423 S.W.2d 800. In State v. Burlison, 315 Mo. 232, 285 S.W. 712, a gang-rape case, there was proof of an accessory before the fact, but the opinion contains a sentence applicable here: “Whatever may be said about the * * * conduct of those on the outside in permitting the ravishment of prose-cutrix by one of their number without interference on their part, their mere failure or refusal to interfere * * * did not make such persons guilty of the particular act of ravishment accomplished by another.” (285 S.W. 1. c. 715.) In short, there is no fact or circumstance establishing that Damon was an accomplice of either the appellant or his co-indictees and consequently the court did not prejudicially err in refusing to instruct the jury on the subject of receiving his testimony with caution. State v. Kuhlman, 152 Mo. 100, 53 S.W. 416; State v. Umble, supra.

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Bluebook (online)
428 S.W.2d 489, 1968 Mo. LEXIS 939, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-martin-mo-1968.