State v. Merrick

219 S.W.3d 281, 2007 Mo. App. LEXIS 580, 2007 WL 1097956
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 11, 2007
Docket27671
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 219 S.W.3d 281 (State v. Merrick) 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. Merrick, 219 S.W.3d 281, 2007 Mo. App. LEXIS 580, 2007 WL 1097956 (Mo. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

PHILLIP R. GARRISON, Judge.

James D. Merrick (“Defendant”) appeals the jury convictions of first degree robbery, a violation of Section 569.020, 1 and armed criminal action, a violation of Section 571.015. He contends that the trial court was without jurisdiction because the State failed to bring this case to trial within 180 days after he invoked the Uniform Mandatory Disposition of Detainers Law (“UMDDL”), Section 217.450 et seq., and in permitting a witness for the State to give testimony concerning an uncharged crime.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the following evidence was adduced at trial. On March 2, 2005, Jonathan Hardin (“Hardin”) was working at the Rolla British Petroleum Amoco gas station (the “BP”) in Phelps County, Missouri, when Defendant came in and picked out a half dozen donuts and poured a cup of coffee. After the only other customer in the store left, Defendant approached the counter and asked for two cartons of cigarettes. Hardin turned around to get the cigarettes and when he turned back around, Defendant had a gun sitting on the counter in his right hand, pointed at Hardin.

Defendant told Hardin to put the cigarette cartons in a bag. When he bent down to get the bags under the counter, Hardin hit the safety button. Defendant demanded that Hardin “[g]et the money out of the drawer,” or he would shoot him. Hardin informed Defendant that the cash drawer was locked, but Defendant reached around and unsuccessfully attempted to open the cash drawer himself. After failing to open the cash drawer, Defendant demanded more cigarettes which Hardin handed to him. Before leaving the BP Defendant asked if there was tape in the store security cameras. Hardin lied and told Defendant the cameras were “fake.” As Defendant was backing out of the store, he pointed the gun at Hardin and told him *284 not to press any buttons or he would shoot him.

Officer Frank Hawkins (“Officer Hawkins”) with the Rolla Police Department responded to the robbery call. Hardin described Defendant to Officer Hawkins as a white male, forty to forty-five years old, approximately five-six, and 120 pounds, with long dark hair pulled back in a pony tail, a teardrop tattoo over his right eye, and a goatee, wearing black clothes, and a backwards baseball cap.

Ann Chepley (“Chepley”) lived with Defendant in March 2005. On the evening of March 1, 2005, Defendant asked Chepley if she would draw a thunderbolt tattoo on his neck and a teardrop tattoo on his eye because he wanted to get them permanently tattooed. She tried to draw the tattoos, but couldn’t get them right so Defendant had a friend do it instead. Sometime between 11:00 p.m. and midnight Defendant left their home wearing black boots, black jeans, a black t-shirt, a black and white coat, and a baseball cap. Defendant had a goatee and his long hair was in a ponytail.

Defendant was gone all night, which was unusual for him, but he called Chepley a couple times, one time telling her that he was in Rolla, Missouri, and he would be home soon. Sometime between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. Defendant arrived home with a brown paper bag of money, a two-liter bottle of soda, a bottle of Jim Beam, some cartons of cigarettes, a pack of cigarettes, and some lottery tickets. Defendant also had a gun with him. Chepley asked Defendant were the stuff came from and he told her that “it was his lucky day.” Later that day, Defendant admitted to Chepley and a friend that he had robbed the BP as well as Delano’s in Cuba, Missouri, the night before.

On March 15, 2005, a couple of weeks after the robbery, Chepley was incarcerated in the Crawford County Jail on a probation violation. While there she talked with Detective Tim Cunningham, a deputy with the Crawford County Sheriffs Office, and gave him a written statement detailing what she knew about the robbery at the BP and a robbery that took place the same night in Cuba, Missouri.

That same day, Officer Scott Mathena (“Officer Mathena”), a police officer with the Bourbon Missouri Department of Public Safety, responding to a stop and hold bulletin from the dispatcher, stopped Defendant and searched him and his car. Officer Mathena found a loaded pistol under the passenger seat and Defendant was arrested.

Defendant was charged in a third amended information, as a prior and persistent offender, with the class A felony of robbery in the first degree, a violation of Section 569.020, and armed criminal action, a violation of Section 571.015. He was tried before a jury and found guilty on both counts. Defendant was sentenced, as a prior and persistent offender, to thirty years for robbery and five years for armed criminal action to the department of corrections with the sentences to be served concurrently. Defendant now appeals.

In his first point on appeal, Defendant alleges that the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss because the trial court was without jurisdiction in that the State failed to bring Defendant to trial within 180 days after he invoked the UMDDL. We disagree.

The right to be brought to trial within 180 days after a proper request under the [UMDDL] is jurisdictional. [T]he provisions of the UMDDL are not drenched in doubt or ambiguity, and a loss of subject matter jurisdiction inexorably occurs by operation of law when an imprisoned person who has initiated a proper request is not brought to trial *285 within the appropriately determined statutory time period. Jurisdictional issues present questions of law, which we review de novo and without deference to the [trial] court’s determination.

State v. Nichols, 207 S.W.3d 215, 219 (Mo.App. S.D.2006) (internal quotations and citations omitted).

Section 217.450.1 of the UMDDL states:

Any person confined in a department correctional facility may request a final disposition of any untried indictment, information or complaint pending in this state on the basis of which a detainer has been lodged against him while so imprisoned. The request shall be in writing addressed to the court in which the indictment, information or complaint is pending and to the prosecuting attorney charged with the duty of prosecuting it, and shall set forth the place of imprisonment.

“A defendant who complies with Section 217.450.1 must be brought to trial, ‘[w]ithin one hundred eighty days after the receipt of the request and certificate ... by the court and the prosecuting attorney,’ or the untried indictment, information or complaint must be dismissed.” Nichols, 207 S.W.3d at 219-20 (quoting Section 217.460). “In order to receive the benefit and protection of the UMDDL, a defendant must show a good faith effort to invoke the UMDDL and must substantially comply with its procedural requirements.” State v. Williams, 120 S.W.3d 294, 299 (Mo.App. W.D.2003).

On April 6, 2005, a felony complaint was filed in Phelps County against Defendant.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
219 S.W.3d 281, 2007 Mo. App. LEXIS 580, 2007 WL 1097956, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-merrick-moctapp-2007.