State v. Phillips

585 S.W.2d 517, 1979 Mo. App. LEXIS 2929
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 16, 1979
Docket11011
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 585 S.W.2d 517 (State v. Phillips) 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. Phillips, 585 S.W.2d 517, 1979 Mo. App. LEXIS 2929 (Mo. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinions

GREENE, Judge.

Defendant Ronald Phillips was convicted in the Circuit Court of Jasper County of the crime of forcible rape in violation of § 559.-260, RSMo 1969, V.A.M.S. His punishment was fixed at 5 years’ imprisonment by the jury. His motion for new trial was overruled. The trial court, after consideration of the pre-sentence report, reduced the sentence to the minimum prescribed by law for the offense in question, which was two years. Defendant appeals the judgment and sentence.

Defendant raises two points on appeal, which are 1) that the trial court erred in overruling defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal made at the close of all of the evidence for the reason that the evidence was legally insufficient to prove that defendant, a) inserted his sexual organ into the sexual organ of Nola Elmore, or b) threatened Nola with physical violence causing her to submit to sexual intercourse by reason of fear for her safety if she did not do so, and 2) that the court erred in submitting Instruction No. 4 (verdict director) for the reason that there was no evidence from which the jury could find that defendant had sexual intercourse with Nola Elmore or, if so, that she submitted to such by reason of threats made by defendant causing her to fear physical violence to herself if she did not submit. Since both of defendant’s complaints are bottomed on the claim of insufficient evidence, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the state, accept all substantial evidence and all legitimate inferences fairly drawn therefrom, which tend to support the verdict, and reject all contrary or contradictory evidence. State v. Petrechko, 486 S.W.2d 217, 218 (Mo.1972).

Viewed in a light most favorable to the state, the evidence at trial was as follows. Nola Elmore (prosecutrix) testified that she was a cab driver for the Terminal Cab Company of Carthage, Missouri. On October 31, 1977, at about 10 p. m., she was dispatched to the Fast Trip Super Market to pick up a passenger, the 17 year old defendant. Defendant asked her to take him to the Red Rock Apartments. As pros-ecutrix was driving along the river road near Kellog Lake, defendant suddenly grabbed the steering wheel. She put her foot on the brake and stopped the ear. She thought that defendant was either acting silly or wanted the car. She put the car in park gear.

Somehow the door on the driver’s side of the cab came open. She fell out, and defendant slid out after her. Defendant seemed to think it was funny. Defendant wound up partially under the cab while she was hanging on the car door. Her mind was “kind of blank” on what happened next. She then stated defendant took her by the arm and started to lead her to a boat ramp. She tried to reason with him, told him she was old enough to be his mother and if he would let her take him home, [519]*519nothing would be said. He told her that he knew she was wanting him or needing him, or words to that effect. She said the car would be seen, as the lights were on and the motor was running.

He tried to pull her trousers down but, because she was wearing knee-high boots and socks, as well as pantyhose, her trousers would not come down past her boots. He “tried to do what he wanted to do there, but he couldn’t get in position for it right”. Defendant “backed off a little ways”. She picked up an empty beer can and hit him 2 or 3 times. He “just quit”. The couple walked back to the car. She said defendant turned off the lights and the motor. The dispatcher called over the radio and said, “If you can hear me you have a call at Gale’s”. Defendant grabbed for the radio wires and prosecutrix started running.

Defendant ran after her and caught her, picked her up and carried her to a spot near the river. She “hollered something” like “you are going to fall in the river”, and they both fell to the ground. He said, “Take your boots off”, showed her his fist and said, “If you don’t, I’ll throw you in the river”. He did not hit her but she was afraid he might. She took her boots off and, even though not asked, took her pants down. She then helped him take them off and “that is when he penetrated. There was times when he was in, and he wasn’t in and he thought he was, and then he seemed to lose his erection.” He wanted her to fool with him to help him “get it back”, so, “I started to help him with it, and about that time I heard Mr. Nichols (her employer) holler my name and I showed him and said, they are coming.” She didn’t think he had a climax.

On cross-examination, she said she imagined that she had turned the car motor off, as you had to pull the shift over in order to get the key in the right position for off, which contradicted the testimony that she had given on direct-examination. She admitted that she had not told the police about the struggle for the car radio, as she had not remembered it until after she gave a statement to the police. She said he was “stradling” (sic) her when he told her to take her boots off. She said she kept telling him that “he would be caught, we would be caught down there and this and that”. She went to the hospital for an examination after the police came. The examination did not reveal any evidence of sexual assault.

On redirect-examination, she said she was frightened when he told her he would throw her in the river if she did not take her boots off, and when asked if that was the reason she took them off said, “partly, yes, it was if he was going to throw me in the river, I can swim, but I don’t know if I could with them on or not”. She testified, in answer to a question asking if she was frightened, “Yes. Like I said I wasn’t so worried about the rape part as I was about what he was going to do afterwards”. There was no testimony as to what he was going to do in the future. Defendant never struck her, never threatened to kill her, never threatened to hurt her, and never threatened to do anything to her except throw her in the river if she did not take her boots off.

Burt Nichols, the manager of the cab company, then testified. He said he went to the office of the taxi cab company at about 10:15 p. m. on the evening in question and found that one of the taxi cabs was missing. He drove down by Kellog Lake and saw the cab sitting in the road. Carthage Press newspapers were “strung out” on the driver’s side of the front seat. He radioed his dispatcher and told him to call the Carthage Police to the area. Nichols shouted Nola’s name, and she called back, “I’m over here”. She was in a tall, grassy area some distance to the east. He went to the area where she was. Prosecutrix was sitting on the ground in a “disposed” position, naked from the waist down. He saw defendant running toward the river with his pants down. Defendant then jumped into the river. Nichols fired a shot in the air with his pistol, and defendant stopped swimming and came back to shore. The police came. When Nichols left the scene, defendant was lying on the river bank.

[520]*520Robert Byrd then testified. He said he was in the Kellog Lake area on the night in question. He got there about 9 p. m. About an hour and a half later, he saw a car stop over at the river and heard a woman yell. He did not know what she said. He later saw the car. It was a cab and it was sitting in the middle of the road. He said the lights of the car had gone out within seconds after it stopped, thereby contradicting the testimony of prosecutrix. The yell that he heard did not sound like a cry for help but sounded like a couple of drunks. He was at the scene when Nichols called for Miss Elmore.

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

Related

In the Interest of J.M.G. v. Juvenile Officer
304 S.W.3d 193 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2009)
State v. Edwards
785 S.W.2d 703 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1990)
State v. Kuzma
751 S.W.2d 54 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1988)
State v. R_ D_ G
733 S.W.2d 824 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1987)
State v. R--D--G
733 S.W.2d 824 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1987)
State v. Pippenger
708 S.W.2d 256 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1986)
State v. White
674 S.W.2d 551 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1984)
State v. Ogle
668 S.W.2d 138 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1984)
State v. Chaney
663 S.W.2d 279 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1983)
State v. Salkil
659 S.W.2d 330 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1983)
State v. Sipes
651 S.W.2d 659 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1983)
State v. Story
646 S.W.2d 68 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1983)
State v. Bulen
646 S.W.2d 405 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1983)
State v. Walker
639 S.W.2d 854 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1982)
State v. Boyet
620 S.W.2d 439 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1981)
State v. Harris
620 S.W.2d 349 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1981)
State v. Phillips
585 S.W.2d 517 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
585 S.W.2d 517, 1979 Mo. App. LEXIS 2929, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-phillips-moctapp-1979.