State v. Pipes

923 S.W.2d 349, 1996 Mo. App. LEXIS 346, 1996 WL 93466
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 5, 1996
DocketNo. WD 50887
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 923 S.W.2d 349 (State v. Pipes) 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. Pipes, 923 S.W.2d 349, 1996 Mo. App. LEXIS 346, 1996 WL 93466 (Mo. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

SMART, Judge.

James Edwin Pipes appeals from his conviction, after jury trial, for involuntary manslaughter, § 565.024, RSMo 1994,1 and armed criminal action, § 571.015, RSMo 1994. Pipes was sentenced as a prior and persistent offender and given consecutive sentences of twenty years for involuntary manslaughter and ten years for armed criminal action. Pipes claims that the trial court erred: (1) by admitting a photograph of the victim’s internal organs into evidence; (2) in not allowing surrebuttal testimony to contradict the testimony of witness Rodney Higgins; and (3) in refusing to admit evidence of the victim’s prior violent acts. The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

On April 23, 1994, James Edwin Pipes and Brad Terrell drove to the trailer where the victim, Anthony Manning, lived with his fiance, Tammy Sampo. Pipes and Terrell burst into the door of the trailer. Terrell was carrying a sawed-off shotgun. Manning pushed Pipes and Terrell out the door and Sampo immediately went to her room and called 911. At some point, Pipes and Manning struggled and Manning was stabbed in [351]*351the heart with a knife. He also sustained a blunt trauma to the lower pelvic area. An autopsy revealed an extensive hemorrhage associated with a ruptured bladder.

Pipes testified at trial that Manning was killed in self-defense. He claimed that Manning attacked him and started “slinging” him around, although Pipes sustained no injuries in the alleged attack. He contended that Manning produced the knife and that he grabbed Manning’s hand in an effort to keep Manning from getting the knife and stabbing him. At one point in his testimony, Pipes stated that Manning had stabbed himself. Pipes had no explanation for Manning’s stomach injury.

Photographic Evidence

In Point I, Pipes contends that the trial court erred in admitting, over objection, State’s exhibit No. 39, a photograph of the victim’s internal injuries, because the photograph’s probative value was outweighed by its prejudicial impact. Pipes characterizes the photograph as “gruesome” and argues that the photograph was “wholly irrelevant to any element of the State’s case....”

A trial court possesses broad discretion in determining the admissibility of photographs and we will reverse only for an abuse of that discretion. State v. Isa, 850 S.W.2d 876, 890 (Mo. banc 1993). A photograph is deemed admissible where it tends to corroborate the testimony of witnesses, assists the jury in its understanding of the testimony or the facts, or proves an element in the case. Id. Although a photograph of a victim’s body is not admissible for the sole purpose of arousing the emotion of the jury or prejudicing the defendant, State v. Lay, 896 S.W.2d 693, 697 (Mo.App.1995), it is admissible if relevant to material issues in the ease, such as the nature and location of a victim’s wounds. State v. Gaston, 897 S.W.2d 136, 139 (Mo.App.1995).

The following testimony was given by Dr. Adelstein:

Q. Okay. Now — now, on further examination of the internal abdomen area of the victim, Anthony Manning, what else did you observe, separate from the stab wound you just discussed?
A. When we observed, when we opened up the pelvic area of the body, the pelvic area being sort of below our waist, that the pelvic area was filled with clotted blood. And the anterior abdominal wall located above our pelvis, our pelvic area was, had blood in the wall itself, and that the bladder was ruptured and that a small amount of blood was also present around the kidney on the right side, about 25 cc’s of blood. It was fairly sharply delineated at that point.
Q. What did you determine that injury as being consistent with?
A. That injury was most consistent with blunt trauma to the lower pelvic area.
Q. What’s blunt trauma mean?
A. Being — being, being hit by some object that did not have sharp points on it.
Q. Okay. In your opinion, what would be a consistent object to produce that lower stomach injury?
A. A consistent object could have been a knee, it could have been a shoe, the flat part of a shoe.
Q. How would you characterize the amount of force necessary to produce such an injury as you observed on the body of Tony Manning?
A. It would have been a, a very powerful force.
Q. And what would you expect to be the effect on Tony Manning or an individual struck in that manner and sustaining a ruptured bladder and internal bleeding in that fashion?
A. It would be an injury that would induce incredible pain.
Q. But it’s not fatal; is that correct?
A. It’s not a fatal, the amount of blood there would be not enough to — it’s a wound that people often sustain, sometimes in motor vehicle accidents, and it’s survivable.
Q. Okay. Doctor, if you’ll hang on just a minute.
MR. CRANE: Judge, can we approach?
[352]*352THE COURT: You may.
(Counsel approached the bench and the following proceedings were had:)
MR. ROSENBLUM: I wanted to make my, make an objection for the record to the introduction of this picture, which would be State’s Exhibit No. 39. It’s — it appears to be a picture of various innards. It’s very, very graphic and grotesque, and I think that any probative value in this case would be outweighed by the prejudicial effect this picture would have on the jury.
THE COURT: Your purpose?
MR. CRANE: Judge, that is the only photograph that we have that demonstrates this particular injury. It was an area that was indicated internally as opposed to externally, and I simply have no other way to show this location via photograph.
THE COURT: What’s 40 going to be?
MR. CRANE: The diagram.
THE COURT: So you’re pointing to what is the clotted blood here in the pelvic area?
MR. CRANE: Yes. This is the bleeding produced as a result of that blunt trauma. It’s this area right here.
THE COURT: Objection will be overruled.

The photograph at issue in the instant case, which is similar to a photograph which would be used for medical education, is relevant in that it illustrates the testimony of Dr. Edward Adelstein, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Manning. Dr. Adelstein testified that the injuries sustained by Manning, the rupture of the bladder and the internal bleeding, were the result of a very powerful force. The injuries were not apparent from external examination and the photograph was the only way that the injuries could be shown. Because the photograph is very graphic, it was illustrative of the testimony.

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Bluebook (online)
923 S.W.2d 349, 1996 Mo. App. LEXIS 346, 1996 WL 93466, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-pipes-moctapp-1996.