State v. Ragland

494 S.W.3d 613, 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 735, 2016 WL 4004608
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 26, 2016
DocketNo. ED 102671
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 494 S.W.3d 613 (State v. Ragland) 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. Ragland, 494 S.W.3d 613, 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 735, 2016 WL 4004608 (Mo. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

KURT S. QDENWALD, JUDGE

Introduction

Appellant Jacob Ragland (“Ragland”) appeals from the judgment of the trial court entered upon a jury verdict convicting Ragland of six counts of first-degree statutory sodomy, three counts of first-[618]*618degree child molestation, and two counts of use of a child in a sexual performance for acts committed against J.J. and J.F., both minor children. Ragland was acquitted of five other counts pertaining to a third minor child, S.J. On appeal, Ragland contends that the trial court (1) erred in admitting evidence of J.F.’s out-of-court statements under Section 491.075; (2) erred in admitting evidence of J.J.’s out-of-court statements under Section 491.075; (3) abused its discretion in sending State’s Exhibits 7, 9, and 11 — videos of J.F., J.J., and S.J.’s Children’s Advocacy Center (“CAC”) interviews — to the jury during deliberations without supervision or limiting instructions; (4) clearly erred in overruling Ragland’s motion for judgment of acquittal with respect to the two counts of use of a child in a sexual performance because the State failed to provide sufficient evidence that Ragland “watched” the performance; and (5) abused its discretion in refusing to allow the jury to take notes during the trial.

Because the time, content, and circumstances of J.F.’s and J.J.’s out-of-court statements provided sufficient indicia of reliability, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting these statements at trial under Section 491.075. Because the CAC interview videos to which Ragland objects were not testimonial in nature, the trial court did not plainly err in allowing the jury access to the videos during deliberation. Because the State presented sufficient evidence supporting Ragland’s conviction on two counts of use of a child in a sexual performance, the trial court did not clearly err in overruling Ragland’s motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of all of the evidence. Finally, trial court did not abuse its discretion by prohibiting note-taking by jurors when the request was made after the first prosecution witness had already testified. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Factual and Procedural History

Ragland was charged with six counts of first-degree statutory sodomy, three counts of first-degree child molestation, and two counts of use of a child in a sexual performance for acts committed against J.J. and J.F. Ragland was charged with five other counts pertaining to S.J.

On March 23, 2014, the State filed its Notice of Intention to Use Statements pursuant to Section 491.075.3 — specifically, out-of-court statements made by J.F. and J.J.1 The State sought to use statements made by J.F. to his aunt, Carmen Jackson (“Carmen”), his mother, Jasmine Kidd (“Jasmine”),2 and Connilee Christie (“Christie”) of the CAC. The State also gave notice of its intent to use statements made by J.J. to his mother, Carmen, and to Pamela Musgrave (“Musgrave”) of the CAC. The trial court held a Section 491 hearing (“491 Hearing”) on September 22 and 23,2014.

1. 491 Hearing

A. Jasmine’s Testimony

Jasmine’s testimony at the 491 Hearing consisted of the following facts. Jasmine testified that Carmen told her J.F; had said something while playing video games that led Carmen to believe Ragland may have touched J.F. inappropriately. At that [619]*619point, Jasmine and Carmen began questioning J.F. about what happened; Ragland and Jasmine’s boyfriend, Marcus Dukes (“Marcus”), were present in the room. Jasmine, asked J.F., “did it happen?” and he said “no.” Marcus then took J.F. on a walk by himself. When Marcus and J.F. returned, Marcus told Jasmine that she should keep talking to J.F. to uncover the truth, because J.F. made a.comment to Marcus that .“the, first time it happened was at Little Dan’s house.”3

Jasmine continued to question J.F., again with all four adults present. Jasmine specifically asked J.F. if Ragland had touched him,- not if anyone generally had touched him. Jasmine stated that she and the other adults questioned J.F. for thirty minutes. Jasmine asked J.F. if he told Carmen “that [Ragland] had been messing with [him],” and he said “yes.” J.F. had a look on his face like he might be lying or scared, so Jasmine had him take off his clothes. Jasmine stated that J.F. answered “yes” prior to taking his clothes off, and that the purpose of having J.F. take off his clothes was to “get the truth out of him,” to “get to the bottom” of things, because J.F. is “scared of whodpings.” After telling J.F. to take off his clothes, Jasmine told him “that if he was lying he was going to be in trouble,” and that “[i]f he was not lying that he just needed to keep letting us know, keep telling us the whole story and let us know what happened.” Jasmine denied that she threatened to beat J.F. at any point, but stated that she was holding a belt.

Jasmine testified that she said the following .to J.F.: “If you’re lying then you’re going to get in trouble, but if you’re not lying you’re not going to get in trouble, and I’m not going to whoop you, but I need to know the truth, because I don’t... want to say that this man did something to ... you and he gets in trouble if he didn’t do nothing to you.” J.F. then began crying and starting to “tell the story,” stating that “[Ragland] made [J.J.] suck on him while they was in the house” on Saloma while Jasmine' and Marcus were gone. J.F. pointed to his penis to indicate where Rag-land made J.J. suck on him.

Finally, Jasmine testified that she had a private conversation with J.F. later that same night. J.F. told Jasmine and Marcus that Ragland made J.J. “do the sucking on his private area thing” twice at the house on Saloma. J.F. also told Jasmine and Marcus that Ragland made'J.F. and J.J. play a game in the basement of Little Dan’s house while everyone else was sleeping, in which Ragland made J.J. touch J.F.’s penis.

B. Carmen’s Testimony

, Carmen’s testimony at the 491 Hearing consisted of the following facts. She and J.F. were playing video games when J.F. made a comment about “sucking” at the game, followed by “something in reference to [Ragland] and him sucking.”4 Carmen then asked J.F. if Ragland had touched him; J.F. initially said “no” and then “a few seconds' later” put his head down and said “yes.” Carmen responded by asking [620]*620where Ragland had touched J.F., who responded that Ragland had touched him “where he’s not supposed to.”

Carmen confirmed that Jasmine questioned .J.F. while both she and Ragland were present. Carmen also testified that, after forty-five minutes to one hour of denying that Ragland touched him, J.F. told Jasmine that Ragland had touched him. Carmen stated that Jasmine did not make J.F. take off his clothes, but that Jasmine did “get out a belt.” When Jasmine got the belt out, J.F. “kept saying “Yes, it happened and then no, it didn’t happen.’” Carmen testified that Jasmine told J.F. that if he said Ragland did not touch him, and she found out he was lying, “she was going to beat him until he bled.”

Carmen also spoke with her own children, including J.J., after J.F.’s disclosure. Carmen’s ■ children told her Ragland had never touched them. However, Carmen later had an individual conversation with J.J. after Ragland was in jail; Carmen asked J.J.

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Bluebook (online)
494 S.W.3d 613, 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 735, 2016 WL 4004608, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ragland-moctapp-2016.