State v. Rayford

646 S.W.2d 137, 1983 Mo. App. LEXIS 3826
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 18, 1983
DocketNo. 44434
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 646 S.W.2d 137 (State v. Rayford) 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. Rayford, 646 S.W.2d 137, 1983 Mo. App. LEXIS 3826 (Mo. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

STEWART, Presiding Judge.

Defendant appeals from judgment entered upon conviction by a jury of the crimes of burglary in the second degree and of stealing.

We affirm.

In general terms the contentions of defendant are that the trial court erred in (1) failing to sustain his motion for judgment of acquittal, (2) denying his motion to suppress, (3) admitting evidence with respect to tread patterns on his shoes, (4) failing to suppress evidence of a statement made by defendant and his codefendant, (5) admitting irrelevant testimony of a police officer, and (6) admitting conclusory testimony of a police officer.

Once again we are met with a flagrant violation of the rules concerning appellate procedure. Defendant’s statement of facts does not contain any page references to the transcript to support the statement. Rule 84.04(h). Counsel would do well to read Thummel v. King, 570 S.W.2d 679 (Mo.banc 1978), before undertaking to write a brief.

Rather than prolong the proceedings as warranted by Rule 84.08, we have undertaken the task of drafting the statement of facts at the expense of other litigants whose cases await our consideration.

On February 3, 1981, an extremely cold night, at 4:54 a.m., Cape Girardeau police responded to an alarm sounding at an army surplus and general merchandise store known as the Fox Hole. When the police arrived two minutes later they found the three foot by five foot plexi-glass portion of the front door lying inside the store. The frame of the door was locked. A full patent shoe print was found on the exterior side of the plexi-glass. The print was about half way up on the plexi-glass. The police searched the premises but found no one.

While at the Fox Hole, one of the officers was dispatched to the courthouse because an alarm was sounding there. The courthouse is just a short distance south and west of the Fox Hole. The officer found the courthouse to be secure and started back to the Fox Hole searching the area from his patrol car. At a point approximately two blocks from the Fox Hole, the officer saw defendant and Johnny Walker walking south, away from the area of the Fox Hole. They seemed startled and de[139]*139fendant made a motion as though he was getting rid of something. Defendant and Walker continued walking but stopped at the officer’s command about 150 feet from where he had first seen them. They were asked for their identity and as to their purpose for being on the street. They gave their identity and told the officer that they were out jogging. The officer noted that they were not breathing heavily, and that Walker was wearing slick soled shoes. Defendant was wearing tennis shoes. The temperature was about 5 degrees. When other officers arrived, the first officer went to the area where he had first observed the two men. Upon searching the area he found a hand scale. Mr. Mabrey, the person who had secured the Fox Hole at closing time was brought to view the scale. He identified it as his. Mr. Mabrey testified that a similar set of scales was missing from the Fox Hole. Also missing were seven long guns and three handguns. The long guns were recovered in a vacant lot a short distance from the Fox Hole. The handguns were never recovered.

After Mr. Mabrey identified the hand scale, defendant and Walker were placed under arrest and taken to headquarters where they were booked and their clothing was taken as evidence.

The experts who compared the shoe sole impression on the plexi-glass with the sole of the defendant’s right shoe testified that the impression on the plexi-glass had been made by defendant’s shoe sole.

The first two points raised by defendant attack the sufficiency of the evidence to warrant submission of the case to the jury. We review the evidence in the light most favorable to the State. State v. Williams, 623 S.W.2d 552, 553 (Mo.1981).

Defendant first contends that there was no evidence of ownership or occupancy of the burglarized premises. Proof of ownership or occupancy of the premises is essential to a conviction for burglary in the second degree, to show that the premises did not belong to the accused and to protect the accused from a second prosecution for the same offense. State v. Wilhite, 587 S.W.2d 321, 323 (Mo.App.1979); State v. Smith, 626 S.W.2d 669, 671 (Mo.App.1981).

In this case Mr. Mabrey was not specifically asked about the ownership of the Fox Hole. He was asked his occupation and replied “Salesman.” This reply does not negate his ownership of the establishment as defined in Wilhite, supra.

The following evidence viewed favorably to the State leads to the conclusion that Mr. Mabrey was the owner of the Fox Hole. On the night of the crime when he was asked if he could identify the scale that was taken from the store he said “[tjhey're mine.” When shown photographs of the door, he testified “[w]ell, this is my front door.” He also identified the long guns that had been recovered as “my guns.” He further testified that he usually closed the store around five o’clock; that on February 2 the store was closed at five after five o’clock p.m. He locked up and checked to be certain that the store was secure. He has a security system that is tied into the police department. In the very early morning of February 3 he was notified that the alarm had been activated and he returned to the store. He testified that he had not given defendant or Walker permission to enter the store after closing.

There was sufficient evidence to permit a jury to find that Mr. Mabrey occupied and used the premises to the exclusion of defendant and Walker and to protect defendant from being prosecuted a second time for unlawfully breaking into the premises known as the Fox Hole.

Defendant also contends that the circumstantial evidence was not inconsistent and irreconcilable with his innocence and did not point to his guilt so clearly as to exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. State v. White, 439 S.W.2d 752, 754 (Mo. 1969).

The application of the “circumstantial evidence rule” is realistically tempered, however, such that the circumstances need not be absolutely conclusive of guilt or demonstrate impossibility of innocence. “[T]he mere existence of other hypotheses is not [140]*140enough to remove the case from the jury.” State v. Newman, 605 S.W.2d 781, 786 (Mo. 1980).

We believe it abundantly clear from the facts set out above in the statement of facts that the jury could have found the following: Defendant in the company of Walker kicked the plexi-glass into the store; his foot print was found halfway up the exteri- or of the plexi-glass, a most unlikely place to find a foot print under ordinary circumstances. The only logical inference is that the foot that wore the shoe was used to push the door glass in the store. Defendant, even in argument, gives no other plausable explanation of the presence of the foot print. See State v. Hulbert, 621 S.W.2d 310 (Mo.App.1981).

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

Related

State v. Oropeza
735 S.W.2d 2 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1987)
State v. Bolen
731 S.W.2d 453 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1987)
State v. Smith
726 S.W.2d 418 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1987)
State v. Bannister
680 S.W.2d 141 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1984)
State v. Willis
680 S.W.2d 296 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1984)
State v. Fain
679 S.W.2d 419 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1984)
State v. Johnson
660 S.W.2d 271 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1983)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
646 S.W.2d 137, 1983 Mo. App. LEXIS 3826, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rayford-moctapp-1983.