State v. Reynolds

782 S.W.2d 793, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 1843, 1989 WL 154664
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided December 21, 1989·No. 15958·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

PREWITT, Judge.

Following jury trial defendant was convicted of the second-degree murder of his wife Carla, § 565.021, RSMo 1986, and armed criminal action, § 571.015, RSMo 1986. He was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment for murder in the second degree and three years for armed criminal action, the sentences to run concurrently. Defendant appeals.

The charges arose from a shooting that occurred in the early morning of August 4, 1987, in Winona. Defendant and Carla, his wife of seventeen days, lived there. Robert Hart, who lived across the street from them, was awakened by a knock on the door and a woman’s voice asking for help. When he opened the door, Carla fell halfway into the house. She was bleeding profusely. Hart saw defendant kneeling partially on the ground and on his porch. There was a rifle laying on the porch and defendant was mumbling, “gruntin’ and spittin’ ”.

Defendant moved toward his wife who was lying in the doorway and lay “kinda anglin’ across her chest”. Defendant then got up and walked back across the street to his home. A few minutes later City Marshal McClurg and Highway Patrolman Kevin Floyd arrived. Appellant was then crouched in front of his pickup truck and Floyd ordered him to come out into the street. Defendant did so, but yelled, “Shoot me, shoot me”. He also yelled at Junior Wallace, a member of the Winona Police Department who was present, “shoot me, you son-of-a-bitch ... you’re gonna fry me anyway.” Floyd restrained defendant and read him his “Miranda” rights. Defendant had been shot and was taken to a hospital.

*795 Carla was killed by a .22 rifle. She died from a wound to her upper chest. She had been shot there at close range in the bedroom of their house. She also had been shot through the “web” of flesh between the right thumb and forefinger. The bathroom door was “tore loose” from its upper hinge and had not been in that condition two days previously. Several spent casings were recovered, one from between Carla’s feet on Hart’s porch, one from the bedroom of the Reynolds’ house, and one from behind defendant’s pickup parked at their house.

Defendant testified that when he arrived home between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. Carla was mad at him. He said she thought he had been with his ex-wife. He said that Carla pulled the rifle from a corner, they “wrestled over it”, and sometime during the tussle, it went off. He claimed he did not know she was shot until she got across the street to the Hart’s porch and fell. Defendant said he saw she “was lifeless and I got the gun and I put it under my chin and I pulled the trigger.” Other evidence, primarily statements allegedly made by defendant, will be discussed in considering defendant’s points.

For his first point defendant contends that the trial court erred in failing to strike venireman Thomas Lance “for cause when said juror gave equivocal answers” which “forced defendant to utilize a preemptive [sic] strike”. According to the legal file, furnished by defendant as appellant, plaintiff struck Lance, defendant took his six peremptory challenges, see § 546.180.1(2), RSMo 1986, to strike other venirepersons. Even if Lance should have been stricken by the court, that failure could not have been prejudicial. This point is denied.

For his second point defendant asserts that the trial court erred in allowing his deceased wife’s sister, Pat Nitsch, to testify that on the day defendant and Carla married, “I looked at John, and I said, ‘How long do you think this marriage will last?’ And he said, ‘It’ll take three bullets to end it.’ And I turned and I said, ‘What do you mean?’ And he said, ‘I’ll kill Carla, I’ll kill Cherish [her daughter], and then I’ll turn the gun on myself.’ ” 1

Defendant asserts that this testimony was not within any exception to the hearsay rule and that the state “failed to make disclosure of the witness.” Contrary to defendant’s point, the record shows both in a response to discovery, and as an attachment to the information, that the name and address of the witness was furnished to defendant.

At trial defendant’s counsel objected to this testimony because “we have never been apprised with any statements made by John to this woman. And the Rules of Criminal Procedure require that any statements made by the defendant against interest or confession to facts, be supplied to the defense.”

A party on appeal cannot raise a different reason as to why evidence should be rejected than was presented at trial. When this occurs, nothing is preserved for appellate review. State v. Shepard, 681 S.W.2d 473, 475 (Mo.App.1984). This point is not preserved for review. We also note that the record does not establish that the prosecutor violated any of the rules of discovery. See State v. Klaus, 730 S.W.2d 571, 578 (Mo.App.1987).

For his third point defendant contends that the trial court erred “in allowing the sheriff to testify as to defendant’s silence.” Defendant states that this was an adverse comment on defendant’s right to remain silent under the fifth amendment to the United States Constitution. In his brief defendant asserts that he objected to this testimony and his “objection was overruled”. Again, defendant misstates the record. The record reflects that the following occurred:

Q. You never did talk to Mr. Reynolds yourself?
A. No sir.
Q. He was gone?
A. Yes.
*796 Q. You’ve seen him several times since then?
A. Yes.
Q. You’ve transported him from place to place during these proceedings?
A. Before he made bond, yes.
Q. And did he ever tell you what happened out there?
A. No sir.
Q. He had every opportunity?
MR. SHAW [defendant’s attorney]: May we approach the bench, Your Honor?

Defendant’s counsel then stated that “defendant is going to ask the question and the answer previously asked and given be stricken and the jury be discharged and a mistrial declared”. The trial judge then stated that he would “sustain your objection in the sense that the jury will be instructed to disregard it, but not as to a mistrial.” The trial court then informed the jury to disregard the last two questions propounded to the sheriff and the answers given.

The parties agree that generally the silence of an accused under arrest is inadmissible. See State v. Mathenia, 702 S.W.2d 840, 842 (Mo. banc 1986), cert. denied 477 U.S. 909, 106 S.Ct. 3286, 91 L.Ed.2d 574 (1986). The question here is whether or not a mistrial should have been granted.

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State v. Reynolds, 782 S.W.2d 793, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 1843, 1989 WL 154664 (Mo. Ct. App. 1989).

782 S.W.2d 793 (State v. Reynolds) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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