State v. Romesburg

703 S.W.2d 562, 1985 Mo. App. LEXIS 3869
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 31, 1985
DocketWD 36630
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 703 S.W.2d 562 (State v. Romesburg) 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. Romesburg, 703 S.W.2d 562, 1985 Mo. App. LEXIS 3869 (Mo. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

PRITCHARD, Judge.

By the verdict of a jury, appellant was found guilty of second degree murder in the shooting death, which occurred on October 21, 1984, of Ollie Cooper, the mayor of Weaubleau, Missouri. The jury assessed punishment at 15 years imprisonment, and accordingly, the trial court entered sentence in the Division of Corrections for that term less 199 days time spent in jail.

The sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the conviction is not questioned.

Prior to the trial, appellant disclosed to the state that a number of witnesses would testify that one James Leslie had said that he was the one who killed Ollie Cooper. Attached to the disclosure, by way of an offer of proof, was the expected testimony of eight witnesses: Jackie Kennan heard Leslie tell someone, about March 1,1984, in the Rustic Inn in Weaubleau that he had killed Ollie Cooper; about two nights after Cooper’s murder, he heard Leslie say while sitting in the Rustic Inn that he had shot Cooper and had been paid $2,000 to do it; Leslie came to Ora Nadine Richards’ home two months after Cooper’s death and told her that he had killed Cooper, and that he had borrowed appellant’s gun and killed Cooper’s cows; Willie Richards heard the conversation in which Ora Nadine was told by Leslie that he had killed Cooper, and that he had been paid $50 apiece for them; Richard Cauthon, who lived with Ora Nadine, heard Leslie tell William Richards that he had killed Cooper; Nita Williams was in the Rustic Inn sometime between February 1 and March 3, when Leslie told her he had killed Cooper, but that he did not have any worries because he had a terrific alibi; Nita’s husband, Larry, heard Leslie’s statements that he had shot Cooper, and that he said his alibi was good enough; Kimberly Gillis, Leslie’s ex-wife, had a conversation with him on St. Patrick’s day weekend in 1984, in which he told her he had shot Cooper’s horses. In re *564 sponse to the disclosure, the state filed a motion in limine to preclude the defense witnesses’ testimony that they had heard another or others admit committing the murder upon the ground that third party declarations are not admissible exceptions to the hearsay rule in criminal proceedings, citing State v. Turner, 623 S.W.2d 4 (Mo. banc 1981); and State v. Gullett, 633 S.W.2d 454 (Mo.App.1982). At trial, these witnesses, along with Harold Ray Champ-lin, testified by way of further offer of proof substantially to the same matters in the attachment to disclosure. At the close of trial testimony offer of proof, the court remarked that Leslie had been available in the courthouse for at least that day as somebody said in evidence, and the prosecutor informed the court that Leslie was available the day before and the same day as the offer was made. The court rejected the offer of proof.

Leslie had testified for the state at the preliminary hearing, and had provided one of the affidavits that allowed the sheriff to search appellant’s residence for a 30/30 rifle which was seized, and which Leslie identified as the murder weapon, which was admitted into evidence upon expert testimony that it was the gun which had killed Cooper. The state declined to call Leslie as a witness at the trial. Neither did appellant attempt to call Leslie as a witness (even adverse) for the defense.

Appellant principally relies upon Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973). In that case, a third person “declarant” had made oral confessions to three different friends, and had made a written confession, later repudiated, that he had committed the murder with which petitioner was charged. The trial court granted a motion requiring the declarant to appear. The state failed to put him on the stand, and petitioner called him and laid a predicate for the introduction of his out-of-court confession, had it admitted into evidence and read to the jury. On cross-examination, the state elicited the repudiation of the confession. Petitioner requested that he be allowed to examine the declarant as an adverse witness, which was denied by the trial court on the ground that he was not adverse, and the trial court refused to allow the testimony of witnesses as to the oral confessions, which was affirmed by the Mississippi Supreme Court upon the ground of hearsay, which court also held that the declarant’s testimony was not adverse because he nowhere pointed the finger at petitioner. The United States Supreme Court reversed, saying that the “voucher” rule (of credibility of witnesses called by a party) applied by Mississippi interfered with petitioner’s right to defend against the state’s charges, and that the exclusion of the offered evidence of declarant’s oral confessions, the reliability which was established, was also error, petitioner on both grounds being deprived of a fair trial. It should be noted that declarant (as here) was available at trial. The Chambers rationale was adopted in State v. Turner, 623 S.W.2d 4, 9 (Mo. banc 1981), which held that when an unavailable witness makes a declaration against penal interest, “ ‘where substantial indicia of reliability appear and declarant’s complicity if true would exonerate the accused, declarant’s averments against an interest penal in nature may not be excluded * * ” See also State v. Carroll, 629 S.W.2d 483 (Mo.App.1981), where the de-clarant was unavailable without question.

In this ease, the trial court had information that Leslie was available in the courthouse for two days before the offer of proof was made, and apparently rejected his declarations against penal interest upon that ground. Apparently appellant did not seek to subpoena Leslie or his witness and to cross-examine him as an adverse witness as was attempted in the Chambers case. Thus, there is no way of knowing what Leslie might have said on the stand or whether he would have testified. In State v. Brooks, 693 S.W.2d 211, 212 (Mo.App.1985), it was said, “Cases have focused on two basic requirements before such hearsay is admissible: 1) the declarant is unavailable, and 2) there is a ‘substantial indicia of reliability.’ [citing State v. Turner, 623 S.W.2d at 9.]” Both prongs of this test *565 must be satisfied for the declaration to be allowed. The Brooks court held that there was not a good faith attempt to locate the declarant, therefore the trial court did not err in refusing to admit the declaration. For that same reason, the trial court did not err in rejecting the offer of proof of the testimony as to the eight declarations against penal interest and Point I, raising the issue, is overruled.

In Point II, appellant contends that the trial court erred in refusing his offered alibi instruction, MAI-CR 2d 3.20. The record shows that the state requested appellant to disclose whether he intended to rely on the defense of alibi, but the state neglected to disclose in its request the place, date, and time of the crime charged.

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Bluebook (online)
703 S.W.2d 562, 1985 Mo. App. LEXIS 3869, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-romesburg-moctapp-1985.