State v. Samuels

905 S.W.2d 536, 1995 Mo. App. LEXIS 1526, 1995 WL 523194
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 1, 1995
DocketNos. 18905, 19949
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 905 S.W.2d 536 (State v. Samuels) 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. Samuels, 905 S.W.2d 536, 1995 Mo. App. LEXIS 1526, 1995 WL 523194 (Mo. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

PARRISH, Judge.

Oliver J. Samuels (defendant) was convicted, following a jury trial, of robbery in the second degree. § 569.030.1 He was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 5 years. Defendant thereafter filed a motion for post-conviction relief pursuant to Rule 29.15. The motion was denied after an evidentiary hearing.

Defendant appeals the judgment of conviction in the criminal case (No. 18905) and the order denying his Rule 29.15 motion (No. 19949). The appeals were consolidated as required by Ride 29.15(Z). This court affirms the judgment of conviction and the order denying the Rule 29.15 motion.

No. 18905

Defendant entered a store in Joplin, Missouri, known as “Name Brand Clothing.” He attempted to return a sweatshirt. Defendant had no tag or receipt of purchase that would verify the shirt had been purchased at the store. However, he claimed he bought the sweatshirt there the day before.

Following a discussion, the store’s cashier told defendant she would permit him to return the sweatshirt in exchange for a $.99 credit. Defendant began shopping for other merchandise. He went to the men’s section of the store, picked out three items — two pairs of jeans and a shirt — and took them to a dressing room.

After about ten minutes defendant came out of the dressing room. He had one pair of jeans laying over his arm. He walked to the cashier and laid them on a counter. The cashier walked to the dressing room and observed three empty hangers. She asked defendant where the other items of clothing were. He said he did not know what she was talking about.

The store manager walked up to defendant and lifted his shirt. He observed that defendant was wearing a pair of jeans beneath the trousers he wore as an outer garment. The manager told the cashier to call the police.

Defendant got away from the manager and ran to a nearby restaurant where he entered a restroom. He removed the jeans and placed them in the water tank behind a toilet. He was later arrested.

Defendant called two witnesses at trial, Dustin Anderson and Russell Cobb. Ms. Anderson was living with defendant on the date of the offense, January 29, 1993. She took defendant to the Oak Hill Hospital early that morning where a procedure she identified as “an E.D.G.” was performed.2 She said they arrived at the hospital around 6:00 a.m. They left the hospital “around 9:00 or 9:30” after the procedure was performed. Ms. Anderson took defendant to his home. She had been told not to let defendant drive.

About noon, approximately three hours after Ms. Anderson took defendant home, she took him to the Name Brand Clothing store. She went along to keep him from driving. She said his condition had improved since arriving home — “[H]e was better than when we first got home, but still kind of hyper.”

The drive to the store took about fifteen or twenty minutes. Defendant was carrying a Name Brand Clothing bag with something in it. Ms. Anderson explained what happened when they arrived at the store.

Q. [by defendant’s trial attorney] Okay. And when you got to Name Brand and he got out of the truck, what did he have with him?
[[Image here]]
A. He had the bag with him.
Q. Did you see him go into the store?
A. Yeah. Yes, I did.
[538]*538Q. How long was it before you saw him again?
A. Fifteen, twenty minutes.
Q. Okay. What was happening the next time you saw him?
A. He was running out of the store, being chased, very, very quickly.

Ms. Anderson saw defendant fighting with the store manager. He pulled away from the manager and ran to the truck where she was waiting. He told her to start the truck and leave. She refused. Defendant took off running.

Ms. Anderson testified that after defendant returned home from the hospital, a neighbor she identified as Rusty came to see defendant; that she “[g]ave him a jump start for his car.”

“Rusty” was Russell Cobb. Mr. Cobb testified that he lived next door to defendant January 29, 1993; that he went to defendant’s apartment that morning about “11:00 or 12:00 o’clock.” He went there to get a jump start for his car. He asked defendant to help him. He said defendant “looked high.” Ms. Anderson helped Mr. Cobb start his car.

At the conclusion of defendant’s evidence, his trial attorney offered “Defendant’s Exhibit 1” — defendant’s medical record from Oak Hill Hospital. It was offered for the purpose of showing defendant received medication at the hospital. Defendant contended it was evidence of involuntary intoxication. The state stipulated that if the custodian of the record were called, the custodian would testify that the exhibit was a medical record of the hospital. The state objected, however, to the record’s admission in evidence contending it was not evidence of involuntary intoxication. Defendant’s trial attorney responded, “I’m offering it because I believe that it is relevant on the issue of his involuntary intoxication.” The trial court sustained the state’s objection.

Defendant tendered two jury instructions that the trial court refused, Instruction Nos. A and B. Instruction No. A is a Not-in-MAI instruction that includes the language, “A drugged condition of a person is involuntarily produced when it is brought about by the introduction into his body of any substance at the direction of a licensed medical practitioner for a legitimate medical purpose.”

Instruction No. B is patterned according to MAI-CR3d 310.52. The Notes on Use for MAI-CR3d 310.52 require that it be given “[w]hen there is evidence of an involuntary intoxicated or drugged condition ... upon written request in proper form by the state or by the defendant.”

Point I contends the trial court erred in refusing to admit Defendant’s Exhibit 1 because it was relevant in that “it logically tended to prove that [defendant] was involuntarily drugged or intoxicated at the time of committing the offense.” It further contends the trial court erred in refusing to give Instruction Nos. A and B to the jury because there was evidence that defendant was in an “involuntary drugged condition.”

The stated purpose for offering Defendant’s Exhibit 1 was to establish the defense of involuntary intoxication. The exhibit listed medications administered to defendant during the E.D.G. procedure. Defendant contends the effects of these medications rendered him involuntarily intoxicated; that this deprived him of the capacity to know or appreciate the quality of his conduct in committing the acts that constitute robbery in the second degree.

Section 562.076 provides:

1. A person who is in an intoxicated or drugged condition whether from alcohol, drugs or other substance, is criminally responsible for conduct unless such condition is involuntarily produced and deprived him of the capacity to know or appreciate the nature, quality or wrongfulness of his conduct.
2. The defendant shall have the burden of injecting the issue of intoxicated or drugged condition.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
905 S.W.2d 536, 1995 Mo. App. LEXIS 1526, 1995 WL 523194, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-samuels-moctapp-1995.