State v. Schnelle

398 S.W.3d 37, 2013 WL 1110698, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 344
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 19, 2013
DocketNo. WD 74300
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 398 S.W.3d 37 (State v. Schnelle) 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. Schnelle, 398 S.W.3d 37, 2013 WL 1110698, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 344 (Mo. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

ALOK AHUJA, Judge.

Following a jury trial, James Schnelle was convicted in the Circuit Court of Putnam County of first-degree burglary and first-degree assault, and was acquitted of forcible rape. Schnelle appeals. He claims that the court erred in refusing to allow him to call two witnesses to challenge the victim’s reputation for truth and veracity. Schnelle also challenges the circuit court’s actions of sentencing him as a persistent offender, and ordering him to pay $41,212 in restitution, in [40]*40addition to serving a term of imprisonment. We affirm Schnelle’s convictions, and his sentence of incarceration; we modify the circuit court’s judgment, however, to eliminate the restitution order.

Factual Background

Schnelle was tried before a jury on charges of first-degree burglary, first-degree assault, and forcible rape. Schnelle’s victim was a forty-nine year-old woman residing in Unionville.1 In 2008, the victim and Schnelle became friends. Schnelle often paid the victim to do various jobs at his home, such as cooking and cutting his hair. The victim testified that she and Schnelle never had a sexual relationship, and that she had no desire for one.

In 2008, the victim was going through a divorce. During that time the victim had sexual intercourse with her husband, and informed Schnelle of this fact. Schnelle told her that she should accuse her husband of raping her. The victim agreed to the plan, with the hopes of getting more money in her dissolution case. To make the lie appear more convincing, Schnelle hit the victim in the eye and dragged her through the yard to further rough her up. The victim then went to the hospital and reported that her husband had raped her, although no criminal charges were ever filed.

The crimes for which Schnelle was convicted occurred on June 28, 2009. The testimony at trial was that, on the morning of June 28, the victim and her then-boyfriend were engaging in sexual intercourse in the victim’s bedroom. Schnelle entered the bedroom and found the couple naked. He referred to the victim using a variety of derogatory obscenities, and claimed that she had stolen $100 from his home. Schnelle then used his cell phone to take pictures of the naked couple. The victim’s boyfriend left the room to use the bathroom while Schnelle and the victim argued. Upon his return, the victim’s boyfriend found the victim lying in the hallway dazed, with an apparent shoeprint on her face. The victim’s boyfriend had to leave for work. The victim walked him out of her house, to find that all four tires of her vehicle had been cut and that air was “hissing” out.

During the afternoon of the same day, Schnelle returned to the victim’s house to show her the photographs he had taken. He also called the victim’s cell phone several times, but she did not answer. Schnelle returned to the house even later that same afternoon and knocked at the door on the victim’s back porch, but she hid on the front porch until he left. Finally, Schnelle left a message on the victim’s telephone answering machine for the victim’s mother, calling the victim a number of names, and stating that she was a “player” and that he was a “player hater” and would “play her clear to the fuckin’ prison.” He also stated that “I’m going to fuck her up good,” and “I’m going to show her what life’s all about.” The victim played the message for her neighbor, who insisted that the victim call the police.

Unionville Chief of Police James Rollins responded to the victim’s home with a deputy at 7:00 p.m. Chief Rollins saw the red mark on the victim’s face, listened to Schnelle’s threatening phone message, and observed the slashed tires on the victim’s car. Chief Rollins also spoke with the victim’s boyfriend regarding the events of that morning. He then went to the Union-ville Country Club, where he found Schnelle drinking in the bar at 8:30 p.m. Schnelle admitted going to the victim’s [41]*41house in the morning, taking pictures of her and her boyfriend, and leaving the phone message. He denied striking the victim, however, and also denied cutting the victim’s tires. Schnelle stated that he told the victim that he wanted his money back, and that if he did not get it, he would tell the police about the plot to frame the victim’s ex-husband for rape. Chief Rollins took Schnelle to City Hall, where Schnelle gave a statement as to the false rape allegations against the victim’s ex-husband. Chief Rollins then returned Schnelle to the Unionville Country Club, telling him to stay away from the victim.

After spending the evening with her neighbor, the victim returned home at approximately 10:30 p.m. She locked her doors and went to bed. She testified that she was awoken by Schnelle on top of her, cussing and hitting her. He wrapped what the victim believed to be an electrical cord around her neck and was choking her. Schnelle told her that she “was gonna pay,” and continued to hit her until she passed out.

The victim awoke at approximately 2:30 a.m., naked. She went to her neighbor’s house covered in blood and wearing only a towel. Her eyes were swollen shut. She told her neighbor “he’s got a gun, can you help me?” The neighbor called 911. When police arrived, they saw that the victim had severe bruising to her face and arms, and on her neck consistent with strangulation.

The police discovered that the window on the back door of the victim’s home had been broken, and the door forced open. There was considerable blood in the victim’s bedroom and hall. It appeared that someone had tried to clean blood from the bathroom.

The victim was transported to the hospital. A rape kit was administered, which revealed the presence of Schnelle’s sperm. Due to the severity of her injuries, the victim was eventually transported to two additional hospitals, and underwent surgery to have a plate implanted below her eye to repair an orbital fracture.

The day after the attack, Schnelle went to the victim’s home and told her mother, “I’m sorry this happened.” The police interviewed Schnelle. He said that he was at the victim’s home at approximately 6:00 p.m. He stated that, as he entered the back door, the victim had jumped on him, pushing him backwards into the door and breaking the glass and cutting his arm. The two argued, but the victim initiated a sexual encounter, and they proceeded to engage in sexual intercourse and oral sex both in the bedroom and bathroom. Schnelle stated that he left the victim’s home at 6:30 p.m. The interviewing officer noticed that Schnelle’s knuckles were swollen. Schnelle explained that, while he and the victim were engaged in sexual intercourse, he withdrew and told the victim that he did not love her. He stated that he hit her, and threw her onto the floor. He followed her onto the floor to “thump” her, - which caused her to hit the wall. Schnelle claimed the room was in order when he left; he made a diagram of where the police would find his blood due to the cut on his arm. Schnelle had not described this purported 6:00-6:30 p.m. encounter with the victim when he had spoken with Chief Rollins the prior evening at approximately 8:30 p.m.

Schnelle did not testify in his defense. He did call the victim’s first ex-husband, who was present with the victim’s mother the day after the attack, to dispute the claim that Schnelle’s statement to the victim’s mother was an apology for his actions. He also called a bartender from the Unionville Country Club, who testified that on the night of the attack she drove Schnelle home in his vehicle and then took [42]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
398 S.W.3d 37, 2013 WL 1110698, 2013 Mo. App. LEXIS 344, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-schnelle-moctapp-2013.