State v. Seemiller

558 S.W.2d 212, 1977 Mo. App. LEXIS 2644
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 16, 1977
DocketNo. 38067
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 558 S.W.2d 212 (State v. Seemiller) 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. Seemiller, 558 S.W.2d 212, 1977 Mo. App. LEXIS 2644 (Mo. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

ALDEN A. STOCKARD, Special Judge.

Paul Seemiller has appealed from a judgment entered pursuant to a jury verdict wherein he was found guilty of sodomy (Count I) and assault with intent to do great bodily harm without malice aforethought (Count II). We affirm.

There is no challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence as to Count I, but appellant does contend in Point IV of his brief that the court erred in failing to enter a judgment of acquittal as to Count II because there was no evidence of intent. That contention will be discussed subsequently.

By his first Point appellant, somewhat inadequately, asserts prejudicial error resulted when the trial court “allowed the prosecuting attorney to make extraneous, improper, [and] prejudicial comments solely for the benefit of the jury as a course of continual conduct throughout the trial.” The incidents are not otherwise identified in the Point, but in the argument we find reference to nine incidents. As to five of them appellant’s objection was sustained and no other relief was requested. As to two other incidents, appellant interposed no objection and no relief was requested. These seven incidents have not been preserved for appellate review, State v. Martin, 346 S.W.2d 71 (Mo.1961); State v. Johnson, 483 S.W.2d 65 (Mo.1972).

During the examination of the prosecuting witness, the prosecuting attorney asked her to “tell us in your own words exactly what happened * * * and I know it is difficult, but, please, for these men,” (apparently referring to the jury). Defense Counsel objected to “what is difficult and not difficult.” There was no ruling expressly made, but the court called counsel to the bench and commented that the matter had been gone into previously, and to go into it further would be “unduly repetitious.” There was no motion to strike the comment of the prosecutor, and no other request for relief was made. There is nothing preserved for appellate review.

During the cross-examination of appellant, Defense Counsel interrupted and said: “I object to his harassment. The witness has already testified to it all.” The court overruled the objection. We have read carefully the preceding testimony and there is not the slightest indication of harassment. The trial court heard and witnessed the examination, and overruled the objection. We defer to that ruling.

Contrary to appellant’s assertion in his brief, we find no abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court in regard to these nine incidents.

Appellant’s second Point is that the court erred in permitting “proof of other crimes * * * said testimony being irrelevant and immaterial.”

Appellant and a companion picked up the prosecuting witness in their automobile at Soulard and Ninth Streets in the City of St. Louis. She testified that appellant and his companion committed acts of sodomy and beat her with fists from the time she entered the automobile until it was stopped by the police in St. Charles County about seven miles west of the St. Charles bridge over the Missouri River. In argument appellant asserts that “The allowance into evidence of criminal activities that occurred before the defendant arrived in the County of St. Charles, more specifically, the testimony concerning prior acts of sodomy by defendant upon the victim, said prior acts not occurring in St. Charles County, was so [215]*215inflammatory and intertwined with the allegations in the information, that [appellant] was unable to obtain a fair and impartial trial as to the charges in the information.”

“Although the general rule is that in a criminal trial, evidence of crime other than the one charged is inadmissible, as with most general rules there are certain well-recognized exceptions. ‘Where the proof of other offenses may tend to establish motive, or intent, or absence of accident or mistake, or identity of the defendant, or a common scheme or plan embracing the commission of separate similar offenses so interrelated to each other that proof of one tends to establish the other, such other offenses are widely held under these circumstances to be admissible in proof.’ State v. Kornegger, 363 Mo. 968, 255 S.W.2d 765, 768 (1953); State v. Shumate, 478 S.W.2d 328 (Mo.1972).” State v. Torrence, 519 S.W.2d 360, 361 (Mo.App.1975). In the Torrence case, the Kansas City District applied the above general rule to a factual situation re-markedly similar to that in this case, and said: “The evidence in this case clearly discloses that from the time the defendant entered the car at 39th and Prospect, until he exited from the car at 56th and Wabash, he had prosecutrix under his power and control. The evidence points to but one conclusion — that defendant exercised power and control over prosecutrix to effect but one design and plan, namely, to make prose-cutrix the victim of sexual excesses. In this context, what occurred in the alley near 18th and Cherry, and at First and Delaware, were but manifestations of this one common design and plan. As such, the whole continuous transaction should be viewed as one, and the separate acts of defendant were admissible.” In this case the continuous acts of appellant were admissible because they formed part of the res gestae of the offense charged. There is no merit to this contention.

Over appellant’s objection that it was hearsay, the trial court permitted the arresting police officer to testify that after he stopped appellant’s automobile the pros-ecutrix came toward him and made a statement in which she related what occurred, and the facts she stated constituted the act of sodomy by appellant. Appellant argues that the statement could not have been a part of the res gestae because there was too great an interval of time between the occurrence and the act. He cites and relies on State v. Rider, 90 Mo. 54, 1 S.W. 825 (1886) and State v. Noeninger, 108 Mo. 166, 18 S.W. 990 (1892). Both of these were cases where a statement of the victim of a shooting was offered in evidence. In the Rider case the victim had walked two hundred yards, and in the Noeninger case the statement was made five minutes after the shooting. Neither of these cases are controlling here. In this case the police officer stopped appellant’s automobile and parked his automobile about fifty feet to the rear. Immediately thereafter appellant and pros-ecutrix got out of the automobile. Prosecu-trix face and blouse were bloody, her clothing was disarranged, and she appeared hysterical. As the prosecutrix came toward him, and before any questions were asked, she made the statement to the officer.

“ ‘When strictly defined, res gestae refers to those exclamations and statements made by either the participants, victims, or spectators to a crime immediately before, during, or immediately after the commission of the crime, when the circumstances are such that the statements were made as a spontaneous reaction or utterance inspired by the excitement of the occasion and there was no opportunity for the declarant to deliberate and to fabricate a false statement.’ ” State v. Hook, 432 S.W.2d 349 (Mo.1968). What constitutes a sufficient showing

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Bluebook (online)
558 S.W.2d 212, 1977 Mo. App. LEXIS 2644, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-seemiller-moctapp-1977.