State v. Sherrard

659 S.W.2d 582
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 11, 1983
DocketNo. 46151
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 659 S.W.2d 582 (State v. Sherrard) 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. Sherrard, 659 S.W.2d 582 (Mo. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

JAMES A. FINCH, Senior Judge.

Defendant Sherrard was convicted on two counts of rape, two counts of sodomy, one count of kidnapping and one count of second degree assault. He was acquitted on a charge of robbery. He received sentences of five years on each count except the assault on which the sentence was two years. Sentences for the kidnapping, for one rape and for one sodomy were to be served consecutively. The other sentences were to be served concurrently with the three consecutive sentences.

On appeal, Sherrard asserts (I) error in overruling his pretrial motion to suppress identification of him on the basis of unduly suggestive police procedures; (II) error in overruling his motion to suppress his statements and confessions on the basis that he was not properly advised of his rights and he was coerced by threats of serious bodily harm; (III) error in overruling his motion for acquittal because a submissible case on the charges of rape and sodomy was not made; and (IV) error in denying his motion to dismiss Counts VI and VII (rape and sodomy) as duplicitous of Counts III and IV, as well as error in giving instructions on Counts VI and VII. We affirm.

On the night of August 2, 1981, the victim stopped her automobile at a stop light. A man, later identified as Michael Garrett, came to the driver’s side of the car and, exhibiting a pistol, required her to move over. Then Garrett entered the car and drove it behind an adjacent Texaco filling station. At that time another man, later identified as Frederick Sherrard, approached the right side of the car and got in the front seat with the victim and Garrett.

Subsequently each man required the victim to commit an act of oral sodomy and each then raped her. She was told to get out of the car but while she and Sherrard [584]*584were still on the back seat, the gun in Garrett’s hand was fired, first striking Sherrard in the thigh and then hitting her in the stomach. She was dumped on the ground and the two men drove off in her car. She then crawled to a neighboring house and aroused the occupants. The police and an ambulance were called and she was taken to a hospital.

That same night Sherrard was admitted to another hospital with a gunshot in his right thigh. The police were called and he told them that he was standing on a street corner (not far from where she was shot) and that, while he was urinating, a van drove by and an occupant shot him in the hip.

Other facts shown by the evidence are recited in connection with our discussion of defendant’s assignments on appeal.

I

Sherrard’s first assignment on appeal is that the trial court erred in overruling his pretrial motion to suppress any in-court identification of him for the reason that such identifications would be based on an unduly suggestive pretrial confrontation conducive to irreparable mistaken identification. The confrontation of which defendant complains occurred between the victim and defendant in Detective Brogan’s office on September 11, 1981.

We conclude that the trial court’s action on this motion to suppress was justified. It’s action is supported by evidence from which it could be found that:

1.On the night of August 2, 1981, the victim had ample opportunity to observe both defendant and his companion Michael Garrett. After Garrett entered the car and drove it behind the filling station, defendant got in the front seat beside her. Then, at Garrett's direction, he took the gun and walked to the front of the adjacent Texaco filling station. He later returned and got in the back seat with her. He remained there while Garrett drove the car to another street at which point defendant made her perform an act of oral sodomy, after which he got on top of her and raped her. He remained on the back seat while he pulled up his pants and was there when the gun in Garrett’s hand discharged and struck defendant and the victim. She could observe him as he got out of the car and was shouting that Garrett had shot him. This considerable span of time gave ample opportunity for her to have an independent basis for recognizing defendant.

2. On the following day at the hospital she was asked if she could go see a lineup. She had been operated on earlier and was still sedated and said she could not go to the lineup. Later that day she was shown a picture of a lineup of four men and asked if she recognized any of them. While she did not make a positive identification from the photograph, she pointed to the man who was second from the left and said she thought he was the man. The man she pointed to was the defendant.

3. When she came to the police station on September 11, she did not know that defendant would be there. She was not told that the police had a suspect whom she was to view. Defendant’s brief suggests that she was so told but the testimony is to the contrary. She was told only that the officers wanted to talk to her about what had happened to her.

4. When she walked into Detective Brogan’s office she saw defendant and immediately recognized him as one of the men who attacked her on the night of August 2.

5. Prior to her visit to the police station, Sherrard had admitted to the officers that he and Garrett were the two men who abducted and then raped and sodomized the victim on the night of August 2. He had done this after receiving Miranda warnings. Furthermore, he had told the officers that he had no objection to the victim coming to the station and being present. It was after that statement that Officer Brogan called her to come to the station.

6. After she came to the station, defendant, after an additional Miranda warning, again confessed to what he and Garrett had done on the night of August 2 and stated that he had received the gunshot in his [585]*585thigh at that time when Garrett shot both him and her.

We conclude that under the evidence the in-court identification of defendant by the victim had an origin and basis independent of the confrontation which occurred at the police station on September 11 and that the likelihood of misidentification as a result of the occurrences at the police station on September 11 has not been shown. The foregoing evidence supports the Court’s action in overruling the motion to suppress in-court identification.

In connection with this assignment, defendant cites and relies on State v. DeGraf-fenried, 477 S.W.2d 57 (Mo. banc 1972). There the court held that under the facts of that case it was reversible error to admit the testimony of an officer that he had heard and observed the identifying witness’ extra-judicial identification of an accused from a photograph and in a subsequent lineup. That is not the issue raised in this case. We do not have an issue as to admissibility of the police officers’ testimony. Rather, the issue raised on appeal is whether the court should have suppressed the in-court identification by the victim. De-Graffenreid does not support a reversal of this case.

We overrule defendant’s first assignment.

II

Sherrard’s second point relied on in this appeal is that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to suppress statements and confessions which he made. In this assignment defendant recites that (1) the statements were made without defendant having been advised promptly of his Miranda rights and (2) the statements were coerced by threats of serious bodily harm.

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Related

State v. Brewster
836 S.W.2d 9 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1992)
State v. Hicks
755 S.W.2d 242 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1988)
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729 S.W.2d 621 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1987)
State v. Spivey
710 S.W.2d 295 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1986)

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Bluebook (online)
659 S.W.2d 582, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-sherrard-moctapp-1983.