State v. Smith

902 S.W.2d 313, 1995 Mo. App. LEXIS 978, 1995 WL 310710
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided May 23, 1995·No. Nos. 65798, 67204·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinions

CRAHAN, Judge.

Defendant, Kevin Smith, was convicted following a jury trial of sodomy, § 566.060 RSMo.Supp.1993, for which he was sentenced as a prior offender to 75 years imprisonment, and felonious restraint, § 565.120.1 RSMo. 1994, for which he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. After the trial, Defendant filed a Rule 29.15 motion for postconvic[314] tion relief which was denied without an evi-dentiary hearing. Defendant appeals only the conviction for felonious restraint and the denial of his 29.15 motion. We reverse the conviction of felonious restraint and affirm the denial of his 29.15 motion.

The facts viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict are as follows. On July 3, 1993, at approximately 1:50 p.m., Victim, a 13 year-old girl, walked from her parents’ house to her sister’s house at the corner of Kennerly and Hamilton to attend a family reunion. When no one answered the door upon her arrival at 2:10 p.m., Victim sat on the front porch to wait for her sister to return home. Five minutes later, Defendant entered the yard through a gate, sat next to Victim on the porch and asked Victim her name and age. Victim gave Defendant a false name and told him she was 11 years old.

After ignoring Defendant for five minutes, Victim decided to return to her parents’ home. Defendant asked Victim where she was going, and Victim told him she was going home. Defendant asked Victim if she would accompany him to the store, but Victim refused. Defendant grabbed Victim’s wrist and pulled her through the gate to Hamilton, the adjoining street. Defendant released Victim and followed her as she walked up Hamilton. Victim told Defendant she was going to a nearby phone to call her father to pick her up. Defendant told Victim she could use the phone at his house, but Victim refused.

Victim then attempted to return to her sister’s house, but Defendant again grabbed her by the wrist, directed her to a house across the street from her sister’s house, and sat her on a log. Victim became frightened, started crying and got up to return to her house. Victim crossed Hamilton, and Defendant followed her. A car pulled up, and Defendant briefly spoke to its occupants. Defendant then grabbed Victim and pulled her through a nearby gate and into an abandoned garage. As Defendant pulled Victim, she began to cry and repeatedly yelled, “No.”

At approximately 2:30 p.m., Jo Williams and her friend, Nicole Thompson, were driving south on Hamilton. Williams saw a man holding a little girl’s hand on the comer of Kennerly and Hamilton. The girl was crying. As she drove by, Williams noticed that the man “had her real tight by the arm.” In her rearview mirror, Williams saw the man pull the girl through a gate into an area that was vacant. Williams and Thompson heard the girl yelling, “No.” Williams backed her car up to the gate, and both she and Thompson saw Defendant push Victim into the abandoned garage and heard Victim crying. Thompson ran to a nearby home and called the police. When the police did not immediately respond, she called her husband and told him what they had seen. Thompson’s husband called her cousin, Timothy McGee, who immediately met Thompson.

Once inside the garage, Defendant asked Victim her name again, and Victim told him her real name. Defendant then pulled out a glass pipe with a black substance on the end of it and began smoking the pipe. He forced the pipe into Victim’s mouth, causing Victim to gag. Defendant pulled down his pants and told Victim to take off her clothes. Initially, Victim refused. Defendant again demanded that she take off her clothes, and Victim took off her shorts. Defendant pulled down his underwear and told Victim to suck his penis. Victim responded that she did not know how. Defendant then forced his penis into her mouth and left it there for approximately one to two minutes. Defendant then took Victim’s shirt off and told her to lie down on the ground. Victim refused. Defendant again demanded that Victim lie down, and she did so.

At this point, McGee approached the garage with a stick in his hand. Defendant came to the door wearing only a shirt and stated, “Ain’t nobody doing nothing to nobody. I ain’t raping nobody.” Defendant then told Victim to get dressed. Immediately thereafter, a St. Louis police officer arrived at the garage and observed Defendant standing next to Victim while pulling up his pants. Defendant was arrested and taken into custody.

I. Direct Appeal

In his first point, Defendant contends the trial court erred in overruling his motion for [315] a judgment of acquittal on the felonious restraint count. Defendant contends the evidence was insufficient to establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt because the state offered no evidence that Defendant exposed Victim to a substantial risk of serious physical injury. We agree.

In assessing the sufficiency of the evidence, we consider all the evidence and the reasonable inferences drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the verdict and disregard all evidence to the contrary. State v. Dulany, 781 S.W.2d 52, 55 (Mo. banc 1989); State v. Zimmerman, 886 S.W.2d 684, 691 (Mo.App.1994). Appellate review is limited to a determination of whether there is sufficient evidence from which a reasonable juror might have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Id.

Felonious restraint is defined in § 565.120.1 RSMo.1994 as follows:

A person commits the crime of felonious restraint if he knowingly restrains another unlawfully and "without consent so as to interfere substantially with his liberty and exposes him to a substantial risk of serious physical injury.

Whether the victim suffered serious physical injury is irrelevant. Also, the use of a dangerous weapon is not required to prove felonious restraint. The offense simply requires that a defendant unlawfully restrain the victim and expose the victim to a substantial risk of serious physical injury. State v. Baker, 791 S.W.2d 939, 942 (Mo.App.1990); State v. Brigman, 784 S.W.2d 217, 221 (Mo.App.1989); State v. Warren, 779 S.W.2d 751, 753 (Mo.App.1989).

Section 565.002(6) RSMo.1994 defines “serious physical injury” as a “physical injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes serious disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any part of the body.” A protracted loss or impairment of the function of any part of the body entails an injury short of permanent but more than a short duration. State v. Brokus, 858 S.W.2d 298, 301 (Mo.App.1993). Further, an impairment of the function of any part of the body means damage, injury or deterioration and is distinguishable from “loss” of function. Id.

There is no dispute that Defendant restrained Victim so as to interfere with her liberty. Defendant contends, however, that the state failed to present sufficient evidence that this restraint exposed Victim to a substantial risk of serious physical injury.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

State v. Smith, 902 S.W.2d 313, 1995 Mo. App. LEXIS 978, 1995 WL 310710 (Mo. Ct. App. 1995).

902 S.W.2d 313 (State v. Smith) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

State v. Davis
533 S.W.3d 853 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2017)
State of Missouri, Plaintiff/Respondent v. Hermes Mendez
487 S.W.3d 66 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2016)
State v. Sutton
320 S.W.3d 729 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2010)
State v. Christian
184 S.W.3d 597 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2006)
State v. Cobbins
21 S.W.3d 876 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2000)