State v. Taylor

779 S.W.2d 636, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 1347, 1989 WL 106642
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided September 19, 1989·No. WD 39790·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

GAITAN, Presiding Judge.

Defendant, Hal Taylor, was convicted by a jury of assault in the first degree and armed criminal action, §§ 565.050 and 571.-015, RSMo 1986, and was sentenced as a persistent offender to consecutive sentences of life imprisonment and twenty years. The defendant filed an appeal of conviction to this Court in August of 1987. Upon notice of the defendant’s filing of a Rule 29.15 Motion, the Court withdrew the appeal from submission pending resolution of the motion. Defendant now reinstates his original appeal, as well as appeals the trial court’s denial of the Rule 29.15 Motion without Evidentiary Hearing. The two appeals have herein been consolidated, pursuant to Rule 29.15(1). Judgments are affirmed.

The defendant raises eight points of error: (1) insufficiency of the evidence to support conviction; (2) insufficiency of the *639 evidence to support enhanced sentencing of the defendant as a persistent offender; (3) purposeful racial discrimination in the State’s exercise of its peremptory challenges to remove black venirepersons fróm the jury panel; (4) failure to suppress physical evidence seized pursuant to a warrant-less, nonconsensual search of the defendant’s apartment; (5) denial of the Rule 29.15 Motion without Evidentiary Hearing; (6) failure to provide the defendant notice or hearing prior to denying the Rule 29.15 Motion; (7) failure to make findings of facts and conclusions on all allegations presented in the defendant’s Rule 29.15 motion; and (8) denial of defendant’s Rule 75.01 Motion (Judgments affirmed).

Gerald Carlstrom, a cab driver, testified that on November 23, 1986, at approximately 3:00 a.m., he received a radio call from his dispatcher to pick up a passenger at (1301) East Armour Boulevard. When Mr. Carlstrom stopped at that address, he saw two black males talking in the doorway. After Mr. Carlstrom had waited a few minutes, one of the men came outside and walked to the cab. As the man opened the rear right door, the interior domelight came on. Mr. Carlstrom saw the man’s face, saw that he was wearing a baseball cap and that he had a white rag tied around his head.

As the man stepped into the cab, he bumped the bill of his cap against the door. While reaching with his right hand to adjust the cap, the man simultaneously held his left hand up, blocking Mr. Carlstrom’s view of his face. Mr. Carlstrom had, however, already seen the passenger’s face.

After the man got into the cab and gave an initial address, he stated, “First I want to stop for a nickel bag. Take me around here on 36th and Virginia.” The requested location was only a few blocks away. Mr. Carlstrom drove towards 36th and Virginia and as he neared the location, the man told him to stop. While Mr. Carlstrom brought the cab to a stop, the man sprang forward, placed his left arm around the cab driver’s neck and began to pull him backwards over the seat. At the same time, Mr. Carlstrom felt punches to his chest; he did not realize at the time that he was being stabbed.

After the fourth or fifth stab, the man demanded money. Not waiting for a response he continued to stab Mr. Carlstrom, who was attempting to find and use his can of mace. Finding it in his pocket, Mr. Carlstrom sprayed the mace at his attacker. The man let go of the cab driver and exited the cab through the right rear door. As the domelight came on, Mr. Carlstrom saw blood and realized he had been stabbed. Angry, he opened his door, got out and shouted at his attacker. The man stood six to ten feet away and Mr. Carl-strom again could see his face.

Mr. Carlstrom drove to the Linwood Police Station for assistance. While at the police station, he gave a brief statement to Officer Troy Meyer. In the statement, Mr. Carlstrom described his assailant as a skinny black male, 20 years of age, who wore a headband and a black baseball cap. He was then transported by ambulance to Truman Medical Center, where emergency surgery was performed. On November 24, 1986, Detective George Burns visited Mr. Carlstrom at the hospital, and showed him a six picture photo array. Mr. Carlstrom identified the defendant as the assailant. Two days later, on November 26, 1986, Detective Burns returned with a videotape of a lineup. Mr. Carlstrom again identified the defendant as his assailant.

Following Mr. Carlstrom’s identification of defendant’s photograph, Detective Burns and two other police officers, Captain Massock and Sergeant Florea, went to the defendant’s apartment to question him regarding the assault. Upon their arrival, Detective Burns advised Mr. Taylor that the officers were investigating a robbery and stabbing. The defendant invited the police officers into the apartment. While inside the officers asked Mr. Taylor’s permission to search the apartment and requested that he sign a “consent to search” form. Detective Burns testified that the defendant said, “You can go ahead and search it, but I’m not going to sign anything, man. I’m not going to sign it.” The *640 defendant was not under arrest at the time he gave his verbal consent to the search.

Detective Burns further testified that the defendant assisted in the search, moving furnishings and objects. Sergeant Florea observed a loose ceiling tile and stood on the chair in order to see up into the drop ceiling. Unable to adequately see into the false area, he requested that Detective Burns take a look. The detective found a knife laying on top of one of the ceiling tiles. Although the ceiling tiles were covered with dust, the knife was not dusty. Detective Burns testified that once the knife was found, the defendant stated that he would deny giving permission to search the apartment. Following discovery of the knife, defendant Taylor was placed under arrest and taken to the downtown headquarters for booking.

At trial, John Wilson of the Regional Crime Lab testified that he analyzed the knife and found that it contained a small amount of flesh in the serrated edges. Further testing revealed that the tissue contained blood of the same PGM blood grouping type as Mr. Carlstrom’s. Approximately twenty-one percent of Kansas City’s Caucasian population share that particular blood type.

The surgeon who treated Mr. Carlstrom at Truman Medical Center, Doctor Thomas Reardon, testified that Mr. Carlstrom had been stabbed eight times and that the wounds were consistent with the physical characteristics of the knife recovered from the defendant’s apartment.

Defendant Taylor testified in his own defense, providing an alibi for his whereabouts on the night of November 23, 1986; his testimony was corroborated by a friend, his wife, and his brother. The defendant denied having given police officers permission to search his apartment. He stated that the knife was not his, but rather belonged to an acquaintance named Thomas James or “T.J”. The defendant testified that T.J came to his apartment on the morning of November 23, 1986 and asked the defendant to hold on to the knife for him, as well a leaving a .357 Python Magnum as collateral for a loan. T.J never returned to claim the items. The defendant admitted that he did not know where T.J lived or how to contact him.

I.

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State v. Taylor, 779 S.W.2d 636, 1989 Mo. App. LEXIS 1347, 1989 WL 106642 (Mo. Ct. App. 1989).

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