State v. Thomas

972 S.W.2d 309, 1998 Mo. App. LEXIS 560, 1998 WL 142138
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided March 31, 1998·No. No. WD 54180·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

ULRICH, Chief Judge, Presiding Judge.

Damon Thomas appeals from his convictions following jury trial for assault in the first degree, section 565.050, RSMo 1994, and armed criminal action, section 571.015, RSMo 1994, and consecutive terms of life imprisonment on the first degree assault conviction and fifty years imprisonment on the armed criminal action conviction. Mr. Thomas raises three points of trial court error. He argues the trial court erred by: (1) denying his motion to dismiss where the state failed to comply with the requirements of the Uniform Mandatory Disposition of Detainers Law, Section 217.450, RSMo 1994; (2) denying his motion for acquittal where the information failed to charge the requisite mental state of first degree assault; and (3) admitting Officer David Kling’s testimony regarding the display of the photo line-up to the witnesses. The judgment of convictions is affirmed.

FACTS

Michelle Lee, Nikita Pope, Danielle Du-hart and Lindara Galbreth went to the Seven-Eleven Party Center in Jefferson City, Missouri, on August 17, 1993 at 9:30 p.m. to purchase beverages. While inside the store, Damon Thomas began talking to the four women. Mr. Thomas bought Ms. Duhart a soda and gave her a piece of paper with his pager number on it. Mr. Thomas left the store with the four women and went outside to talk with Terry Covington and a man named Clarence. The four women saw Mr. Covington and Clarence leave in a white Tempo with Kansas plates. They also noticed Mr. Thomas walking to the side of the building.

When the four women reached their car, they began to talk to two men parked next to them, Ryan Randolph and Donald Easley. Ms. Duhart and Ms. Pope stood up with the driver’s side door open while Ms. Lee and Ms. Galbreth sat in the car. While the four women talked to Mr. Randolph and Mr. Eas-ley, they heard gunshots. Mr. Easley and [311]*311Ms. Pope looked up and saw Mr. Thomas holding a gun and firing in their general direction. Ms. Duhart did not see who shot the gun but noticed that the sound of shots being fired was coming from the area in which she last saw Mr. Thomas. At least six shots were fired. One of the bullets struck Ms. Lee in her neck, leaving her paralyzed from the neck down.

When the police arrived, Ms. Duhart and Ms. Pope gave them a description of the white car that Mr. Covington and Clarence were in and gave them Mr. Thomas’s pager number. Later, the police spotted a white Tempo with Kansas plates and a pursuit ensued. Eventually the car stopped, and three men ran from the car. None of the men were apprehended that evening. Inside the car, the police found a cleaning receipt and audio tape with Mr. Thomas’s name on them.

At trial, Officer David Kling testified regarding the photo spread he had shown to the witnesses. Over Mr. Thomas’s objection, the photo spread that Officer Kling had shown to the witnesses was introduced into evidence. At the close of the evidence, the jury found Mr. Thomas guilty of first degree assault and armed criminal action. The trial court sentenced him as a prior offender to consecutive terms of life imprisonment on the first degree assault conviction and fifty years on the armed criminal action conviction. This appeal followed.

I.THE STATE COMPLIED WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE UNIFORM MANDATORY DISPOSITION OF DETAINERS LAW

As his first point on appeal, Mr. Thomas argues the trial court erred by failing to sustain his motion to dismiss due to the state’s alleged failure to comply with the Uniform Mandatory Disposition of Detainers Law. Mr. Thomas specifically argues that the mandate of the Uniform Mandatory Disposition of Detainers Law was not met because he was not informed within one year of his incarceration in Kansas that the indictment1 was pending against him in Missouri as required by section 217.450, RSMo 1994.

The Uniform Mandatory Disposition of De-tainers Law is set forth at sections 217.450 to 217.485, RSMo 1994. § 217.450-217.485, RSMo 1994. Section 217.450, RSMo 1994, provides:

1. A person confined in a department correctional facility may request a final disposition of any untried indictment, information or complaint pending in this state on the basis of which a detainer has been lodged against him while so imprisoned. The request shall be in writing addressed to the court in which the indictment, information or complaint is pending and to the prosecuting attorney charged with the duty of prosecuting it, and shall set forth the place of imprisonment.
2. The director shall promptly inform each offender in writing of the source and nature of any untried indictment, information or complaint for which a detainer has been lodged against him of which the director has knowledge, and of his right to make a request for final disposition of such indictment, information or compliant on which the detainer is based.
3. Failure of the director to inform an offender, as required by this section, within one year after a detainer has been filed at the facility shall entitle him to a final dismissal of the indictment, information or complaint with prejudice.

§ 217.450, RSMo 1994. The one year notice requirement in section 217.450.3 does not begin to run until after a detainer has been filed at a correctional facility. State v. Leady, 879 S.W.2d 644 (Mo.App.1994) (citing § 217.450.3, RSMo 1994).

In Leady, the defendant contended the mandates of section 217.450 were not complied with because he was incarcerated for more than one year between the filing of the charges against him and the date of his trial without being officially informed in writing of the source and nature of the complaint against him. Id. at 649. The court noted [312]*312that under section 217.450, the defendant would have been entitled to a final dismissal of the information with prejudice if a detain-er had been filed against the defendant at the facility. Id. at 650. However, because no detainer was filed, the one year requirement was not invoked and, hence, the defendant was not entitled to a dismissal of the information. Id.

Mr. Thomas is not entitled to a dismissal of the information. As the court noted in Leady, the one year statutory notice requirement did not begin to run until a detainer had been filed against Mr. Thomas at the Kansas correctional facility. The state caused a letter to be sent to the Ellsworth Correctional Center in Ellsworth, Kansas, on February 15, 1996, asking that a detainer be placed on Mr. Thomas. As established, in Leady, the filing of the detainer triggered the one year notice requirement of section 217.450. Mr. Thomas, therefore, would have been entitled to a final dismissal of the information with prejudice if he had not received notice of the detainer within one year from the date the detainer was filed with the Kansas correctional facility. Mr. Thomas, however, received notice of the detainer on March 4, 1996, within the one year limit imposed by section 217.450. While Mr. Thomas alleges he was incarcerated in Kansas for more than one year before he received notice of the charges pending against him in Missouri, as established in Leady, that is irrelevant to whether the notice requirement of section 217.450.3 was satisfied. Because the state sent Mr. Thomas notice of the detainer within one year of the date the detainer was filed with the Kansas correctional facility in which Mr.

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State v. Thomas, 972 S.W.2d 309, 1998 Mo. App. LEXIS 560, 1998 WL 142138 (Mo. Ct. App. 1998).

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