State v. Wells

550 S.W.2d 793, 1977 Mo. App. LEXIS 2540
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 28, 1977
DocketNo. KCD28478
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 550 S.W.2d 793 (State v. Wells) 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. Wells, 550 S.W.2d 793, 1977 Mo. App. LEXIS 2540 (Mo. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

SHANGLER, Presiding Judge.

The defendant was convicted by a jury of burglary and stealing and sentenced by the court, as a second offender, to concurrent sentences of five years for each offense.

[794]*794There is no issue that the evidence was not sufficient for conviction, so we recite only that testimony which bears on the contentions raised on this appeal.

There was evidence that when Wayne Wilson left his residence that morning the windows and doors were closed and the contents of his home were in order. When he returned that evening, the door was unlocked and his property was in disarray. Among the belongings missing were a medical identification card for his wife upon which his signature appeared [Exhibit 1], his social security card [Exhibit 2] and a .38 caliber revolver [Exhibit 3]. These items of property were later found in the possession of the defendant during an arrest for a different offense and resulted in his conviction for burglary and stealing. These events are explained by the testimony of McKinley, Butner and Darenkamp, all members of the Atchison, Kansas, police force.

On the evening following the burglary, Officer McKinley [then off duty] was on a visit at the home of a friend in Atchison, Kansas. Among those present was the defendant who posed as Jim Wilson. McKinley and the defendant left for a store to replenish the beer supply and stopped off at the home of a neighbor. There, joined by other guests, they shared beer and badinage. During the course of casual conversation, the defendant recounted his days in the service and other matters — one subject of this appeal — which we later relate in appropriate detail.

When the defendant left McKinley he appeared to be somewhat drunk, so the officer suggested to him that he not drive because of the danger to children in the neighborhood. Also, en route to the liquor store, the defendant had shown McKinley a revolver under the car seat. This prompted him, about six-thirty that evening, to call the Atchison Police Department and inform Sgt. Ryan, the officer in charge, that the defendant was operating a described car bearing a described numbered license plate while intoxicated and that he was then in the possession of a concealed weapon.

The dispatch of this information was received over the police radio by Officer But-ner at about 8:15 that evening, and shortly thereafter he was notified the car was headed in the direction of the Missouri River bridge in Atchison. The vehicle was detected as it turned onto a parking lot in the vicinity, and so the police car followed. As the defendant stepped away from his vehicle, Officer Butner confronted him and asked for driver identification. The defendant could not produce one, so Officer Darenkamp [who had joined them by that time] asked for other identification. The defendant complied by tendering an insurance identification card issued by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in the name of Wayne E. Wilson [Exhibit 1] and a social security card with the name Wayne E. Wilson. [Exhibit 2] The defendant was given a traffic citation for operation of a motor vehicle without a license and the defendant acknowledged the summons with the writing Wayne E. Wilson. Officer Dar-enkamp then requested and received his permission to look into the car. The officer opened the front door and saw a revolver on the floor in plain view. The pistol was taken into custody, the serial number recorded, and at the trial identified by the officer as the weapon he had taken from the automobile.

The first point of error relates to the narration into evidence of a portion of the conversation by the defendant to Officer McKinley and others in their company:

A. [McKinley] . . Everybody was carrying on a conversation at that time.
Q. What occurred then?
A. Well, during that time he was referring to that he was in the service before and had got kicked out, or something. He mentioned about Colorado, and he was talking about armed robbery. .

The counsel for defendant made the objection that the testimony was about an armed robbery, a crime not charged. He moved the jury be instructed to disregard that [795]*795answer and also for a mistrial. The court observed that the testimony did not convey the meaning that the defendant did an armed robbery. The court thereupon instructed the jury to disregard the reference to the armed robbery but denied the mistrial. The defendant contends that nothing short of mistrial was sufficiently remedial so that the ruling of the court was error.

It is evident from the colloquy between court and counsel after the objection, that the purpose of the question which elicited the response was to show that the defendant had displayed a gun to the witness, the same weapon taken from the burglary for which the defendant stood accused. The witness, instead, began his response by relating the conversation among the defendant and the other social guests which rambled from one subject to another. Taken in this undoubted context, the testimony of a Colorado armed robbery came in by inadvertence. The mention was voluntary and casual, without hint of connivance or intention to do prejudice. Such errors cannot always be avoided. The remedy lies with the trial court and the exercise of a discretion which evaluates the entire state of the trial to determine whether something short of a mistrial will overcome the error. State v. McClain, 531 S.W.2d 40, 44 (Mo.App. 1975). The record discloses no basis for disagreement that the trial court acted wisely and effectively by his instruction to the jury to disregard the reference to armed robbery and by the denial of mistrial.

The second point contends that Exhibits 1, 2 and 3, the identification cards and revolver, were taken as the result of an unlawful seizure of the defendant, and so the conviction which rests on that evidence cannot stand. The precise contention made on this appeal is that the offenses reported by Officer McKinley through the dispatcher to Officer Butner — carrying a concealed weapon [§ 21-4201(l)(d) and (4), KSA, 1974 Supp.] and driving while intoxicated [§ 8-1567, KSA, 1974 Supp.] — were misdemeanors actionable by Officer McKinley because committed in his presence but beyond the authority of Officer Butner who knew of it only by report. Thus, the contention concludes, the seizure of the defendant by Officer Butner was without authority of law and the search which followed yielded illegal evidence.

The defendant concedes this ground for objection was not made at trial or otherwise preserved by the pre-trial procedure defined in § 542.296 Laws 1974, p. 922 § 8, but nevertheless requests review of the question under plain error Rule 27.20(c). We grant review because the subject of his contention is a right guaranteed under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Federal Constitution and because, despite lack of compliance with the requirements of orderly State procedures, the record before us sufficiently defines the contention for our informed determination. State v. Dayton, 535 S.W.2d 469, 475[l-5] (Mo.App. 1976).

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Related

State v. Callahan
641 S.W.2d 186 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1982)
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599 S.W.2d 182 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1980)
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571 S.W.2d 809 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1978)

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Bluebook (online)
550 S.W.2d 793, 1977 Mo. App. LEXIS 2540, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wells-moctapp-1977.