State v. Wickizer

641 S.W.2d 849, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3736
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 26, 1982
DocketNo. WD 32432
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 641 S.W.2d 849 (State v. Wickizer) 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. Wickizer, 641 S.W.2d 849, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3736 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

CLARK, Judge.

Larry G. Wickizer was convicted in a jury trial of offenses of sodomy and rape committed May 6, 1977 and he was sentenced by the court to concurrent terms of 35 years as a second offender.

The present conviction which is the subject of this appeal is the product of the third trial of Wickizer on the same charges. His first trial was aborted by reason of error in the introduction of evidence. The second trial, in November, 1977, resulted in conviction and on appeal, the conviction was affirmed. State v. Wickizer, 583 S.W.2d 519 (Mo. banc 1979). In that appeal, none of the issues now presented was raised. The third trial was required by relief granted under a post-conviction motion pursuant to Rule 27.26. Relevant statutes are therefore those current as of the date of the offenses. §§ 559.260, 563.230, and 556.280, RSMo 1969 (all repealed January 1, 1979).

Wickizer challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his conviction, thereby necessitating the recounting of the proof presented by the state to support the charges. The particulars of Wickizer’s contention, as will hereafter appear, require only an outline survey of that evidence.

On the evening in question, the victim and a male companion drove to Lake Jaco-[851]*851mo and there joined a gathering of persons previously unknown to them, including Wickizer. At the latter’s invitation, the victim went for a ride on Wickizer’s motorcycle. After some thirty minutes of travel, Wickizer stopped the motorcycle and indulged in the sexual acts which formed the basis for the charges.

According to the victim, Wickizer threatened, struck and abused her to compel submission inflicting bruises and some lacerations. After completing the assault, Wick-izer returned with the victim to the Lake Jacomo shelter house where the victim made her escape and, with the aid of passersby, was taken to the sheriff’s office. The report of the offense was then made.

I.

In his first point, Wickizer contends no submissible case was made on the testimony of the victim alone without some corroboration. He notes that no medical evidence was offered to confirm bruises or other external evidence of the blows the victim claimed she suffered and no proof was made of sexual penetration although the victim was examined at a hospital within hours after the encounter. Additionally, Wickizer asserts the victim’s unsubstantiated claim of an assault was inherently suspect because she acknowledged having accompanied him voluntarily, made no attempt to escape earlier when a stop was made en route from the scene of the offense to the Lake Jacomo shelter house and the victim admitted smoking marijuana and using alcohol before the bike ride, facts she had denied at a former trial.

The requirement for corroboration in cases of sex offenses is not invoked to the absolute degree which appellant asserts. Indeed, convictions may be had in cases of rape on the uncorroborated evidence of the prosecutrix. State v. Baldwin, 571 S.W.2d 236 (Mo. banc 1978). It is only where the testimony of the victim is so contradictory and in conflict with physical facts, surrounding circumstances and common experience as to render its validity doubtful that corroboration is necessary. State v. Harris, 620 S.W.2d 349 (Mo. banc 1981). Corroboration evidence functions in rape or sodomy cases not by reason of an abstract requirement for that proof but to supply substantial evidence sufficient to warrant submission where the victim’s testimony alone leaves the court clouded with doubt. State v. Johnson, 595 S.W.2d 774 (Mo.App.1980).

In the present case, the victim’s testimony was not contradictory, inconsistent or contrary to common experience so as to be unsubstantial or improbable. The circumstances to which Wickizer directs attention, that the victim went riding with him voluntarily, her failure to cry out or attempt to escape earlier and her denial and later admission of the use of drugs and intoxicants were all factors which affected only her credibility, not the consistency of that proof. State v. Jakoubek, 619 S.W.2d 879, 880 (Mo.App.1981); State v. Baldwin, supra. The absence of confirmatory medical evidence was also an element for the jury to consider and was not unusual in a situation where the trial occurred more than two and one-half years after the event. Moreover, the victim’s testimony was corroborated to some extent by the evidence of officers from the sheriff’s department who confirmed her report of the assault in the early morning hours of the night in question and by the testimony of witnesses who observed grass stains on the victim’s clothing, red marks on her face and her distraught and hysterical condition.

The evidence was adequate to sustain the state’s burden of proof. The trial court did not err in overruling the defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal.

II.

In his second point, to which Wickizer devotes two paragraphs on one page of his brief, he contends he was entitled to a new trial because the grand jury which issued the original indictment in his case “did not contain a sufficient number of women.”

[852]*852We first note that this complaint was presented to the trial court in a supplemental motion for new trial filed January 16,1981. There is no entitlement to present a supplemental motion for new trial filed after the maximum period of 25 days from the date on which the verdict is returned. Neither the agreement of the parties nor action by the court can waive this time limit. Any motion so filed is a nullity and preserves nothing for appellate review. Rule 29.11; State v. Brown, 615 S.W.2d 626 (Mo.App.1981).

Even were the supplemental motion not to be otherwise defective, Wickizer had already waived any challenge to composition of the grand jury. That issue must be presented in a pre-trial motion to quash the indictment or information. Failure to raise the issue prior to trial constitutes a waiver of any deficiencies in the makeup of the panel. State v. Hemphill, 460 S.W.2d 648 (Mo.1970).

Finally, Wickizer did not here attempt to sustain his burden of presenting evidence sufficient to establish a prima fa-cie case of illegal and discriminatory selection of the grand jury. An identical challenge which did consider evidence as to the composition of the same 1977 Jackson County Grand Jury was rejected in State v. Davidson, 588 S.W.2d 208 (Mo.App.1979). Wickizer therefore has no factual basis for his complaint sufficient for review, nor could he as to the grand jury in question. His citation of Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 99 S.Ct. 664, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979) is inapposite.

III.

In his final point, Wickizer contends the trial court erred in application of the second offender act, § 556.280, RSMo 1969 (now repealed). The situation developed in the following manner.

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Bluebook (online)
641 S.W.2d 849, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3736, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wickizer-moctapp-1982.