State v. Wilson

651 S.W.2d 512, 1983 Mo. App. LEXIS 3962
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 15, 1983
DocketNo. WD 33637
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 651 S.W.2d 512 (State v. Wilson) 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. Wilson, 651 S.W.2d 512, 1983 Mo. App. LEXIS 3962 (Mo. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

TURNAGE, Presiding Judge.

Loren R. Wilson was found guilty by a jury of the Class A felony of first degree robbery, in violation of § 5S9.020 RSMo 1979. The jury assessed punishment at 25 years imprisonment, and the court pronounced sentence accordingly.

Wilson has appealed his conviction. He claims that the lineup in which he participated violated his right to counsel and was unduly suggestive, that the trial court erred in admitting evidence relating to another separate and distinct crime with which Wilson was charged, and that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence certain Department of Revenue records. Affirmed.

Ivan Gates, the owner of the Kingsridge Pharmacy in Kansas City, testified that at about 3:45 p.m. on Monday, May 11, 1981, two men, one of whom was quite tall and the other of whom was short and slim, entered the pharmacy and demanded at gunpoint that Gates give them narcotics. Gates did so, and the two men left the pharmacy through the back door. Gates testified that he had been able to get a good look at the face of the larger man only, and was unable to identify Wilson at a pre-trial line-up.

Carolyn Young, the co-owner of a beauty shop located next door to the Kingsridge Pharmacy, testified that while she was in her shop on the afternoon of May 11, she observed a car stop outside the building. Two men, one of whom was noticeably larger than the other, got out of the car, and the car drove off. Both men entered the pharmacy. Young testified that she had about a minute to observe the men in daylight. She positively identified Wilson in court as the smaller man.

Young’s son, Jeff Willyard, testified that he had been at his mother's beauty shop on the afternoon of May 11. On hearing that there was a robbery in progress, he walked next door to the pharmacy. Before he reached the door to the pharmacy, he noticed two men standing inside at the counter. He testified that the larger of these two men was holding a gun. Willyard said that he had a good view of the pharmacy, and upon viewing a photo array, he identified Wilson as the smaller man. Willyard testified that he had also seen the smaller of these two men on the afternoon of the previous day, Sunday, May 10. Willyard testified that while cleaning his mother’s shop on that day, he had seen the smaller man drive up and stop in front of the pharmacy and the beauty shop. The man got out of the car, looked around, and removed a large cinder block from the car. A while later the man returned to the car, replaced the cinder block, and drove off. Before the car was out of view, Willyard noted the license number. In court, Will-yard positively identified Wilson as the smaller of the two men involved in the robbery.

Lynn Bevelot testified that he had been employed as a hairdresser at the beauty shop on May 11,1981. He had accompanied Jeff Willyard from the beauty shop to the pharmacy, and observed two men inside the [515]*515pharmacy at the counter. Bevelot corroborated Gates’ and Willyards’ testimony that one of these men was considerably larger than the other, and that the larger of the two men was holding a gun. Bevelot identified Wilson in court as the smaller of these two men.

Wilson did not testify at the trial, but did produce three alibi witnesses. On May 13, 1981, Carolyn Young, Lynn Bevelot, and Jeff Willyard viewed an array of six photographs, one of which was of Wilson. Each of these three witnesses picked out Wilson’s picture as the smaller of the two men they had seen in the pharmacy on May 11. On May 18, 1981, Wilson participated in a lineup which was viewed by Young, Bevelot, and Ivan Gates. Young and Bevelot identified Wilson as the smaller of the two men they had observed in the pharmacy on May 11.

Prior to his trial, Wilson filed a motion to suppress the pretrial identification procedures and all in-court identifications of him. Wilson’s grounds for this motion were that the pre-trial line-up had been unnecessarily suggestive, and that his sixth amendment right to counsel had been violated. A hearing on this motion was held prior to the trial, and the motion was overruled.

Wilson first claims that the fact that he had no counsel present at the line-up constituted a violation of his sixth amendment right to counsel. The law in Missouri is clear that a criminal defendant has a right to counsel at a line-up only if that line-up is conducted after the defendant has been charged by indictment or information. State v. Quinn, 594 S.W.2d 599, 604[10] (Mo. banc 1980).

The record in this case indicated that the information was filed on May 27, 1981, and the line-up was held on May 18, 1981. Thus, under Quinn Wilson was not entitled to counsel at the line-up. Wilson relies on Arnold v. State, 484 S.W.2d 248, 250[3] (Mo.1972), which held that a defendant was entitled to an attorney at a line-up conducted after a complaint was filed. However, Arnold was overruled in Morris v. State, 532 S.W.2d 455, 458[1] (Mo. banc 1976), which held that the right to counsel does not attach until the indictment or information is filed. That holding was reiterated in Quinn. Thus, Wilson’s right to counsel had not attached at the time that the line-up was conducted.

Wilson next contends that the court should have suppressed the pre-trial identifications which the witnesses made, and that it should not have permitted the in-court identifications because the line-up was suggestive and conducive to his mis-identification. The grounds for Wilson’s objection to the line-up are that he was the shortest participant in the line-up, weighed the least, and was the only participant with crossed eyes. He also points to the fact that while the other three males were wearing either white or dark solid shirts, he appeared in a flowered shirt.

The standard for judging the acceptability of pre-trial identification procedures was set forth in State v. Higgins, 592 S.W.2d 151, 159[11] (Mo. banc 1979):

The resolution of this issue requires a two-step analysis. Were the investigative procedures employed by the police impermissibly suggestive? If so, were they so impermissibly suggestive as to create a very substantial likelihood of an irreparable misidentification at trial?

Whether such dangers exist in a given case requires “examining the ‘totality of the circumstances’,” Higgins at 159[12], quoting Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 302, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 1972, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967).

Based on the above standards, the pre-trial procedures employed in this case were not impermissibly suggestive. Willyard, Bevelot, and Young were shown the same pictures in court which the police had shown them prior to trial. The pictures were received into evidence at that time and have been filed with this court. Of the five individuals pictured other than Wilson, one of the men clearly has crossed eyes. The pictures of Wilson, on the basis of which each of the witnesses was able to make a pre-trial identification, do not clearly show that his eyes are crossed. If in fact [516]

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Bluebook (online)
651 S.W.2d 512, 1983 Mo. App. LEXIS 3962, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wilson-moctapp-1983.