State v. Morrow

Decision Date21 April 1998
Docket NumberNo. 79112,79112
PartiesSTATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Andre D. MORROW, Appellant.
CourtMissouri Supreme Court

Henry B. Robertson, St. Louis, for appellant.

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., Breck K. Burgess, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

PRICE, Judge.

A jury convicted Andre Morrow of first degree murder pursuant to section 565.020, RSMo 1994, for murdering John Koprowski on April 13, 1994. Morrow was also convicted of one count of robbery in the first degree, section 569.020, RSMo 1994, one count of robbery in the second degree, section 569.030, RSMo 1994, two counts of armed criminal action, section 571.015, RSMo 1994, and two counts of felony stealing, section 570.030, RSMo 1994. The trial court sentenced Morrow to death for Koprowski's murder and a total of 170 years plus life for the other offenses.

This Court has exclusive appellate jurisdiction because a death sentence was imposed. Mo. Const. art. V. sec. 3. We affirm.

I. Facts

On April 10, 1994, twenty-four year old Andre Morrow was introduced to Richard Gooch. Gooch's apartment in St. Louis was known as a safe place where people could smoke cocaine in "quietness and peacefulness." Morrow took advantage of this atmosphere and smoked cocaine with Gooch for much of the afternoon. Eventually, Morrow left Gooch's "to go get some money."

In the early hours of April 11, 1994, Morrow went to an Amoco gas station and stole Lisa Smith's Chevy Nova, while Smith paid for her gasoline. Morrow returned to Gooch's with Smith's car and a black purse. Informing Gooch that he was going to get more money, Morrow left and traveled to Northwest Plaza. Still in Smith's car, Morrow drove close to Yn Ye Kuo--who was walking towards the restaurant where she worked--and asked, "Where's the Sears?" Morrow then grabbed her purse and drove away. Morrow returned to Gooch's later that morning with Kuo's purse and about $500. He told Gooch, "Pops, when I go for it--when I go get it, I get it." He then gave Gooch $40. Gooch and Morrow passed the remainder of the day smoking cocaine.

The following afternoon Morrow and his friend Mario Page abandoned Smith's car and stole Robert Herod's Fiero from in front of Herod's apartment. Later that afternoon, Morrow and Page purchased a .38 caliber pistol. The two then traveled to the corner of Cora and Maragaretta, in the City of St. Louis, and saw eighteen year old Roamel Abercrombie. Abercrombie was walking to a nearby store to purchase some orange juice. He was carrying one dollar. Morrow got out of the car, approached Abercrombie, and said "Give me all your shit, Give me all you got. If you want, I'll shoot your ass." Morrow fired a shot into the air, scattering the people in the area. Morrow marched Abercrombie to a nearby vacant lot and demanded his money. Abercrombie gave Morrow his dollar. Morrow took Abercrombie farther into the lot and murdered him, shooting him in the back of the head.

Morrow then told Page that they needed to get out of town. They drove to Belleville, Illinois, where they left Herod's car and stole Fred Maston's Oldsmobile Cutlass. They later returned to Gooch's with more cocaine. Morrow explained to Gooch that he had gotten into a misunderstanding with regards to a drug deal and he had to "put the little guy to sleep."

That night Morrow went to a Shell station and approached Marsha Timm, while she was pumping gasoline into her car. Morrow stuck a gun in the side of her abdomen and said, "Give me you're [sic] handbag or I'll shoot." After initially refusing, Timm relented and let Morrow take her purse.

Sometime after midnight, Page stole Pornfiro Pinchay's Toronado from a parking space near Pinchay's home. (Morrow had abandoned Maston's car after it developed a flat tire.) At about 4:00 a.m., Morrow and Page left Gooch's apartment in Pinchay's car. Morrow and Page attempted to steal a 1989 Camero that belonged to the wife of Brad Rosenthal. They abandoned this plan after realizing that Rosenthal was watching them from his living room window. They later found a truck they wanted to steal at a Mobil station. This plan, however, was also abandoned when the owner returned to the truck.

Committed to stealing another automobile, Page and Morrow continued their search at the YMCA parking lot, in Brentwood. There, they came upon John Koprowski and his new Jeep Grand Cherokee. Morrow approached Koprowski and demanded his keys. Page also approached to take Koprowski's wallet. Koprowski responded that, "I'm not gong to let you do this" and grabbed Morrow's gun. He attempted to fight off Morrow and Page, who were both biting him. Morrow regained control of the gun and grabbed Koprowski's keys from the ground. Koprowski remained on the ground. As Morrow stood above Koprowski, he shouted "Get up, you son of a bitch"--then he shot Koprowski once in the head. The bullet entered Koprowski's head just above the tip of his nose and traveled through his body until it came to rest between Koproswki's ribs in his back. Morrow and Page jumped in Koprowski's jeep and, before leaving, observed that Koprowski was still alive, staggering through the lot.

William Lindenmayer heard the gunshot and drove into the YMCA's parking lot. He saw Koprowski stagger away from the Toronado, then collapse. Lindenmayer placed his jacket over Koprowski and then went into the YMCA for help. An ambulance arrived and took Koprowski to St. Mary's Hospital. Koprowski bled to death from the gunshot wound.

Morrow and Page continued on. Now in Koprowski's jeep, Morrow drove to downtown St. Louis. Morrow found Sandra Merriman at the Southwestern Bell building. Merriman was using the building's revolving door to go to work when it suddenly stopped moving. Merriman turned to see Morrow with his hand on her purse. Morrow said, "Give me that, motherfucker." Morrow then pulled Merriman backwards, took her purse, and left in Koprowski's jeep.

Morrow returned to Gooch's later that morning. Page sold their gun for drugs at a nearby apartment. Morrow became irritated with Page because he was unsatisfied with the quality and quantity of the cocaine Page had purchased. Page then left to burn Koprowski's jeep.

Morrow grew concerned after seeing news reports covering Koprowski's murder. He discussed with Gooch his need to get out of town. He considered going to Kansas City to rob a bank. Morrow also talked of putting Page "to sleep" before he left. This caused Gooch to fear for his own safety. Gooch left Morrow at his apartment and went to the police.

Morrow confessed to all the aforementioned crimes. At trial in St. Louis County he was charged with the robbery and murder of John Koprowski, the stealing of Lisa Smith's car, the stealing of Robert Herod's car, the forcible stealing of Yn Ye Kuo's purse, and two attendant counts of armed criminal action. 1 Morrow's defense at trial was that his cocaine addiction, coupled with a "mental or emotional disturbance," rendered him unable to deliberate. Therefore, he argued, it was impossible for him to form the specific intent necessary to support a charge of murder in the first degree. See sec. 565.020 ("A person commits the crime of murder in the first degree if he knowingly causes the death of another person after deliberation on the matter." (emphasis added)).

The jury convicted Morrow of first degree murder and found him guilty on all other charges. The court found Morrow to be a class X offender, based on fourteen prior convictions. In addition to the sentence of death, Morrow received fifty years each on two counts of armed criminal action, twenty years each on two counts of stealing a motor vehicle, and thirty years for robbery in the second degree.

II. Issues on Appeal

Morrow alleges the following instances of trial court error: 1) the court erred by admitting evidence of the uncharged crimes of stealing, robbery, and murder because the offenses were not logically relevant nor necessary to prove the charged crimes; 2) the court erred in denying his motion for misjoinder and abused its discretion in refusing to sever counts V-VII because those offenses were not parts of the same transaction or common scheme or plan and were not of the same or similar character; 3) the court erred in giving the state's version of MAI-CR3d 310.12, which erroneously applied the law of other crimes because it allowed other crimes to be considered on theories of motive and intent which are unsupported by the record; 4) the court erred in refusing to let Morrow question prospective jurors on whether they could consider mitigation of punishment although he had another murder charge pending and whether they could consider the difference between first and second degree murder because this denied Morrow the ability to intelligently exercise challenges for cause and peremptory strikes; 5) the court abused its discretion in overruling Morrow's objection to the admission of his fingerprint cards as evidence because they were prejudicial evidence of an unrelated offense; 6) the court erred in overruling Morrow's hearsay objection to a statement by Mario Page because this denied him the right to cross examine the witness against him; 7) the court erred in overruling Morrow's objections to testimony of the fear felt by witnesses Charles, Kuo, and Browning because it was irrelevant and served no purpose but to inflame the jury; 8) the court clearly erred in sustaining the state's peremptory strikes of black venirewomen Gordon and Irving because the state's explanations were pretextual, in violation of Batson; 9) the court abused its discretion in allowing the testimony of Everlida Abercrombie and admitting a photograph of Roamel Abercrombie because both constituted impermissible victim impact evidence; 10) the court erred in admitting victim impact testimony of Pamela Koprowski because the statute and the evidence exceed what is allowed by the...

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