State v. Anderson

• Citation: 384 S.W.2d 591
• Decision Date: 09 November 1964
• Docket Number: No. 49703,49703
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Ruben ANDERSON, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 591

384 S.W.2d 591

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Ruben ANDERSON, Appellant.

No. 49703.

Supreme Court of Missouri, En Banc.

Nov. 9, 1964.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 14, 1964.

Thomas F. Eagleton, Atty. Gen., Howard L. McFadden, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

Claude Hanks, Clayton, for appellant.

HOLMAN, Judge.

The indictment in this case charged defendant, Ruben Anderson, and Willie Reed, Jr., with the first degree murder of Anthony J. Schlader on March 19, 1962. They were alleged to have beaten him with a certain iron pipe thus inflicting a mortal wound from which he died. A severance was granted and upon the trial of defendant the jury found him guilty of murder in the first degree and the death penalty was assessed. See Secs. 559.010, 559.030 (all statutory references are to RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S.). Defendant has duly appealed from the ensuing judgment and sentence. His case was briefed and argued here by appointed counsel who was not the attorney who represented him in the trial court.

There was very little conflict in the evidence. The defendant did not testify except at a hearing outside the presence of the jury on the issue of the voluntary nature of his confession. He offered no evidence before the jury except the brief testimony of his mother upon a rather unimportant fact detail.

The evidence offered by the State will support the following statement: On the evening of March 19, 1962, defendant drove a 1950 Plymouth automobile which was registered in the name of Anthony J. Schlader and which displayed Missouri license number 'KB3-549,' from St. Louis, Missouri, to Carlyle, Illinois. He was accompanied by two other Negro men, Willie Reed and Pinky White. Defendant had formerly worked in Carlyle and was acquainted with some of the people who resided there. There were a number of new framed religious pictures in the automobile which defendant endeavored to sell to acquaintances in Carlyle. He sold three of the pictures to Gene Lowe for $5. Edna Lowe also purchased on picture for $2. Defendant then contacted Oliver Koehler, a filling station operator, and tried to sell him a picture. He first asked $3 for it, then reduced the price to $2, and finally to $1, but Koehler did not buy it. Koehler's nephew, Richard Koehler, was a policeman in Carlyle and observed the defendant talking with his uncle. After defendant and his companions left the filling station on their return trip to St. Louis, Richard questioned his uncle about the car and its occupants and then started in pursuit of the automobile defendant was driving. He broadcast a bulletin requesting that other officers in the area stop the car and 'check it out.' Some time later the automobile was stopped by three Illinois State Troopers. After searching the three men for weapons they opened the trunk of the automobile, with the consent of the three men, and there found ten boxes, each of which contained one of the religious pictures heretofore mentioned.

The men were taken to French Village police headquarters. There defendant handed the officers a set of keys which included a key to the automobile and a miniature license plate tag showing the same number as the license plate on the Plymouth. At the direction of the officers the men emptied their pockets and the contents included a cigarette lighter in the possession of defendant which was later identified as one belonging to the deceased. Willie Reed was wearing a topcoat which was later identified as belonging to deceased. Because it was suspected that defendant was guilty of the interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle, an FBI agent, Joseph L. McKinstray, of Belleville, Illinois, was called to the police station. He arrived about one o'clock a. m. and proceeded to question the three men. At first, defendant told McKinstray that he and a companion had stolen the Plymouth in St. Louis earlier that evening. Later, upon being questioned concerning his knowledge of the owner of the car, defendant told McKinstray that the owner was in the basement of his mother's house on Windsor Place in St. Louis. He then detailed the manner in which he and a companion had killed Mr. Schlader and had attempted to dispose of the body by putting it in the furnace at 3852 Windsor in St. Louis.

In an effort to avoid duplication we will not set forth the oral statement given by defendant to McKinstray for the reason that defendant, later that day, gave a detailed written confession to the officers in St. Louis. We will hereinafter summarize that written statement and point out any conflicts existing between the oral and written statements.

At about 7 a. m. on March 20, St. Louis police officers who had been called to the French Village station returned defendant, Reed, and White to St. Louis where they were 'booked' and taken to the offices of the homicide section of the St. Louis Police Department. Upon arrival there a wrist watch, later identified at the property of deceased, was found in the lining of the coat worn by Pinky White. At that time the men were questioned by Robert Koster, an assistant circuit attorney. He testified that from eight until ten o'clock he was engaged in questioning Reed and White. At ten o'clock he started questioning defendant, and, after about 45 minutes of questioning, a stenographer was called in and a written statement in question and answer form was taken from the defendant which was later typed by the stenographer and read and signed by defendant. The following is a summary of that written statement:

Preliminarily, defendant stated that no threats or promises had been made, he had not been mistreated, and he gave the statement of his own free will, knowing that it coud be used against him. He stated that on March 12, 1962, he was at his mother's apartment at 3852 Windsor Place; that Pinky White was also there, and Willie Reed was at his house next door; that a man (later identified as Mr. Schlader) came to the apartment selling religious pictures and sold one to defendant on credit; that Mr. Schlader was supposed to come back each Monday or Tuesday and collect the payments; that between March 12 and March 19 he, White, and Reed discussed robbing Mr. Schlader, and 'talked about it all the time'; that they planned that when he came to the apartment again they would 'take his money, beat him up, just do anything so we can get his money so we can go to California'; that they talked about using a knife and an iron pipe, but 'I decided on an iron pipe'; that the three of them decided to meet at his mother's house on Monday morning, the 19th, at about 9:30; that Reed arrived on time and the two of them sat in the living room, each holding an iron pipe, and watched for Mr. Schlader through the window; that when Schlader arrived he opened the door and invited him in; that a dog in the apartment jumped at Schlader and he put the dog in another room; that when he came back Mr. Schlader was standing there and Reed ran out; that he then hit Schlader on the side of his face and head with the pipe and he fell down; that after deceased was on the floor he struck him a number of times with the pipe and also with his fists; that he then took Schlader's wallet and carried him to the basement steps and slid him down the steps into the basement; that he then drug him over near the furnace and laid him on a trunk; that at that time Reed knocked on the door and he let him in and they returned to the basement; that he then took a ring off the man's finger, which he later that day pawned at Sam Light's Pawn Shop for $2, and Reed took Schlader's wrist watch; that they then stuffed Mr. Schlader's body into the furnace after Reed had torn most of his clothes off looking for money; that at Reed's direction he went upstairs and got the oil can; that at that time Pinky White came to the door and wanted to speak with Reed and the two of them left together. Defendant stated that he returned to the basement and poured oil on the body and lit the fire. He then went upstairs and changed clothes and put the clothes he had taken off into the furnace that he then looked in the wallet he had taken from Mr. Schlader and found $8.20, and later found $74 in a secret compartment of the billfold; that he then left the house and went up the street to a crap game where he lost all of the money he had taken from the wallet; that he had found a cigarette lighter and a set of keys on the floor where deceased had fallen and the keys had a miniature license tag with the number 'Mo. KB3-549' thereon; that about 7:30 that evening he, Reed, and White started a search of the neighborhood for a car bearing the license number on the miniature tag; that he found the car and then picked up Reed and White and started to the home of Thelma Thrice; that on the way they had a flat tire and in changing the tire they opened the trunk and found the boxes of religious pictures, one of which they gave to Thelma; that they then went over in East St. Louis 'joy riding' and later drove to Carlyle, Illinois, where they sold some of the pictures; that they started back to St. Louis and were arrested by the highway patrol.

The oral statement made by defendant to McKinstray differed from the written statement, primarily in the manner in which the decedent was killed. McKinstray stated that defendant said he was not actually present when the first blow was struck because he was 'handling the dog'; that his friend struck the first blow and then ran out of the house; that he, defendant, heard the body hit the floor and when he returned to the room 'the man was making no move or no sound, but had a funny look on his face. Ruben said he then, with his left hand struck the man in the face with his left fist, holding a piece of pipe in his hand. I asked him about the pipe. He said it was an iron pipe, about eighteen inches long, and about an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, and at that time he showed me a small cut or...