State v. Anderson, SC 83680.
| Decision Date | 14 May 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. SC 83680.,SC 83680. |
| Citation | 79 S.W.3d 420 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Terrance L. ANDERSON, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Janet M. Thompson, Asst. Public Defender, Columbia, for Appellant.
Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., Breck K. Burgess, Assistant Attorney General, Jefferson City, for Respondent.
A jury convicted Appellant, Terrance L. Anderson, of two counts of first degree murder for the homicides of Debbie Rainwater, for which Appellant was sentenced to death, and Stephen Rainwater, for which Appellant was sentenced to life without probation or parole. Because the trial court sentenced Appellant to death, this Court has exclusive appellate jurisdiction pursuant to Mo. Const. art. V, section 3. The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
The facts, which this Court reviews in the light most favorable to the verdict, are as follows:
In February of 1996 Appellant began dating Abbey Rainwater, a high school student in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, when she was 16 years old and he was 21. That summer, Abbey became pregnant with Appellant's child. Her parents, Stephen and Debbie Rainwater, then invited Appellant to live with them in their house. Appellant moved in with them, and then began neglecting his job with a local furniture company and staying out late at night. He was eventually discharged from his job in December 1996. That same month, Appellant grabbed Abbey by the neck and threw her against a wall. Abbey's parents asked him to move out, and he went to live with his mother.
Abbey's and Appellant's child, Kyra, was born on April 18, 1997, after which Appellant violently assaulted Abbey on two occasions. During the second of these assaults, Appellant told Abbey that if she told anyone about what he had done to her, he would kill everyone who lived with her, that he would make her watch him kill the baby, and that he would then kill her and himself.
The next morning, July 25, 1997, Abbey told her parents what had occurred, and then went to the courthouse and got a restraining order against Appellant. Later that day, Abbey spoke with Appellant by phone, notified him of the restraining order, and told him that he could not see her and that his visitation with the baby would be arranged through the court. Appellant then said he knew what he had to do now. Late that afternoon, Appellant went to the home of a friend and obtained a .357 caliber magnum handgun.
That night, Abbey was at home with two of her teenage friends, Stacy Turner and Amy Dorris. Also present in the home that night were Abbey's parents, her 10-year-old sister, Whitney, and Kyra.
Abbey, Stacy and Amy were downstairs when they heard knocking on the back door. One of the girls looked out of the small windows by the side of the door but did not see anyone. They then went upstairs and told Stephen Rainwater. He told them to go back downstairs to see if it happened again, while he looked out of an upstairs window. About a minute elapsed and someone knocked on the back door again, but Mr. Rainwater did not see anyone. He picked up a rifle and walked around the yard, but again saw no one. He came back in the house and placed the rifle in a corner of the master bedroom.
Stephen Rainwater then started driving around the neighborhood to see if he could find any suspicious vehicles or persons. Back home, the doorbell rang. Abbey, Stacy, Amy and Whitney went to the door and looked out of the small windows next to it. They saw Appellant standing outside the door holding a handgun. As the girls screamed and backed away from the door, Appellant then kicked in the door, splintering its frame. Debbie Rainwater told Abbey to run. Abbey and Whitney ran out the back of the house; Abbey ran to a neighbor's house and got the neighbor to call the police, while Whitney stopped fleeing shortly after she got outdoors. Stacy Turner stayed in the house, hiding in a bedroom closet. Amy Dorris stayed in the house near Debbie Rainwater.
Appellant approached Debbie Rainwater, who was standing beside a couch holding the baby. Appellant yelled at her and pointed the gun at her, telling her she was going to die. She got down on her knees and begged for her life. Appellant placed the gun against the back of her head, and fired it. The bullet killed her instantly.
Appellant then grabbed Amy Dorris, who had just witnessed the killing, went outside with her, and told her to yell for Abbey and the others to come out, but no one came out of hiding. While Appellant was in front of the house, Whitney, who had heard the gunshot, went back into the house and heard Kyra crying. She found her mother's dead body lying on top of the baby. She lifted her mother's body, picked up the baby, and attempted to hide with her in the house. Appellant found Whitney, however, and took Kyra from her. Appellant and Whitney then walked to the front yard, where Amy was still standing. Appellant, who was holding Kyra, pointed the gun at the baby's head and yelled that he would shoot the baby if Abbey did not come out.
Appellant saw Stephen Rainwater driving toward the house. Appellant took Kyra, Whitney and Amy around to the side of the house, so that Stephen Rainwater could not see them, and told them he would shoot them if they ran. Appellant, still holding Kyra, approached Stephen Rainwater and began talking to him. He then shot Stephen Rainwater in the forehead, killing him.
Appellant then went back inside the house and ordered Whitney to search for survivors. Whitney saw Stacy hiding in the master bedroom's bathroom, but did not tell Appellant.
Two officers from the Poplar Bluff police department arrived at the residence and saw Stephen Rainwater lying dead. They then saw Appellant, who was in Abbey's bedroom, open a window. Appellant held the baby in front of him as a human shield, waved the handgun in the direction of the officers, and yelled at them to put down their guns. The officers told Appellant to put down his weapon, which he refused to do, repeatedly yelling at them to drop their weapons.
After other officers arrived and surrounded the house, Appellant eventually came out of the house without the handgun he had been brandishing and surrendered. Appellant was placed under arrest and taken into custody.
B. Trial Proceedings
Prior to trial, the trial court heard evidence regarding Appellant's mental competency to stand trial. The court found that Appellant was competent to proceed.
The case was tried in Cape Girardeau County on a change of venue from Butler County. Appellant did not testify in his own behalf. His defense at trial rested primarily on the theory that he lacked sufficient mental capacity to deliberate at the time of the killings. Appellant presented the testimony of Dr. Jonathan Pincus, a neurologist, who stated that Appellant could not deliberate because he had suffered brain damage at birth. He also presented the testimony of Dr. Dorothy Lewis, a psychiatrist. She testified that Appellant could not deliberate on the day of the murders because he was suffering at that time from a combination of severe depression and extreme paranoia. In rebuttal, the State presented the testimony of Dr. Byron English, a psychologist and forensic examiner with the Department of Mental Health. He testified that his testing and examination indicated that Appellant had an IQ of 84, and that he did not have a mental disease or defect that made him unable to deliberate.
The jury found Appellant guilty on both counts of murder in the first degree, and the case then proceeded to the penalty phase. The State presented the victims' daughters, who testified about the victims, and Appellant presented the testimony of five witnesses in an attempt to mitigate punishment.
At the close of evidence, instructions and argument in the penalty phase, the jury recommended that, Appellant be sentenced to death for the murder of Debbie Rainwater, and sentenced to life without possibility of probation or parole for the murder of Stephen Rainwater. With respect to the murder of Debbie Rainwater, the jury found the following three statutory aggravating circumstances: (1) that the murder occurred while Appellant was engaged in the commission of another unlawful homicide; (2) that by his act of murder Appellant had knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person by means of a weapon that would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person; and (3) that the murder was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman because it involved depravity of mind in that Appellant killed Debbie Rainwater as part of a plan to kill more than one person, and thereby exhibited a callous disregard for the sanctity of all human life.1
The court imposed the sentences recommended by the jury. This appeal follows.
II. JURY SELECTION PROCEDURES
Appellant's first point challenges the jury selection procedures employed in Cape Girardeau County and used in his case. Specifically, Appellant contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss or to preclude the State from seeking the death penalty, wherein he alleged that African-Americans were being systematically excluded from the venire panel in violation of his constitutional rights to equal protection and to a jury selected from a venire panel representative of a fair cross-section of the community. He further argues that the Cape Girardeau County board of jury commissioners (hereinafter, "Board") failed to substantially comply with relevant requirements of sections 494.400-.505 RSMo 2000, in that they allegedly (a) relied on a master jury list containing less than the statutorily required 5% of the county's population, and...
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