State v. Anderson

• Decision Date: 09 December 1963
• Docket Number: No. 49339,49339
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Lloyd Leo ANDERSON, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 225

386 S.W.2d 225

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Lloyd Leo ANDERSON, Appellant.

No. 49339.

Supreme Court of Missouri, En Banc.

Dec. 9, 1963.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 13, 1965.

Thomas F. Eagleton, Atty. Gen., George W. Draper, II, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

James J. Rankin, St. Louis, for appellant.

DALTON, Judge.

Defendant was charged and convicted of murder in the first degree of one Thomas Grupe in the City of St. Louis and the jury assessed his punishment at death. Sections 559.010 and 559.030 RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S.

On May 18, 1961, one Paul Speckart owned and operated the Speckart Rexall Drug Company located at 4100 West Natural Bridge in the City of St. Louis, Missouri. About 9 p.m. on the date mentioned, he was alone in the store and was standing behind the prescription counter and to the left of the cash register. His mother and the delivery boy, Thomas Grupe, were out of the store making prescription deliveries. At that time a Negro man entered the store and asked for sulphathiazole. While Speckart was explaining to him the necessity of a physician's prescription two Negro men about 18 to 19 years of age entered the store. The taller of these two men was later identified as Clewiston Jones, and the shorter one was the defendant, Lloyd Leo Anderson. Jones and Anderson started around the counter toward Speckart and Speckart observed that they had sawed-off shotguns in their hands and were pointing these shotguns at him. Jones struck Speckart with the butt end of his shotgun and knocked Speckart to the floor. While on the floor, he was struck several times about his head and shoulders and then told to get up and open the cash register. Speckart opened the cash register and was then ordered to get back down on the floor, which he did. While on the floor, he observed that someone was taking the money out of the cash register, which register contained approximately $525. Some of this money belonged to Speckart and the balance to a money order company, but all was under his care, custody and control. The man then struck Speckart several more times and told him to get up. When he got up, he noticed that Thomas Grupe had returned from making his prescription deliveries and was being forced into the prescription room by defendant.

Later, Speckart and Thomas Grupe were taken to the basement of the store and made to lie on the floor, where Speckart and Grupe were both beaten with what seemed to be the stocks of the shotguns. Immediately thereafter, two shots rang out within fifteen seconds of each other. The first killed Thomas Grupe and the second shot went through Speckart's shoulder. The men then left and Speckart observed that Thomas Grupe was lying motionless on the floor and appeared to be dead.

Subsequently, Speckart was taken to DePaul Hospital where he was treated for a laceration of his chin, a gunshot wound of his left shoulder, a laceration of his left wrist and a deep laceration on the back of his head.

When Mrs. Speckart and Thomas Grupe had returned from making the mentioned deliveries, Mrs. Speckart had remained briefly in her automobile when Thomas Grupe entered the store. While waiting, Mrs. Speckart saw three shabbily-dressed Negro men leave the store by the front door and run south, on the west side of the street. Mrs. Speckart then entered the store and learned what had happened.

The body of Thomas Grupe was removed from the basement of Speckart's Drug Store the same evening and taken to City Hospital No. 2, where Dr. Wesley Ball pronounced him dead from an apparent missile wound. The body was then taken to the city morgue, where Dr. Martin Glaser performed an autopsy on May 19, 1961, and observed a bullet wound of the chest which had resulted in a severe hemorrhage into the chest cavities causing death. Dr. Glaser also removed a bullet from just under the skin on the left side, the fifth intercostal space, a .32 caliber bullet, which was turned over to Donald Brocksmith, a St. Louis Police Officer, assigned to the police laboratory.

After the robbery and homicide, certain St. Louis police officers went to Speckart's Drug Store and recovered a .25 caliber cartridge casing from the floor in the center aisle of the basement and a spent pellet.

About 10:30 p.m. on May 29, 1961 two St. Louis Police Officers, Henry Lachenicht and Raymond Lauer, went to 1914 North Grand Avenue in the City of St. Louis. Lachenicht carried a twelve-guage shotgun and Lauer carried his service pistol. Both officers entered the premises and there found the defendant and Clewiston Jones. Lachenicht ordered them to 'throw out your guns and come out, we're police officers.' Thereupon, Jones pointed a pistol at Lachenicht and fired approximately three shots at the officers. Lachenicht then shot and killed Jones. Defendant, however, dropped his revolver to the floor, threw up his hands and stated: 'Don't shoot, I'm coming out, we're the men you're looking for. I killed the Grupe boy', and he surrendered to the officers. There was further evidence that, as Officer Lachenicht entered the premises through the front door, he saw defendant 'running to the back of the building.' When the officer exchanged shots with Jones, Jones was only fifteen feet away and Jones fell backward behind a 'cooler.' The officer then ordered defendant to come out and put his hands up in front of the 'cooler,' and defendant complied with the order.

The body of Clewiston Jones was immediately taken to City Hospital No. 2 and then to the city morgue, where it was viewed by Speckart. On the same evening Speckart also saw defendant at the police station and at the trial he identified Jones and defendant as two of the men who committed the robbery, and he also identified two sawed-off (double-barrel) shotguns and a pistol as resembling the weapons used in the holdup of Speckart's store by Clewiston Jones and the defendant.

After defendant's arrest on May 29, 1961, Daniel Reardon, Jr., Circuit Attorney for the City of St. Louis, questioned the defendant with reference to the Speckart Drug Store robbery and the killing of Thomas Grupe. In Reardon's presence, the defendant gave a statement which was reduced to writing, read and signed by defendant. In this statement the defendant stated in essence that about two weeks prior thereto he, Clewiston Jones and a third man robbed the Speckart Drug Store; that Clewiston Jones had a loaded .25 caliber automatic and a sawed-off shotgun and the defendant had a loaded .32 caliber revolver and a loaded sawed-off shotgun; that they obtained about three hundred dollars from the robbery; and that, while in the basement of the store, defendant fired one shot from his .32 caliber revolver at Thomas Grupe. Clewiston Jones fired one shot from a .25 caliber Colt semi-automatic pistol.

Defendant also stated that the .32 caliber Harrington and Richardson revolver he had used to shoot Thomas Grupe was then at Clewiston Jones' house at 6048 Maple in the City of St. Louis and so were the two sawed-off shotguns they had with them at the time. Defendant also stated that Jones had used a .25 caliber automatic pistol in the Speckart store robbery. Defendant in his statement, after the police had obtained possession of these weapons, identified the .32 Harrington and Richardson revolver as the revolver which was in his possession and which he fired at Thomas Grupe in the basement of Speckart's Drug Store. He also identified as his own one of the shotguns which he had with him at that time, because, as defendant stated, 'it's busted on the handle.'

The State's evidence further tended to show that about 1 a.m. on May 30, 1961, after defendant's confession and statement as to the then location of the guns used in the Speckart robbery, a St. Louis Police Officer, Elmer Kuhlman, had gone to 6048 Maple Avenue, the residence of Clewiston Jones, and had removed from the premises a Harrington and Richardson .32 caliber revolver, two 'Belgin Russell Arms Company make double-barrel sawed-off shot-guns,' and a .25 Colt semi-automatic pistol. In addition, he found ammunition to fit all of these weapons.

Lieutenant Frank Ruff of the St. Louis Police Laboratory performed firearms identification tests on the various State's exhibits. The results of his tests showed that the bullet removed from the body of Thomas Grupe by Dr. Glaser was fired from the .32 Harrington and Richardson revolver; and that the spent pellet found on the basement floor of Speckart's Drug Store was fired from the .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol in question.

When Lieutenant Ruff first attempted to fire the .32 caliber Harrington and Richardson revolver he was unable to do so because of its faulty mechanism. However, he talked to the defendant who advised him that, although he knew the revolver was in a broken condition, it could be fired in its then condition. Ruff handed the weapon to the defendant who demonstrated to Ruff how to fire the revolver. Ruff then returned to the laboratory and, by using the manner described by defendant, he was able to test shoot the revolver with the result as above stated.

No evidence was offered on behalf of defendant.

Defendant, represented by counsel at the trial and on this appeal, does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict; however, we find it entirely sufficient to make out a submissible case of murder in the first degree as charged.

The first assignment in appellant's brief is that, 'The trial Court erred in failing to declare a mistrial at the request of appellant in that testimony of various prosecution witnesses, over the objection of appellant, was introduced and admitted into evidence which proved the commission of a separate and distinct crime from that with which appellant was charged, thus allowing in highly prejudicial evidence and depriving appellant of a fair trial and violates appellant's right to be tried for the offense for which he was...