State v. Anderson
| Docket Number | WD 84486 |
| Decision Date | 04 October 2022 |
| Citation | 653 S.W.3d 677 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Allen John Dale ANDERSON, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Following a bench trial in the Circuit Court of Dekalb County, Allen Anderson was convicted of one count of statutory rape in the second degree, child molestation in the second degree, sexual misconduct, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia. Anderson was sentenced to a total of 15 years’ imprisonment, and ordered to pay a $1.00 fine. He appeals. He argues that the State failed to present sufficient evidence that he penetrated the Victim's genitalia with his penis, as necessary to support his conviction of second-degree statutory rape. Anderson also contends that the circuit court erred in overruling his motion to suppress his pretrial statements to law enforcement, because he was interrogated in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel. We affirm.
The Victim was born in 2007. On August 2, 2018, she gave her mother a note stating:
Mom I am [writing] this because I thi[n]k you should give the dog to someone [e]lse because [Anderson] tried to make his bad spot fit in my bad spot I am sorry I didn't tell you this sooner it was to protect [the Victim's younger sibling].
After reading the note, Mother brought the Victim and her note to the Cameron Police Department, where the Victim spoke with Dekalb County Sheriff's Deputy Tracy Neill. The Victim told Deputy Neill that Anderson "did things to her that she did not like" and "hurts her" "really, really badly." According to Deputy Neill, the Victim stated that Anderson "puts his no-no in her no-no." The Victim stated that the abuse would occur on more than half of the nights when she was staying at Anderson's residence. She stated that the last incident occurred on the last occasion when she stayed at his home, at the end of July 2018.
Deputy Neill obtained a search warrant for Anderson's residence, and scheduled an interview of the Victim at a Child Advocacy Center in St. Joseph. The search warrant was executed the next day, August 3, 2018. In Anderson's residence, police found several types of smoking pipes, a scale, a glass pipe with white residue, and a bag of a crystal substance. A laboratory analysis indicated that the paraphernalia contained methamphetamine. The Cameron Police Department arrested Anderson on the same day.
On August 6, 2018, the Victim was interviewed at the Child Advocacy Center. A video recording of the Victim's forensic interview was played for the jury. In the interview, the Victim stated that Anderson "tried to do what grown-ups do to me." She stated that Anderson would enter her room at night wearing only his underwear, get under the covers of her bed, and remove the Victim's pants and underwear. The Victim stated that Anderson "rub[bed] his bad spot between mine or kind of st[u]ck it in mine but it would never work ... the rubbing part did [work] but the sticking part didn't." When asked if Anderson's "bad spot" went partway inside her, the Victim replied, "[n]o it doesn't but it does hurt." The Victim also described how Anderson would "pull me against him or ... turn me backwards and try to stick it up me ... try to push it." The Victim also recounted that Anderson rubbed his "bad spot" on her "bad spot" while they were face-to-face. During the interview, the Victim labeled the male and female genitalia on two anatomically correct diagrams as the "bad spot[s]." The Victim reported that the abuse began when she was ten years old, approximately seven to eight months before her forensic interview, and that the last incident had been the week before the interview, when she last stayed at Anderson's home.
Sheriff Keesaman testified that he began the interview by telling Anderson that he could refuse to answer any specific question, or that he could stop the interview entirely at any time. Sheriff Keesaman described Anderson as "very calm and polite, and he was very lucid during the interview." The interrogation was approximately an hour long. Sheriff Keesaman testified during the suppression hearing that Anderson did not request an attorney at any time during the interview, and that he would have terminated his interrogation immediately if Anderson had done so. Sheriff Keesaman also testified that he saw that Anderson had a blank application for public defender services during the interrogation. Sheriff Keesaman testified that in his lengthy career he had observed that not all of the defendants who received a public defender application actually completed the form, and some chose instead to hire private counsel.
During his interview, Anderson described several sexual incidents involving the Victim, although he claimed that he had never initiated sexual contact with her. Thus, Anderson stated that on one occasion, he awoke with his pants down, and the Victim lying naked next to him. He described another occasion where he woke up to the Victim Anderson said that he was uncertain if anything sexual happened during either of these events. Anderson told Sheriff Keesaman that there had also been multiple occasions in which he had fallen asleep, and woke up to the Victim putting his hand down her pants and "manipulating his fingers on her vagina."
During his interview Anderson also admitted that he used methamphetamine on the weekends when the Victim was not with him.
The State charged Anderson with statutory rape in the second degree; statutory sodomy in the second degree; child molestation in the second degree; sexual misconduct involving a child under 15; incest; and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.
Anderson waived his right to a jury trial. Following a bench trial, the court found him guilty of second-degree statutory rape, second-degree child molestation, sexual misconduct, and possession of drug paraphernalia. The court acquitted Anderson of second-degree statutory sodomy and incest. Anderson was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for statutory rape, fifteen years for child molestation, and four years for sexual misconduct; the court also imposed a $1.00 fine for possession of paraphernalia. The court ordered the sentences for statutory rape and sexual misconduct to run consecutively, but the sentences to otherwise run concurrently, resulting in a total term of imprisonment of fifteen years.
Anderson appeals.
Anderson raises two Points on appeal. He first argues that the circuit court erred in overruling his motion for judgment of acquittal as to the statutory rape count. Anderson argues that there was insufficient evidence to prove that his penis penetrated the Victim's genitalia, as necessary to establish that he engaged in sexual intercourse with the Victim. In his second Point, Anderson contends that the circuit court erred in overruling his motion to suppress statements he made to Sheriff Keesaman during his post-arraignment interrogation, because the interrogation violated Anderson's Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Although Anderson executed a written waiver form, he contends that his waiver was ineffective because Sheriff Keesaman did not allow him a reasonable time to obtain appointed counsel.
State v. Cannafax , 344 S.W.3d 279, 284 (Mo. App. S.D. 2011) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).
When addressing a circuit court's ruling on a motion to suppress evidence, this Court's review is "limited to a determination of whether there is substantial evidence to support its decision." State v. Wilson , 169 S.W.3d 870, 875 (Mo. App. W.D. 2005). "We will affirm the trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress unless the ruling was clearly erroneous." State v. Norman , 431 S.W.3d 563, 568 (Mo. App. E.D. 2014). "The trial court's ruling is clearly erroneous if this court is left with a definite and firm belief a mistake has been made." Wilson...
To continue reading
Request your trial