State v. Bowens
| Decision Date | 27 March 2018 |
| Docket Number | No. ED 104738,ED 104738 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Joseph BOWENS, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Kristina S. Olson, Saint Louis, MO, for appellant.
Dora A. Fichter, Jefferson City, MO, for respondent.
Joseph Bowens ("Defendant") appeals the judgment entered upon a jury verdict convicting him of one count of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree robbery, and two counts of armed criminal action. We affirm.
Defendant was charged with the above crimes for his alleged involvement in the shooting death and robbery of Scott Knopfel ("Victim") that took place on January 15, 2015. The crimes occurred at the Drury Inn hotel located near Interstate 44 and Hampton Avenue in the City of St. Louis ("the Drury Inn" or "the hotel"). Defendant was represented by a public defender from shortly before he was arraigned until he retained private counsel approximately two weeks prior to trial. Defendant was tried by a jury from April 5-8, 2016, and he does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions.
Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the following evidence was presented by the State at Defendant’s trial. In January 2015, Dasha Lindsey worked as a security guard at the Drury Inn. In the early morning of January 15, 2015, Lindsey was working the overnight shift and watching the parking lot of the hotel. Lindsey’s fiancé, James Montgomery, was with her, and they both sat in their car in the parking lot. Around 3:00 a.m., Lindsey and Montgomery noticed a small black Hyundai drive around the parking lot and back up when it was not necessary. The driver of the car, who Lindsey and Montgomery later identified as Defendant, exited the car, and the person in the front passenger seat "hopped over the middle console" into the driver’s seat.
Defendant was wearing Nike Air Jordan shoes, a black and red Chicago Bulls hat, and a black leather jacket. Defendant looked at Lindsey and Montgomery, opened the back door of the car and got in the back seat, and sat in the back seat for about a minute while he kept looking at Lindsey and Montgomery. Defendant then exited the car and walked into the hotel, out of the sight of Lindsey and Montgomery. At this point, Lindsey used her walkie-talkie to try to contact Victim, the night auditor at the hotel, to warn him someone was coming inside. When Victim did not respond, Lindsey used her cell phone to call the front desk. The phone rang four or five times before it was picked up. Lindsey then heard a "pop" sound, and a very short time later, Defendant exited the hotel in a manner Lindsey described as "walking normally."
Concerned for Victim, Lindsey had Montgomery drive their vehicle to the front of the hotel, and Lindsey went inside. Lindsey found Victim lying on the floor behind the counter, saw the cash register was open, and called 911.
After the police arrived at the scene, they found Victim had a visible gunshot wound
to his face and was deceased. A medical examiner later determined Victim died from gunshot wounds to the neck, chest, and abdomen. In addition, a Drury Inn employee later determined ninety-seven dollars was missing from the hotel cash register.
The police collected one bullet and one shell casing at the hotel and downloaded video surveillance footage, which clearly showed the assailant’s face and clothing. Detective Michael Herzberg of the St. Louis City Police Department distributed it to the media for dissemination to the public, hoping someone would recognize the person in the video, call the police, and identify him. Detective Herzberg also obtained video footage from a red light camera, which showed a small black sedan enter the hotel parking lot.
After the hotel video surveillance footage was disseminated to the public, Detective Herzberg received phone calls from Tony Jones, who was the Chief of Police for Caruthersville, Missouri ("Chief Jones" or "Chief Tony Jones"), and Veneto Johnson, who was a resident of Caruthersville. Chief Jones and Johnson both identified Defendant as the man in the video. Johnson also provided a phone number for Defendant. Chief Jones testified at Defendant’s trial, but Johnson did not testify. The information Johnson provided to police was solely adduced through the testimony of Detective Herzberg, and defense counsel did not object to the admission of testimony from Detective Herzberg regarding Johnson’s identification of Defendant.
Officers with the St. Louis City Police Department obtained historical GPS data for the phone number Johnson associated with Defendant. The GPS data showed Defendant’s phone was traveling in the City of St. Louis and stopped in the area near the hotel in the minutes prior to Victim’s murder.
In the meantime, Officer Jason Morgan of the Poplar Bluff Police Department learned Defendant was wanted for the crimes at the Drury Inn. Two days after the murder and robbery took place, Officer Morgan conducted a traffic stop of a black, four-door Hyundai that Defendant’s wife Connie Bowens ("Defendant’s Wife" or "Wife") was driving. Officer Morgan told Defendant’s Wife he was looking for Defendant, and she agreed to take the officer to his location. She then took Officer Morgan to an apartment located at 640 Lindsay Street in Poplar Bluff ("the apartment"), where the officer found Defendant standing outside. Defendant was subsequently placed under arrest. Defendant was wearing Nike Air Jordan shoes, the shoes were seized at the time of his arrest, and the shoes were admitted into evidence at trial without objection.
Thereafter, Wife consented to a search of the apartment and to a search of her car. In a bedroom of the apartment, the police found and seized a black leather jacket matching the description of the jacket worn by Defendant during the crimes and a pair of pants. The jacket and pants were admitted into evidence at trial without objection.
DNA testing performed on the jacket found in the apartment revealed the presence of a mixture of Defendant’s DNA and Victim’s DNA. DNA testing performed on Victim’s left hand also revealed the presence of a mixture of Defendant’s DNA and Victim’s DNA. In addition, a swab of a stain found between an air conditioning vent and the radio in Defendant’s Wife’s car tested presumptively positive for blood.
The police learned Defendant was an avid gambler, and officers went to the Lumiere Casino in the City of St. Louis to obtain video surveillance footage from the morning of the crimes. The video showed a man matching Defendant’s description in the casino at 2:22 a.m., which was approximately forty minutes before the Drury Inn robbery and murder.
Defendant called four witnesses in his defense. Defendant’s daughter Latasha Taylor ("Defendant’s Daughter" or "Daughter") testified that on the morning of the crimes, Defendant was with her in Poplar Bluff, he was sick, and she was taking care of him. Defendant’s Wife testified she spoke with her Daughter on the phone on the morning of the crimes and Daughter was taking care of Defendant. Defendant also called Lindsey as a witness and attempted to show, inter alia , that the black car she saw at the hotel was a Honda rather than a Hyundai. Finally, Defendant called Detective Herzberg and questioned him regarding, inter alia , his collection of DNA buccal swabs from Defendant.
At the conclusion of the presentation of Defendant’s case, his attorney Celestine Dotson ("Ms. Dotson") told the court she wanted to present evidence regarding three gas-station armed robberies committed in the St. Louis area by a person the media referred to as the "Bulls Hat Bandit." The State made an oral motion to exclude the evidence, and the trial court granted the State’s motion.
Prior to trial, Defendant made a motion for a continuance on the grounds his private counsel, whom Defendant retained approximately two weeks prior to trial, needed more time to prepare. Defendant also filed a pre-trial motion to suppress the evidence seized during the search of the apartment in Poplar Bluff. The trial court denied both motions after holding pre-trial hearings.
After hearing all of the evidence, including that which is set out above in Sections I.A. and I.B., the jury found Defendant guilty of one count of first-degree murder (Count I), one count of first-degree robbery (Count III), and two counts of armed criminal action (Counts II and IV). Defendant then filed a motion for a new trial, alleging in relevant part that the trial court erred in excluding evidence regarding the Bulls Hat Bandit, the trial court erred in denying his motion for a continuance, and the trial court erred in denying Defendant’s motion to suppress. However, Defendant’s motion for new trial did not allege the trial court erred in admitting Detective Herzberg’s testimony regarding Johnson’s identification of Defendant as the person in the hotel’s video surveillance footage.
The trial court denied Defendant’s motion for a new trial and entered a judgment in accordance with the jury’s verdict. The court then sentenced Defendant as a prior and persistent offender to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for Count I and twenty years of imprisonment for Counts II-IV. The trial court ordered the sentences for Counts I-III to run consecutively with each other but concurrently with the sentence for Count IV; in other words, Defendant was sentenced to a total sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus forty years of imprisonment. Defendant appeals.1
Defendant raises four points on appeal. In his first point, Defendant contends the trial court committed reversible error in denying his motion to suppress and admitting into evidence...
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