State v. Bruton
| Decision Date | 09 November 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 2,No. 50071,50071,2 |
| Citation | 383 S.W.2d 525 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Donald M. BRUTON, Appellant |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Thomas F. Eagleton, Atty. Gen., O. Hampton Stevens, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.
Burton H. Shostak, Moser, Marsalek, Carpenter, Clary & Jaeckel, St. Louis, for appellant.
A jury found the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree. Section 559.020 RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S. The trial court heard evidence in chambers and made a finding that the defendant had been convicted of a prior felony. The punishment was therefore assessed by the court and the defendant was sentenced to thirty years in the custody of the Department of Corrections. Sections 556.280 and 559.030. The principal contentions on appeal are that the court erred in overruling defendant's motion for acquittal filed at the close of all the evidence because the evidence failed to show the defendant guilty of second-degree murder, that the court erred in instructing the jury on second-degree murder because there was no evidence to support the submission, and that the court erred in giving instruction No. 5 because it was not a proper statement of the law.
During the evening of August 7, 1962, approximately thirty young men and women many of them teenagers, congregated in the Chain-of-Rocks Park, sometimes referred to as Riverview Park, near the municipal waterworks on the bank of the Mississippi River in North St. Louis. They had come in various motor vehicles and had brought with them cold beer in cans which had been purchased at liquor stores by members of the crowd. At the place in question, there were concrete tables and benches about which these young people gathered drinking beer and talking, according to the record. There was also some evidence that there was a fifth of wine on one of the tables. This area of the park was illuminated by streetlights. At about 11:30 p. m., an altercation occurred during which the defendant stabbed Raymond Glon in the chest with a pocket knife. The blade penetrated the right ventricle of the heart. The victim of the stabbing was taken by his companions to a hospital in St. Louis County where he was pronounced dead on arrival at about midnight. There was medical evidence that Glon died as a result of a massive hemorrhage produced by the stab wound.
The defendant testified and admitted that he stabbed Glon but claimed that he was acting in self-defense when he did so. The jury was instructed on second-degree murder, manslaughter, and self-defense. The sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction of second-degree murder depends on the circumstances under which the stab wound was inflicted. Eleven persons who were present when the altercation occurred testified on behalf of the state. The defendant was the only witness in his behalf.
In determining its sufficiency to support a conviction, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the state. State v. Giden, Mo., 369 S.W.2d 212, 214; State v. Davis, Mo., 367 S.W.2d 517, 519.
William H. Miller, aged 21, and the defendant Donald M. Bruton, aged 24, doubledated on the night in question and rode in Miller's car. Miller's date was Joan Piper, aged 17, and the defendant was with Ann Harkey, aged 17, who had been going with the defendant 'as his steady'. The two couples first went in Miller's automobile to the parking lot of the Redwood Restaurant in Ferguson where a number of other young people were assembled. It was here that the larger and later assemblage in Chain-of-Rocks Park was planned. The youngest member of the ill-fated drinking party was a boy 15 years of age and the oldest was 24.
Just prior to the fatal encounter, Raymond Glon was sitting on one of the concrete tables or benches drinking from a can of beer. There was some evidence that he was also drinking wine from a bottle. Ann Harkey had been talking to him at the table. Thereafter, while standing nearby, the defendant and Miss Harkey got into an argument which cluminated in the defendant telling her, in substance, if she wanted to go with Glon to do so and to stay away from him. Thereupon, the defendant shoved Ann Harkey towards the concrete table and against Glon causing him to drop his can of beer which went under the table. Glon retrieved the beer, sat back down, and said to the defendant, 'Why don't you lay off of her.' During his altercations with Ann Harkey and Glon, the defendant applied to each of them vile and filthy epithets which need not be repeated here. For present purposes, it is sufficient to say that the defendant in effect asked Glon whether he was looking for trouble and Glon responded that he did not want any trouble with the defendant. The defendant suddenly lunged at Glon and stabbed him in the chest. All of the witnesses to the encounter except the defendant testified that at the time Glon was stabbed his arms were at his sides with nothing in his hands. John August Beck threw his arms around the defendant, pinning his arms. As he struggled to get free, the defendant shouted to Glon, 'I'll kill you and I'll get her later.' Ann Harkey ran away and hid in some nearby woods. Glon did not strike at the defendant at any time. After he was stabbed, Glon staggered back several steps against a tree and finally fell to the ground. He was taken to the hospital by some of his companions. He was unable to make a statement before he died.
After the defendant quieted down and was released by Beck, he, Bill Miller, and Joan Piper looked for Ann Harkey in the park and elsewhere. Then at the defendant's suggestion, Miller drove to a highwire fence enclosing a pond which was part of the property of the municipal waterworks. The defendant wiped blood from the knife which he had used and threw it over the fence. It fell in grass near the pond where it was later found by a police officer. Miller left the defendant at a bar and went home. The next morning Miller received a call from the defendant, met him on a parking lot of a shopping center and took him some clean clothes. After they had something to eat, the defendant went to a barbershop and got a crew cut. Previously he had worn his hair long in a so-called Hollywood style. The defendant then went to his home where he was arrested by the police.
The defendant's testimony tended to corroborate much of the state's case. The chief difference was the defendant's assertion that after he pushed Miss Harkey against Glon causing him to spill his beer, Glon said in effect if he was...
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