State v. Clemons
| Decision Date | 27 May 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 75833,75833 |
| Citation | 946 S.W.2d 206 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Reginald CLEMONS, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
John J. Kenney, David Massengill, Ian Yankwitt, New York City, Mark G. Arnold, St. Louis, for Appellant.
Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Attorney General, Breck K. Burgess, Assistant Attorney General, Jefferson City, for Respondent.
Because of his active participation in the drowning deaths of Julie and Robin Kerry, the jury found Reginald Clemons guilty of two counts of murder in the first degree and recommended the death sentence. The trial court imposed the death sentence. Appellant appeals from this verdict and sentence, as well as from the overruling of his timely-filed Rule 29.15 motion. We have jurisdiction, Mo. Const. article V, section 3, and affirm in all respects.
We review the facts in the light most favorable to the verdict. State v. Copeland, 928 S.W.2d 828, 834 (Mo.1996). The Chain of Rocks Bridge is a highway bridge over the Mississippi River that formerly permitted traffic to travel between Illinois and Missouri before authorities closed the bridge to vehicular traffic. Julie and Robin Kerry arranged to take their visiting cousin, Thomas Cummins, to the bridge to show him a graffiti poem they had painted there several years earlier. On April 4, 1991, at approximately 11:25 p.m., the two sisters and Cummins went to the bridge.
Earlier that evening, appellant, Reginald Clemons, along with Marlin Gray, Daniel Winfrey, and appellant's cousin, Antonio Richardson, met at a mutual friend's home. They drank beer and smoked marijuana. Gray suggested that they go to the Chain of Rocks Bridge. About 11:00 p.m., appellant, Richardson, Gray and Winfrey drove in two separate cars to the bridge. Parking near the Missouri end of the bridge, the foursome went through a hole in a fence, over a pile of rocks blocking the bridge entrance to vehicles, and onto the bridge deck. They attempted to smoke a joint of marijuana, but found the marijuana too wet to light. The group walked back toward their cars. They left behind a long metal flashlight that Richardson had brought to the bridge.
The Kerry sisters and Cummins arrived at the bridge sometime after appellant and his friends. The Kerrys and Cummins made their way onto the bridge deck and walked toward the Illinois end of the bridge. They encountered appellant and his companions, who were headed back toward the Missouri side. The two groups chatted briefly. One of the Kerry sisters gave Winfrey a cigarette. Gray showed the Kerrys and Cummins how to climb over the bridge railing and come back up through a manhole in the bridge deck. He told Cummins that the manhole was "a good place to be alone, and take your woman." The two groups parted, heading in opposite directions. Cummins and the Kerry sisters stopped to look at the graffiti poem and then continued walking toward Illinois.
In the meantime, appellant and his friends had returned to the Missouri end of the bridge. As they lingered there, appellant suggested to his companions, "Let's rob them." Gray replied, "Yeah, I feel like hurting somebody." Richardson suggested they rape the girls. Appellant agreed. The foursome walked back toward the Illinois end of the bridge. As they walked, Winfrey saw Gray talk to appellant, after which Gray came to Winfrey and handed him a condom. Winfrey put the condom in his pocket and stated that he "wasn't going to do it." Appellant grabbed Winfrey, pushed him toward the rail of the bridge, and threatened him until Winfrey agreed to "do it."
The foursome caught up with the Kerry sisters and Cummins at the Illinois end of the bridge. Cummins and the Kerry sisters started back toward Missouri. The four men followed, then formed a cordon around their victims. Appellant and Richardson walked ahead of the Kerrys and Cummins. Gray and Winfrey walked behind.
After they passed the curve in the bridge, Gray grabbed Cummins by the arm, walked him back a short distance, and told him, "This is a robbery." Gray told Cummins to lie down on the ground. Cummins complied. Cummins heard the Kerry sisters scream for help as appellant and Richardson grabbed them. Appellant pushed one of the sisters toward Winfrey and ordered him to hold her. Gray told Cummins he would kill him if he looked. Cummins heard one of the assailants say to Julie,
While Winfrey restrained one of the Kerry sisters, Richardson held the other sister down. Appellant ripped the clothes from her and raped her. Richardson and appellant then traded places, and Richardson raped the woman. Gray then told Winfrey to watch Cummins, while Gray and appellant alternately raped the other Kerry sister. Appellant threw the women's clothes over the side of the bridge. Richardson took the first sister to a manhole further down the bridge toward Missouri and forced her to climb down to the metal platform below. Richardson followed her down the manhole.
When Gray finished raping the other Kerry sister, he asked where Richardson had gone. Winfrey said "he went down that way" and pointed toward the Missouri end of the bridge. Winfrey did not tell Gray that Richardson had gone down the manhole. Gray headed down the bridge past the manhole.
In the meantime, appellant forced the other Kerry sister down the manhole with Richardson and the first sister. Appellant returned to Cummins, who was still lying on the ground, took his wallet, some money, a wristwatch, and some keys. When appellant discovered Cummins's firefighter badge in the wallet, he became concerned that Cummins might be a police officer. Appellant threw something--presumably the badge--off the bridge and put the wallet back in Cummins's pocket. Cummins heard appellant and Winfrey discuss whether Cummins should live or die. Someone told Cummins that he had never had the pleasure of "popping" someone. Appellant then yanked Cummins up by the coat collar, warned him not to look, and walked him to the manhole below which Richardson waited with the Kerry sisters. Appellant ordered Cummins to lie down on the bridge again and pulled his coat over his head. Cummins heard someone say, "You're going to die." Appellant then took Cummins and forced him into the manhole. As appellant started down the manhole, he asked Winfrey where Gray had gone and told Winfrey to "go get him." Winfrey left to find Gray.
On the metal platform under the bridge, Cummins laid down next to Julie and Robin Kerry. Either appellant or Richardson ordered them to get up and go to their left, to the concrete pier below the platform. As Robin Kerry stepped down, she grabbed Cummins's arm; either appellant or Richardson ordered them not to touch each other. When the three of them reached the pier, Julie, then Robin, were pushed off the bridge into the river below. Cummins was ordered to jump. He did. When Cummins surfaced after his seventy-foot fall, he saw Julie nearby in the water, and called for her to swim. Fighting the current and rough water, Julie grabbed Cummins, dragging them both below the surface. Cummins broke free. Julie did not reappear. Cummins eventually reached a steep riverbank and came ashore by a wooded area near the Chain of Rocks waterworks. Authorities recovered Julie's body from the river near Caruthersville, Missouri, about three weeks later. Robin's body is still missing.
Back on the bridge, Winfrey had walked all the way to the Missouri end of the bridge before he found Gray. He and Gray were returning to the bridge when they met appellant and Richardson. Appellant said, "Let's go, we threw them off." The four got into their cars and drove to a gas station, where they bought food, cigarettes and gas. They then drove to a place referred to as "The Rock," a cliff overlooking the river. The four climbed to the top, and as they sat, appellant and Gray remarked that the victims "would never make it to shore." Gray said that Richardson "was brave for doing that." Gray also told Winfrey that he "should have got some of the pussy." As they returned to their cars, appellant said, "Now if anybody said [sic] anything, I'm going to kill him."
Cummins called the police. In the course of their investigation of the bridge scene, police discovered the long flashlight that Richardson had left behind. The police traced the flashlight, which had been reported stolen, to Richardson and brought him in for questioning. Appellant's name surfaced during the interview with Richardson and, on April 7, 1991, detectives met appellant at his home. They asked him to accompany them to police headquarters to discuss the case. Appellant, who was not under arrest, freely accompanied the detectives. At police headquarters, appellant was informed of the constitutional rights protected by the warnings required under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), waived them, and consented to talk to the police. Appellant confessed to the rapes and admitted that the Kerry sisters and Cummins were forced from the bridge. After the interview, police arrested appellant.
Appellant argues that the trial court erred in submitting the charge of first degree murder to the jury. He claims there was no evidence from which the jury could find that appellant deliberated prior to the murders of Julie and Robin Kerry.
When reviewing a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, the test is whether the state presented sufficient evidence that a reasonable juror could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Brown, 902 S.W.2d 278, 288 (Mo. banc 1995). Deliberation may be inferred from any circumstances that indicate "cool reflection for any length of time no matter how brief." Id. The evidence and inferences from the evidence are viewed in the light most...
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