State v. Cravens

• Decision Date: 06 May 2004
• Docket Number: No. 25142.,25142.
• Citation: 132 S.W.3d 919
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. James R. CRAVENS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

132 S.W.3d 919

STATE of Missouri, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. James R. CRAVENS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 25142.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, Division Two.

May 6, 2004.

Amy M. Bartholow, Columbia, MO, for appellant.

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., Adriane Dixon Crouse, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, MO, for respondent.

JEFFREY W. BATES, Judge.

By amended information, James Cravens ("Defendant") was charged with the offenses of murder in the second degree and armed criminal action for killing Deborah Roy ("Victim") with a sawed-off shotgun. See § 565.021.1; § 571.015.¹ A jury found Defendant guilty of each offense and recommended sentences of 18 years imprisonment on the second degree murder count and seven years imprisonment on the armed criminal action count. The trial court followed the jury's recommendation when entering judgment and sentenced Defendant to serve the aforementioned terms of imprisonment consecutively.

Defendant appeals, presenting two points of error. In Point I, Defendant claims the trial court erred in admitting the written statements of three witnesses as prior inconsistent statements pursuant to § 491.074 because the State failed to lay a proper foundation for such use. In Point II, Defendant claims the trial court erred in excluding from evidence an address book containing an entry in which the writer expressed a desire to die from a fatal disease. We affirm.

Defendant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his conviction for second degree murder and armed criminal action. In this appeal, we consider the facts and all reasonable inferences derived therefrom in a light most favorable to the verdict, and we reject all contrary evidence and inferences. State v. Campbell, 122 S.W.3d 736, 737 (Mo.App. 2004); State v. Rush, 949 S.W.2d 251, 252 (Mo.App.1997). Viewed from that perspective, the favorable evidence supporting the State's case against Defendant is set out below.

In 1996, Defendant lived with Victim in her trailer house on County Road 2010 near West Plains, Missouri. Their nearest neighbors were the Baumgardners, who lived in another trailer house across the road. Three Baumgardner children—LaDella, Jonathan and Jessica—resided in this trailer house, along with their father and grandmother.²

On June 19, 1996, Jonathan awakened to hear Defendant and Victim arguing. They continued doing so throughout the day. The Baumgardner family had planned to have a barbecue on the evening of the 19th. Shoynna Klingler, who was dating the Baumgardner children's father, was at their residence because she had been invited to attend the meal.

At about 6:00 p.m., Shoynna, LaDella, Jonathan and Jessica walked up the road to gather fruit from a nearby raspberry patch. While the group was walking, they saw Defendant and Victim standing inside the doorway of Victim's trailer, still arguing with one another. Jonathan and Jessica observed Defendant push Victim and throw her around. The argument between Defendant and Victim continued while Shoynna and the Baumgardner children picked raspberries for about 30 minutes. As the group returned to the Baumgardner trailer, they heard Defendant tell Victim, "[I]f you don't do what I say, you will be sorry."

The argument between Defendant and Victim continued throughout the evening while the Baumgardners were having their barbecue. At approximately 10:00 p.m., Jonathan went outside to clean out his father's automobile. Shoynna also came outside to help with the task. Defendant and Victim were still arguing. At approximately 10:30 p.m., Jonathan and Shoynna heard Victim scream like she was scared and say, "No, no, please don't...." Victim's words were followed by a loud gunshot. After the shot occurred, Defendant closed the door to Victim's trailer, walked around inside for a short time, turned out the lights and left. While Defendant was outside the trailer, Jonathan heard a noise like that made by someone spinning a cylinder in a gun.

During the late evening hours of June 19th, Texas County Sheriff's Deputy Jerald Sigman was on patrol when he saw Defendant's vehicle headed northbound on Highway 181. At 12:45 a.m. on June 20th, Deputy Sigman observed Defendant's vehicle a second time. This time, the truck was in a business parking lot at the junction of Highway 63 and U Highway. The truck was parked with its headlights still on. Deputy Sigman turned around and went back by the vehicle, which now had its headlights turned off. Since Deputy Sigman could now see someone outside the truck, he pulled into the lot to see who the person was and what he was doing. As Deputy Sigman approached Defendant's truck, he observed a box of Natural Light beer in the truck, and he could smell intoxicants. Deputy Sigman asked Defendant what he was doing there, but received no answer. When the officer requested Defendant's identification, he responded with an expletive and sped away in his truck.

Deputy Sigman pursued Defendant, who was traveling at a high rate of speed on U Highway. At Deputy Sigman's request, two law enforcement officers from the Cabool Police Department attempted to stop Defendant by parking their police cars at the intersection of Highways U and 63 and activating their emergency lights. Defendant initially slowed as he approached the intersection, but then he accelerated and continued onward. One of the officers from Cabool shot out the left front tire of Defendant's vehicle as it approached because the officer was afraid of being run over by Defendant. The pursuit continued as Defendant turned north onto Highway 63 and then east onto Orchard Road. Defendant finally stopped after traveling a short distance on Berry Road.

Once stopped, Defendant refused to leave his vehicle and only complied after being ordered to do so at gunpoint several times. When he exited his truck, he was wearing an empty shoulder holster and an empty side holster. Defendant also had a loaded 9 mm magazine, a loaded .22 magazine, an empty cylinder for a .22 revolver, and individual rounds of 9 mm and .22 ammunition. In addition, Defendant had six yellow Winchester 20 gauge shotgun shells in his possession. When Defendant was asked where his weapons were, he replied that it was not against the law to possess ammunition. Defendant was taken to jail at the Texas County Sheriff's Department. While Deputy Sigman was patting Defendant down, Sigman saw red spots on Defendant's pants.

When the Baumgardners got up on the morning of June 20th, they noticed that the door to Victim's trailer was padlocked shut from the outside, all of the windows were closed, the outside light was still on, and one of Victim's dogs was outside. Because this was unusual, they called the police. A deputy from the Howell County Sheriff's Department arrived at 1:30 p.m. and discovered Victim's body lying on a sofa bed inside the trailer. She had been shot in the face with a shotgun. A partial box of yellow Winchester 20 gauge shotgun shells was found on a kitchen counter inside the trailer. These shotgun shells were the same brand and type of shells recovered from the Defendant by the Texas County Sheriff's Department. The forearm of a shotgun was found outside in the yard.

During the evening hours of June 20th, the Texas County Sheriff's Department conducted a search for evidence along U Highway, Orchard Road and Berry Road, which were roads taken by Defendant during his attempt to escape from police earlier that morning. While searching Orchard Road, a deputy found a single shot 20 gauge shotgun that was missing its forearm. A spent shell was found inside the chamber. The stock and barrel of the weapon had been sawed off to shorten it, resulting in a gun with an overall length of 21½ inches and a barrel length of 13 5/8 inches. The trigger guard on the gun was missing. The forearm found at Victim's trailer had come from this shotgun. The shotgun, forearm and spent shell were tested later for latent prints by an examiner at the Missouri Highway Patrol crime lab. No fingerprints were found on any of the items.

After Victim's body was discovered, two Highway Patrol officers interviewed Defendant at the Texas County jail at three different times over a six-hour period. During the first interview, Defendant was evasive in responding to questions. He admitted arguing with Victim, but claimed he left their residence and spent the day with his cousin and stepmother. Defendant said nothing about Victim being dead and denied knowing where she was. During the second interview, Defendant denied owning a shotgun. He explained the presence of shotgun shells in his truck by claiming that he intended to buy a shotgun to deal with troublesome neighborhood pets that were getting into his trash. He did admit, however, that he had thrown guns out of his vehicle while he was being pursued by police in Texas County. After a break, Defendant then admitted that he had killed Victim, gotten scared and ran. He conceded that his responses to the investigators' earlier questions had been lies. During a third taped interview, Defendant again admitted killing Victim and owning the shotgun involved in the shooting.³

At the trial, the State presented expert testimony from Dr. Douglas Anderson, a pathologist who performed an autopsy on Victim. Dr. Anderson testified that Victim died from a massive shotgun wound to the face. She had no diseases at the time of her death. The shotgun pellets entered beneath the bridge of Victim's nose and angled slightly upward and toward the back of the skull, causing a wound that was about 4½ inches in diameter. Victim's right eye, cheekbone and ear were destroyed by the fatal shot, which was fired from a distance of greater than four or five feet.

After Defendant was convicted and sentenced, he appealed. Additional facts are provided below when relevant to our discussion of Defendant's two points relied on.

Defendant's first point concerns the trial...