State v. Crider
| Decision Date | 25 May 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. SD 29687.,SD 29687. |
| Citation | 309 SW 3d 376 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Cleat D. CRIDER, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Kent Denzel of Columbia, for Appellant.
Chris Koster, Atty. Gen., and Daniel N. McPherson, Asst. Atty. Gen., of Jefferson City, for Respondent.
Cleat D. Crider ("Appellant") appeals his conviction by the trial court for one count of the unclassified felony of statutory sodomy in the first degree, a violation of section 566.062.1 Following a jury trial, Appellant was sentenced by the trial court to thirty years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. In his sole allegation of trial court error, Appellant maintains the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to allow Appellant to present evidence that G.S. ("Victim") had previously denied being abused without also finding that any such evidence would "open the door" for the State to present evidence of Appellant's alleged sexual abuse of Victim's sister, S.C. ("Sister"). We affirm the judgment and sentence of the trial court.
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict, State v. Tabor, 219 S.W.3d 769, 771 (Mo.App.2007), the record reveals Appellant was married to A.C. ("Mother") and was Victim's step-father. Appellant and Mother were married when Victim was two or three years old and Appellant was "the only father she knew...." Appellant and Mother then had two daughters, Sister and P.C., as well as one son, J.C. Appellant and Mother were divorced at the time of trial.
On May 1, 2005, T.D. ("Friend"), who was fourteen years old at the time, reported to her parents that she saw Appellant sexually abusing Victim when she was at their home visiting P.C. Her parents took her to the police station and she made a statement about the incident she had witnessed a few months prior. Friend testified at trial that on one particular afternoon she entered Appellant's home to visit P.C. and she decided to wander through the home when she discovered P.C. was not in her room. She was entering the kitchen when she saw Victim standing in front of the refrigerator. She related Appellant was kneeling down facing Victim with his back to Friend and his hand was in Victim's pants "moving up and down." She related Victim was looking at Appellant while chewing her fingernails and she heard Appellant remark to Victim Victim then spotted Friend and stared at her without saying anything. Appellant then felt Friend's presence, removed his hand from Victim's pants, and approached Friend while Victim went out the kitchen door. Friend stated Appellant asked her, "Hey, how are you doing?" and she did not reply. Friend then left the house. A few weeks later she spoke with Victim about the incident and Victim told Friend she did not want to tell anyone about what had occurred. Friend ultimately told P.C. about the incident and they told both Mother and Friend's parents about the occurrence.
Following Friend's statement to police, Appellant was arrested and he chose to waive his Miranda2 rights. During his interview at the police station, he informed the officers that Friend observed him and Victim playing a game of "wedgie," which had been started by Victim, and he was grabbing her underwear to pull it up.3
Prior to trial, Appellant filed a "Motion to Use Alleged Victim's Division of Family Services ("DFS") Statement" during trial.4 This motion was taken up by the trial court at a pretrial conference on January 9, 2009. At this hearing, the State maintained that if Victim's statement to DFS were introduced at trial then the State should be permitted to introduce evidence of other uncharged acts, namely Sister's allegations against Appellant, in order to explain Victim's statement to the DFS investigator. The State argued that admitting Victim's statement to DFS would "open the door" to evidence relating to Sister's allegations against Appellant, because the State would then need to elicit testimony from Victim that the reason she denied any abuse was because Sister was removed from the home following her disclosure of abuse and Victim did not want the same thing to happen to her. Defense counsel countered that the evidence relating to Sister had to be limited by the trial court due to the fact that Sister's claims were ultimately found by DFS to have been unsubstantiated and it would be prejudicial to Appellant to turn the current case into one involving Sister's claims. Defense counsel agreed the State could ask Victim "why she lied to DFS workers," but if she were allowed to discuss "the circumstances of why she lied" then that would "get into propensity ... evidence of Appellant, which is an uncharged bad act." On January 21, 2009, the trial court issued its "Order" overruling Appellant's motion.
A trial was held on January 21, 2009. At trial, Victim, who was seventeen years old at the time, testified that in December of 2004, when she was twelve years old, she was alone with Appellant in the kitchen of her home when Appellant got down on his knees in front of her, put his hand into her pants, and rubbed his finger on her vagina. She related Friend appeared in the kitchen door while this was occurring and stood there "in shock with her mouth open." She stated "once Appellant saw that her eyes were staring at something ... he turned around and saw Friend" and he "got up real fast." Victim then "went out the back door."
Over Appellant's objection, Victim further related that the incident in question was not the first time she had sexual contact with Appellant. She related that in the spring of 2004, there was a situation "involving what a boy tried to do with her,"5 and shortly after that Appellant approached her in a sexual manner for the first time. She related she and Appellant were wrestling on the floor She also stated that on numerous occasions thereafter Appellant touched her breasts and forced her to perform oral sex on him. She further detailed an incident which occurred between her and Appellant at a local park where Appellant made her perform fellatio on him until he ejaculated on a park bench. She related that between approximately April of 2004 and May of 2005 Appellant "had some type of sexual contact ..." with her "almost every day," but, saliently, she never told anyone about it "because she was scared that she was gonna get taken out of her home and not be with her mom anymore," and because Appellant told her he would kill Mother if she disclosed the abuse.
After the close of the State's case, defense counsel sought and was permitted to make an offer of proof relating to the evidence it would present. In the offer of proof, defense counsel elicited testimony from Paul Adair ("Mr. Adair"), formerly an investigator for DFS, who testified he interviewed Victim on December 14, 2004, in conjunction with his investigation of Sister's allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of Appellant. Mr. Adair related he did not specifically ask Victim if Appellant had abused her, but that Victim "said that no one has ever done...
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