State v. Darnell

• Decision Date: 15 June 1993
• Docket Number: No. WD,WD
• Citation: 858 S.W.2d 739
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Joyce DARNELL, Appellant. 45608.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 739

858 S.W.2d 739

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Joyce DARNELL, Appellant.

No. WD 45608.

Missouri Court of Appeals Western District.

June 15, 1993.

Motion for Rehearing and/or Transfer to

Supreme Court Denied July 27, 1993.

Ronald L Holt, Bryan Cave, Robert M. Thompson, Rouse, German, Hendricks, May & Shank, Kansas City, for appellant.

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Philip M. Koppe, Asst. Atty. Gen., Kansas City, for respondent.

Before ULRICH, P.J., and TURNAGE and HANNA, JJ.

ULRICH, Judge.

Joyce Darnell appeals her conviction, following a jury-waived trial, of one count of stealing property of a value exceeding $150.00, a Class C felony, in violation of section 570.030, RSMo 1986. Ms. Darnell also appeals the denial of her postconviction motion for a new trial. Ms. Darnell contends on appeal that her conviction should be reversed and she should be adjudged not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect or she should be granted a new trial because (1) the report of the psychiatric evaluation of her performed by Dr. John H. Wisner should have been excluded from evidence and (2) the prosecutor was erroneously permitted to introduce evidence of Ms. Darnell's prior criminal conduct during the cross-examination of Dr. Steven Mandracchia, which constituted "prosecutorial misconduct" and had an "unavoidable adverse effect on the trial court's judgment and on its adjudication of [Ms. Darnell's] guilt or innocence." ¹ The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

On the afternoon of November 14, 1989, Joyce Darnell entered the Jones Store Company (Jones Store) in the Blue Ridge Mall in Kansas City, Missouri, and began picking up an assortment of merchandise without paying for it. Ms. Darnell was first observed carrying a shopping bag with a coat over her arm by a Jones Store "Loss Prevention Supervisor" on the lower level of the store. The supervisor watched Ms. Darnell pick up two Christmas bells and carry them around the store in her hand for a period of time. The supervisor subsequently noticed that the bells were no longer in Ms. Darnell's hands. Although he did not see what she had done with them, the supervisor and another loss prevention officer heard the bells ringing in her bag.

The supervisor followed Ms. Darnell up the escalator to the jewelry department of the store, where he saw her remove some items of jewelry and place them in her hand. She then placed her coat over her hand and dropped the items into the shopping bag she carried on her arm. She repeated this conduct "numerous times" over a period of an hour and ten minutes, dropping three to five items in her shopping bag or coat pocket each time. The supervisor estimated that at least three or four times during this activity, Ms. Darnell walked toward the south door of the store as if she were going to leave. The supervisor followed her to the door, but each time Ms. Darnell did not leave. Instead, she would wander back to the jewelry department and "start all over with the same procedure."

Before leaving the store, Ms. Darnell approached a clerk in the Young Men's Department who handed her a small Jones Store sack. Ms. Darnell took the sack, walked to a bench near the south exit, and proceeded to remove the items from her shopping bag and coat pocket and place them in the Jones Store sack. She then placed the Jones Store sack in her shopping bag.

The supervisor estimated that Ms. Darnell walked by at least ten cash registers as she wandered through the store. Eventually, Ms. Darnell left the store and began walking quickly to a bus which was pulling up to the curb. The supervisor stopped her before she could board, identified himself, and told her she had some items "she knew didn't belong to her." At that point, Ms. Darnell responded that she was sorry and that she wanted the items as gifts for friends but did not have any money. She told the supervisor that she was staying at a halfway house and that if the store pressed charges against her there was a chance she would go back to prison.

After retrieving the shopping bag from Ms. Darnell, the supervisor inventoried its contents. The bag contained twenty-two items from the jewelry department, two Christmas bells, and a gift trim heart. The retail value of the items was $378.15; their wholesale value was slightly more than $180.00.

The supervisor and other Jones Store security personnel took Ms. Darnell to the loss prevention office where they held her pending the arrival of the police. While they waited, Ms. Darnell engaged in a rambling conversation, apologizing profusely for her actions, expressing concern that her behavior might affect her pending application for a job at the Jones Store, explaining a skin disorder she suffered from, and recounting her family history and her life in general. In describing the conversation, the supervisor commented, "It's like I crossed into the Twilight Zone."

Ms. Darnell was taken into custody and subsequently questioned by Richard White, a Kansas City police detective assigned to the department's Fraud Unit. After reading aloud and signing a Miranda waiver form, Ms. Darnell told Detective White that it was getting close to Christmas and that while she was in the Jones Store, she began thinking about the fact that other members of the facility where she lived were getting presents at that time of the year and "she decided she wanted to get some gifts for Christmas." She indicated to the detective that she realized she had not paid for the items and that it "was wrong and it was against the law" to leave the store without paying for them. According to Detective White, "[Ms. Darnell's] indication was, basically, that she just wanted them."

Ms. Darnell was charged on December 4, 1989, with stealing property with a value of over $150.00, in violation of section 570.030, RSMo 1986. On December 6, 1989, she pleaded not guilty to the charge. On February 2, 1990, the State was permitted to file an amended information charging Ms. Darnell as a persistent offender, section 558.016, RSMo 1986.

In April of 1990, Ms. Darnell sought leave to file notice of her intent to rely on the defense of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. The trial court granted Ms. Darnell's request on April 12, 1990, and ordered that Ms. Darnell be evaluated pursuant to the provisions of sections 552.020 and 552.030, RSMo 1986. Ms. Darnell was subsequently examined by Steven Mandracchia, Ph.D., Director of the Forensic Department of the Western Missouri Mental Health Center, and Michael Brady, M.A., a psychology intern. On April 15, 1990, a report of that examination was filed with the court. In their report, the examiners concluded that Ms. Darnell suffered from "a chronic, long-standing Impulse Control Disorder in the form of Kleptomania" and that "[her] behaviors at the time of the alleged criminal conduct may best be conceptualized as resulting from [an] acute phase ... of Kleptomania, which would have substantially compromised her ability to conform her behavior to the requirements of the law."

The State filed its objection to the report of Drs. Mandracchia and Brady and requested a second mental examination pursuant to section 552.020. On August 2, 1990, the trial court granted the State's request, ordering that the State be allowed to have Ms. Darnell "examined, tested and evaluated by a psychiatrist at its own expense, and said examination to be completed and a report filed with the Court within 60 days." The examination by the State's psychiatrist, Dr. John H. Wisner, was completed on November 28, 1990; the report of the examination was filed on April 10, 1991.

Ms. Darnell's jury-waived trial began on June 24, 1991. Dr. Mandracchia testified at trial that Ms. Darnell suffered from kleptomania, which disorder he stated "is conceptualized as a failure to resist an impulse for the purpose of reducing underlying anxiety." Dr. Mandracchia testified that he concluded Ms. Darnell was suffering from kleptomania at the time of the offense based upon the manner in which she picked up the merchandise at the Jones Store, the type of property taken, her report of the type of stress she was under at the time, her account of similar episodes of shoplifting at earlier times in her life, and her family background.

In reaching the conclusion that Ms. Darnell was suffering from kleptomania, Dr. Mandracchia testified that he had ruled out an alternative diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, which is characterized by a pattern of criminal acts manifesting little regard for others. Dr. Mandracchia stated on direct examination that at the time he made his initial diagnosis he had not received or reviewed any materials relating to any other criminal offenses of which Ms. Darnell had been convicted. After he had prepared his report, he was provided various materials documenting Ms. Darnell's prior criminal record. Upon reviewing these materials, he stated that nothing contained in them caused him to question his initial diagnosis.

On cross-examination, Dr. Mandracchia was asked if he was aware that Ms. Darnell had engaged in other specific acts of theft and antisocial conduct including using aliases and failing to obtain gainful employment. Over Ms. Darnell's objections, most of the questions in this line of questioning were allowed, although the trial court noted that "unless it's proven, it's not going to have any impact on me."

In rebuttal, the State presented the testimony of John H. Wisner, M.D., the Director of Inpatient Psychiatry at the Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Dr. Wisner testified that Ms. Darnell did not suffer from kleptomania but, rather, suffered from an antisocial personality disorder and also had "some histrionic personality features."

The trial concluded on June 26, 1991, at which time the trial...