State v. Deyo

• Decision Date: 16 July 1962
• Docket Number: No. 49085,No. 2,49085,2
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Grace DEYO, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 816

358 S.W.2d 816

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Grace DEYO, Appellant.

No. 49085.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

July 16, 1962.

Edward R. Boyle, Boyle & Schuler, Clear Lake, Iowa, Clyde Rogers, Gainesville, for appellant.

Thomas F. Eagleton, Atty. Gen., James J. Murphy, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

BOHLING, Commissioner.

Grace Deyo, appellant, and one Bill Shindler, in an information filed in Ozark County, were charged jointly with the murder in the first degree of Kenneth V. Deyo, the husband of said Grace Deyo, on or about July 28, 1959, by poison. There was a severance and, upon trial, Honorable Douglas W. Greene, Judge of the Circuit Court of Greene County, presiding upon transfer, appellant was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. She appeals.

Mr. and Mrs. Deyo, with their three children, lived in the Almartha neighborhood, Ozark County, Missouri, near the Douglas County line. A brief outline of the State's theory, as developed by its evidence and based upon a conspiracy between appellant and Shindler, may aid in a more ready understanding of the case. The facts that are made issues for review are developed hereinafter. Bill Shindler and Mrs. Deyo indulged in sexual relations. Mr. Deyo's practice was to take a vitamin before retiring. Bill Shindler placed a capsule containing strychnine in the bottle containing Deyo's vitamins. Around 8:00 or 8:30 p. m., July 27, 1959, Mr. Deyo took a capsule from his vitamin bottle, soon thereafter became sick, and died about midnight. The toxicological and pathological examinations of his body disclosed that Mr. Deyo's death was due to acute poisoning by strychnine.

Appellant did not testify. She adduced evidence for the purpose of establishing that her confession was involuntary.

I. The prosecuting attorney in his opening statement referred to facts contained in a written statement given by the appellant to Sheriff George A. Rose of Ozark County (who at the time had a warrant for appellant's arrest) and Trooper John R. Teichman of the Missouri State Highway Patrol at Mason City, Iowa, on October 1, 1959, appellant having moved to Clear Lake, Iowa, following Mr. Deyo's death. The court, at appellant's request, held a preliminary hearing on whether appellant's statement was voluntarily given. Appellant's position was that the State had the burden of establishing the voluntariness of the statement, and appellant had the right to cross-examine and introduce her own evidence. The court's view was that the statement was presumptively voluntary; and appellant, proceeding under this ruling, called Officers Rose and Teichman to the stand. They were the only witnesses on the issue and, without detailing it, their testimony established that appellant's statement was voluntarily given, without threats or promises and that appellant was alert and wanted to talk. Appellant read, corrected in her handwriting, and signed the statement. About five minutes later she was placed under arrest. Appellant, in her brief, admits that later at the trial before the jury the testimony of Rose and Teichman as witnesses for the State was the same as their testimony at the preliminary hearing.

The State in its brief concedes appellant's point that the court erred in placing the burden on appellant at the preliminary hearing of proving her statement was involuntary, but contends this error was not prejudicial as said issue was properly developed before and submitted to the jury at the trial on the merits. See with respect to the State having the burden of proof: 23 C.J.S. Criminal Law Sec. 835, p. 247, note 52, stating Missouri holdings and citing, among others, State v. Williamson, 339 Mo. 1038, 99 S.W.2d 76, 81[8. 9]; State v. Bradford, Mo., 262 S.W.2d 584, 586[1-5]; State v. Di Stefano, Mo., 152 S.W.2d 20[2-4].

It is stated in State v. Humphrey, 357 Mo. 824, 210 S.W.2d 1002, 1004, that when the court admits a confession 'the matter of whether or not it was shown to be involuntary must be determined on appeal from all the evidence both at the preliminary hearing and before the jury * * *. [Citing cases.]' See also State v. Thomas, 250 Mo. 189, 157 S.W. 330; State v. Menz, 341 Mo. 74, 106 S.W.2d 440, 450; State v. Statler, Mo., 331 S.W.2d 526, 530.

In view of the presentation of the evidence before the jury by the State and by the appellant on whether appellant's confession was voluntary or involuntary and instructions of the court on said issue and that the burden rested upon the State to establish appellant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, no prejudicial error resulted in the case at bar from the court's placing the burden on appellant at the preliminary hearing out of the presence of the jury.

II. Appellant contends that error was committed in admitting the statements of appellant in evidence before the corpus delicti was proved and in overruling appellant's motions for judgment of acquittal. The motion at the close of the State's case was waived by appellant's introduction of evidence. State v. McMillian, Mo., 338 S.W.2d 838, 842.

In ruling the motion at the close of all the evidence the probative evidence favorable to the State is taken as true, as are all the legitimate inferences to be deduced therefrom, and all evidence and inferences contrary thereto are disregarded. See McMillian, supra, and State v. Truster, Mo., 334 S.W.2d 104, 107.

"In a homicide case the corpus delicti consists of two elements, first, the death of a human being and, second, the criminal agency of another in causing the death." State v. Morris, Mo., 307 S.W.2d 667, 673, quoting State v. Meidle, Mo., 202 S.W.2d 79, 81 (cases cited by appellant). See 41 C.J.S. Homicide Sec. 312, p. 6; State v. Truster, supra. Proof that the accused was criminally liable is not an element of the corpus delicti; but is required to convict the accused. State v. O'Kelley, Mo., 213 S.W.2d 963, 966; State v. Hardy, 365 Mo. 107, 276 S.W.2d 90, 93; the Morris and Meidle cases, supra.

The following is quoted and applied in State v. Haun, Mo., 324 S.W.2d 679, 681: "It is established law in Missouri that when the corpus delicti has not been sufficiently proven, an uncorroborated extrajudicial confession of guilt cannot be regarded as evidence tending to show guilt. * * * Yet this rule does not require full proof of the body of the offense, independent of the confession. If there is evidence of corroborating circumstances independent of the confession, which tends to prove the offense by confirming matters related in the confession, both the corroborating circumstances and the confession may be considered in determining whether or not the corpus delicti has been established." See also State v. Skibiski, 245 Mo. 459, 463, 150 S.W. 1038, 1039, a frequently-quoted case; State v. Kollenborn, Mo., 304 S.W.2d 855, 858; State v. Truster, Mo., supra. We have said only slight corroborating facts have been held sufficient (see State v. Truster, supra, citing cases), and, notwithstanding the general practice, it is not essential that the independent proof of the corpus delicti come first in the order of proof (State v. Arndt, Mo., 143 S.W.2d 286[3, 4]; State v. Rohman, Mo., 261 S.W.2d 69, 73). See C.J.S. Criminal Law Secs. 730, c; 1046.

The corroborating circumstances in this record independent of appellant's statements confirm the matters related in her statements and both the corroborating circumstances and appellant's statements are for consideration.

Appellant's statement was introduced in evidence before the jury during the examination of Trooper Teichman and after proof of the corpus delicti. We set it forth here for better understanding of this issue. It is in narrative form; that is a question would be asked and the answer typed in the narrative. With the exception of the first and last two paragraphs, everything in the statement is appellant's narration of the facts. Appellant read the statement, corrected it in one place, and then signed it. Omitting the caption and signature, the statement reads:

'This statement is made in the presence of Sheriff George Rose of Ozark County Missouri, and to Trooper John Teichman of the Missouri Highway Patrol. It is made to these persons, without any threat or promise, and I understand that it may be used either for or against me in a Court of Law.

'My name is Grace Marie Deyo. I am 43 years old. I was born on January 6, 1917 at Clear Lake, Iowa. I am the widow of Kenneth Virgil Deyo, and have 3 children. Their names are, Doris Jean, age 10, Diana Marie, age 4, and Dorothy May Miller, age 20, who lives in Houston, Missouri. At the present time, I am living at RFD #2 Clear Lake, Iowa.

'At approximately August 1958, Bill Shindler started coming around my home at Almartha, Missouri. He first came there to look at our cattle, to see about buying some. Shindler returned to the farm several times since then, during which times, he and I had sexual relations. One of the neighbors told my husband about these visits of Shindler, and Kenneth and him had an argument about it. Bill told me that Kenny had lit into him about it.

'Around April 1959, Bill suggested that he would take Kenny out into the woods and shoot him, because he didn't like the way he was treating me and the kids. I told Bill that he couldn't get away with it, and he didn't say any more about it. Later on, Bill went up to see John Hodges, to see about getting some strychnine poison for him. That was around May sometime. Hodges was the one who told him about it. I don't know if he was going to get it for Bill or not.

'Several weeks before Kenny died, Bill Shindler showed me a small bottle that had a label stating the bottle contained strychnine. He said that he got some fellow in Gainesville to take him to Mountain Home Arkansas to get it. I had told him that Kenny was taking Vitamin tablets, and he said he would put some of the poison in some capsules and put them in the...