State v. Dodson, 37584

Citation556 S.W.2d 938
Decision Date16 August 1977
Docket NumberNo. 37584,37584
PartiesSTATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Cornelius DODSON, Appellant. . Louis District, Division Three
CourtCourt of Appeal of Missouri (US)

James A. Bell, St. Louis, for appellant.

John D. Ashcroft, Atty. Gen., Paul Robert Otto, Philip M. Koppe, Asst. Attys. Gen., Jefferson City, George A. Peach, Circuit Atty., John D. Chancellor, Asst. Circuit Atty., St. Louis, for respondent.

GUNN, Judge.

A jury found defendant guilty of two counts of first degree murder and two counts of kidnapping. Defendant was sentenced by the trial court to two life sentences on the murder convictions and two ten year terms for the kidnappings, all to be served consecutively. A multitude of points has been raised on appeal, none of which is meritorious; we affirm the conviction.

Defendant has challenged the sufficiency of the evidence which requires us to dissertate on the facts. A grand jury, in a four count indictment, charged defendant and Billy Rabun of acting jointly in the commission of the kidnapping and murder of Sandra Smith and Kenneth Clay. Defendant's motion for severance of his trial from Rabun was granted, but his motion for separation of counts was denied.

The State's primary witness linking defendant to the crimes was 18 year old Karen Cravens, 1 an acknowledged heroin addict. It was her testimony that she and her boyfriend, Darryl Black 2 were making a search for some narcotics and were directed to 4136 Westminster in St. Louis as a place where narcotics could be purchased. On May 29, 1975, Ms. Cravens and Black were admitted into the house at 4136 Westminster and purchased some "buttons" of heroin which they injected into their systems. Cravens and Black remained on the Westminster premises throughout the day and evening of May 29 while a brisk narcotics sales operation took place.

During the course of the evening of May 29, Cravens, who was on the first floor of the house, heard an argument taking place between the two subsequent kidnapping and murder victims, Kenneth Clay and Sandra Smith. Billy Rabun, an alleged principal in the drug operation, then entered the house for the first time and went upstairs to be with Clay and Smith. About 20 minutes after Rabun had gone upstairs, Ms. Smith left the house claiming to have been injured, and Rabun and Clay took Ms. Cravens with them to look for her. When the threesome was unable to locate Ms. Smith, Ms. Cravens was taken back to 4136 Westminster where she spent the night.

The next morning, May 30, Ms. Cravens saw Rabun, Clay and Smith enter the house. Ms. Smith was weeping and protesting that she had not taken any money. Rabun was truculent. Directing his animus at Ms. Smith, he told her to "shut up," and with Clay took Ms. Smith upstairs. In the afternoon of May 30, Ms. Cravens went upstairs to a kitchen area where drugs were distributed to customers. She observed both Clay and Ms. Smith tied to chairs with their hands bound behind their backs. Ms. Cravens returned downstairs to participate in the bustling narcotics trade which was apparently not hampered by the nefarious activities upstairs. Rabun himself assisted by taking over Clay's assigned duty of dispensing narcotics after the latter's confinement.

Between one and four o'clock in the afternoon of May 30, the defendant arrived. He proceeded directly to the second floor. About an hour after defendant arrived, Ms. Cravens heard a moan from Ms. Smith upstairs. Then, at defendant's request, Ms. Cravens took a can of Drano to defendant. At that time she noted Rabun was present with defendant in the presence of Smith and Clay who were still tied to their chairs. Clay was now pleading for Ms. Cravens to vouch that he had not taken any money.

The day's activities apparently caused defendant and Rabun to be hungry, and they sent Ms. Cravens to purchase their evening meal. When she returned with the food, Ms. Cravens noticed that Clay was still tied to his chair but that Ms. Smith was lying motionless on the floor of another room. Cravens saw the defendant standing over Ms. Smith's body, smilingly admitting that he had strangled her to death.

A short time later, Ms. Cravens was again downstairs when she heard at least two shots fired. When defendant called for someone to come upstairs, Ms. Cravens complied and helped move Clay's dead body to a bed from the chair where it had been tied. Defendant and another person lifted Ms. Smith's body onto the same bed with Clay who was bleeding from the head. Ms. Smith's face and head were badly burned. After everyone left the room where the bodies of Clay and Smith had been deposited, defendant stated aloud and in no uncertain terms in the vernacular of his trade that he would kill anyone he caught defalcating with his money.

Defendant then offered Ms. Cravens the dead Clay's former job of distributing drugs to customers, which she accepted. Defendant stayed for a short period of time preparing quantities of drugs for sale.

After defendant and Rabun departed Ms. Cravens cleaned Clay's blood from the chair and floor. Sometime after midnight on May 31, the two men returned and wrapped each body in separate, colored blankets using wires and electrical cords as ligatures. As the blanket shrouded corpses were being carried outside, Rabun warned Ms. Cravens: "you haven't seen anything, you haven't heard anything."

The two bodies were found by police in the early morning of May 31, on a vacant lot in East St. Louis. The bodies were enclosed in the blankets described by Ms. Cravens and wrapped with wire and electrical cord as she had depicted. Smith's purse and Clay's wallet were found with the bodies with a .25 caliber shell casing inside Clay's blanket matching the casing later found at 4136 Westminster.

Cause of Clay's death was attributed to four .25 caliber bullets in his head. Ms. Smith had been strangled to death and had third degree alkaline chemical burns on her face, neck and shoulders. $125 was found in her vagina.

On June 1, 1975, St. Louis police, pursuant to a warrant, searched 4136 Westminster, ostensibly for the purpose of uncovering evidence of narcotics trafficking. The police also had reason to believe that they would find evidence relating to the murders of Clay and Smith, but the warrants were not obtained for that purpose. A contingent of approximately 20 police officers arrived at the house, and after making their presence and purpose known, entered. When police arrived upstairs Ms. Cravens and Black were flushing red capsules down a sink. Both were arrested for murder. All other persons in the house were arrested for narcotics possession. Neither defendant nor Rabun was present at the time of the search, but the defendant did arrive about two hours after the police first entered. He was arrested for murder, and Rabun was arrested shortly thereafter at his apartment.

Various narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia were seized and photographs of the items as well as the items themselves were introduced at trial over defendant's objections. The partially dissolved red capsules and a .25 caliber shell casing were recovered from the sink drain pipe. The capsules were found to contain heroin, and the shell casing was determined to have been fired from the same weapon as the casing found with Clay's body.

Defendant's defense was an alibi that he was elsewhere at the time of the murders; that he had no connection with 4136 Westminster. The owner of the house, testifying for defendant, stated that she rented it to another person and that the defendant had no possessory interest in the property. Defendant's alibi witnesses were a bail bondsman testifying that on May 30, between 3 and 3:30 p. m., he had made bond for defendant on another charge. Defendant's sister and a girlfriend testified that they had been with defendant shortly after 3 o'clock at the courthouse when defendant was released on bond shortly after 3 p. m.; the girlfriend testified she spent the evening thereafter with defendant. The State's rebuttal testimony was from Circuit Judge Clyde Cahill, Jr. that he had signed defendant's bond on May 30 somewhere between 10:30 a. m. and 1:30 p. m. An assistant circuit attorney, testified that defendant left Judge Cahill's courtroom free on bond prior to 12:30 p. m. on May 30.

Defendant's first allegation of error is that he was unconstitutionally denied bail prior to trial thereby hindering the preparation of his defense. The specific allegation of prejudice is that he could not assist his counsel in locating alibi witnesses.

Article I, § 20 of the Missouri Constitution guarantees: "That all persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses, when the proof is evident or the presumption great." One charged with a non capital crime, therefore, may be admitted to bail as a matter of right with a few narrowly drawn exceptions. Ex parte Burgess, 309 Mo. 397, 274 S.W. 423 (banc 1925); State ex rel. Corella v. Miles, 303 Mo. 648, 262 S.W. 364 (banc 1924). The only legitimate purpose in setting bail is to ensure the accused's appearance at trial, and any amount in addition to that figure is excessive. State v. Thompkins, 515 S.W.2d 808 (Mo.App.1974); Ex parte Chandler, 297 S.W.2d 616 (Mo.App.1957). Denial of bail prior to trial to inflict punishment on the accused would not only hamper the preparation of his case, but would render meaningless the presumption of innocence. Stack v. Boyle, 342 U.S. 1, 72 S.Ct. 1, 96 L.Ed. 3 (1951). Bail is to be denied, therefore, only under the most compelling circumstances.

On June 27, 1975, defendant filed a motion to be admitted to reasonable bail. A hearing was held in which he was represented by counsel. At the time of the hearing, in addition to the four counts which are the subject of this appeal, defendant was also charged with and was awaiting trial on four other felony charges including one...

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