State v. Ellis

• Decision Date: 11 February 1946
• Docket Number: 39330
• Citation: 193 S.W.2d 31,354 Mo. 998
• Parties: State v. Fred Ellis, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

193 S.W.2d 31

354 Mo. 998

State v. Fred Ellis, Appellant

No. 39330

Supreme Court of Missouri

February 11, 1946

Rehearing Denied March 11, 1946.

Appeal from Franklin Circuit Court; Hon. R. A. Breuer Judge.

Affirmed.

R H. Schaper and Frank W. Jenny for appellant.

(1) The court erred in overruling the "Motion to Quash the Information" on the ground that no preliminary examination had been accorded to appellant. Lambus v. Kaiser, 178 S.W.2d l.c. 497; Skiba v. Kaiser, 178 S.W.2d l.c. 374; State v. McNeal, 262 S.W. l.c. 1025; Hendryx v. State, 29 N.E. 1131. (2) The court erred in overruling appellant's "Motion to Suppress and Exclude Evidence" of statement or statements made by appellant between the 14th day of December, 1943, and the 21st day of December, 1943, for the reason that during all of said time defendant was in the custody and charge of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, in direct violation of the statutes in such case made and provided, and in violation of the 5th and 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and Article II of the Constitution of the State of Missouri. Sec. 8360, R.S. 1939; Skiba v. Kaiser, 178 S.W.2d 373; McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332, 63 S.Ct. 608. (3) The Court erred by refusing to give and read to the jury Instruction Number A, B and C offered by the defendant, for the reason that if the jury found that the statements therein referred to where obtained in the manner set forth, such statements should have been disregarded. Skiba v. Kaiser, 178 S.W.2d 373; McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332, 63 S.Ct. 608; Sec. 8360, R.S. 1939.

J. E. Taylor, Attorney General, and Frank W. Hayes, Assistant Attorney General, for respondent.

(1) The court did not err in overruling appellant's motion to quash the information. Sec. 3893, R.S. 1939; State v. Brooks, 92 Mo. 542, 5 S.W. 257; State v. Byrnes, 177 S.W.2d 909; State v. Chiagk, 92 Mo. 395; State v. Goom, 92 Mo. 418; State v. McBride, 12 S.W.2d 46; State v. McGuire, 39 S.W.2d 523; State v. Mason, 14 S.W.2d 611; State v. Miller, 56 S.W.2d 92; State v. Neely, 56 S.W.2d 64; State v. Nichols, 49 S.W.2d 14; State v. Thomas, 182 S.W.2d 534. (2) The court did not err in overruling appellant's motion to suppress and exclude his confession and in admitting the confession. State v. Aitkens, 179 S.W.2d 74; State v. Arndt, 143 S.W.2d 286; State v. Bundy, 44 S.W.2d 121; State v. Evans, 133 S.W.2d 389, 345 Mo. 398; State v. Gibilterra, 340 Mo. 537, 116 S.W.2d 88; State v. Holliday, 182 S.W.2d 553; State v. Hoskins, 36 S.W.2d 909; State v. McGuire, 39 S.W.2d 523; State v. Menz, 106 S.W.2d 440, 341 Mo. 74; State v. Pillow, 169 S.W.2d 414; State v. Raftery, 252 Mo. 72, 158 S.W. 585; State v. Roan, 79 S.W.2d 1050, 336 Mo. 563; State v. Stefano, 153 S.W.2d 20; State v. Tyler, 159 S.W.2d 777, 349 Mo. 167; McNabb v. United States, 318 U.S. 332; United States v. Mitchell, 322 U.S. 65; Wan v. United States, 266 U.S. 1; Wilson v. United States, 162 U.S. 613. (3) The court did not err in refusing to give appellant's instructions A, B, and C. State v. Aitkens, 179 S.W.2d 84; State v. Hoskins, 36 S.W.2d 909; State v. Hubbard, 159 S.W.2d 701; State v. Menz, 106 S.W.2d 440; State v. Pillow, 169 S.W.2d 414; State v. Tyler, 159 S.W.2d 777; State v. White, 151 S.W.2d 109.

Douglas, J. Ellison, Gantt and Leedy, JJ., concur; Clark, C.J., concurs; Tipton, J., dissents in separate dissenting opinion; Hyde, J., concurs in separate concurring opinion in which all concur except Tipton, J., who dissents.

OPINION

DOUGLAS

Fred Ellis, appellant, was found to be one of the murderers of Mary Santo and was sentenced to death.

Mary Santo, fifty-six years old, lived in a lonely section in hilly and wooded country two miles northwest of Pacific in Franklin County. Her closest neighbor was about a quarter of a mile away, the house almost obscured from view by the hills. About 9:30 on Sunday morning, December 12, 1943 a caller at Mrs. Santo's home noticed the kitchen door open and smoke coming out. Upon entering he noticed the stove was overturned, the room in confusion and blood on the floor. He heard a groan, went farther and saw a body on the floor in the adjoining room. Without investigating further, he quickly went to Pacific for help. He returned with two companions who dragged the body out onto the porch and recognized it as Mary Santo. There she died. Her head and face had been crushed and mangled, one eyeball was gone, the other dangling, her nose knocked to one side and the bones of her face broken and forced through her skull. Her clothes were burned from her body. A pair of knucks was on the kitchen floor. Empty bottles, some of which had been broken, were on the floor by the body. Later when examined blood and hair were found on some of the bottles. There was blood on the floor and spattered on the walls of the kitchen and on the dining room floor. Dresser drawers were open and the contents blood stained. The coroner and the sheriff of Franklin County and the State Highway Patrol were notified. Members of the patrol were the first officers to respond.

About noon on Tuesday, December 14, Ellis was arrested in Pacific by the City Marshal who turned him over to the Highway Patrol. He was taken by the patrolmen to the headquarters of Troop C of the patrol in Kirkwood, St. Louis County, where he arrived between 1 and 2 o'clock in the afternoon. No warrant had then been issued for his arrest nor does it appear that he was then formally arrested. The time when a warrant was subsequently issued is not shown. The evidence does not disclose all of Ellis' movements precisely and in detail between the time he was brought to headquarters and Friday evening when his confession was obtained there. He was questioned when he was first brought in. Then members of his family, who were also brought to headquarters, were questioned for the purpose of checking his alibi. He spent that (Tuesday) night in the Kirkwood jail where he was taken about 9 p.m. The next day, according to Ellis' testimony, he was taken to the City of St. Louis and tested with a lie detector at the St. Louis metropolitan police headquarters. That night he was lodged in jail at St. Charles, county seat of St. Charles County. He remained there until the evening of Friday, December 17, when he was brought back to headquarters where he was questioned and made his first confession. This consumed all told about two hours. He dictated the confession to a lieutenant of the patrol then read and signed it. He told that he and Jesse Sanford, also found guilty in a separate trial after severance, went to Mary Santo's house early Sunday morning; got into the house by asking for a drink of water; beat her with knucks and bottles; turned over the stove; wrapped Mrs. Santo's body in a carpet and set fire to it. Then he went through some of the dresser drawers; fled in fright; threw away his coat in the woods; met Jesse the next day and received two dollars from him as half of the money obtained by Jesse who had fled with Mrs. Santo's purse.

The chief deputy sheriff of St. Charles County testified Ellis, on the evening of Sunday, December 19, voluntarily dictated a confession to him which he wrote down in long hand and Ellis signed. In that statement Ellis repeated the facts of his earlier confession. He added that he met Jesse Sanford Saturday night, December 11 and asked Jesse to help him pull a job. He obtained the knucks from Jesse, met him the next morning and set out to do the job planned at the home of some colored people. On their way they passed Mrs. Santo's house and decided to go there. He again told how they beat Mrs. Santo with the knucks and bottles, wrapped her body in a carpet and set fire to it, ransacked the dresser drawers, became frightened at her groaning and fled.

On the morning of December 20 Ellis and some patrolmen went to the vicinity of Mrs. Santo's house to look for Ellis' coat which he had thrown away because it was blood stained. They also went to Ellis' home where he and his mother had a conversation related in the testimony of the city marshal as follows: "And at the time the mother says, 'Did you do this, Freddie? Are you guilty of this, Freddie?' He says, 'I am.' She says, 'I thought I raised you different to that. What happened to you?' 'Well,' he says, 'Well, it looks like the devil just got hold of me, and I was led into it.'" Several patrolmen testified about the conversation to the same general effect.

Florence Connors, a stenographer employed at patrol headquarters testified that on December 20 Ellis repeated his confession to her.

The next day, December 21, a date which seems to have been previously set, the patrol delivered Ellis to the sheriff of Franklin County at Union where he was taken before a justice of the peace. The justice read the warrant to Ellis and told him what he was charged with. The justice advised Ellis about his right to have counsel and to have a preliminary hearing. Appellant told the justice he did not want a preliminary hearing, he wanted only to tell the truth. The justice bound him over for trial and committed him to jail at Union, Franklin County.

At the trial Ellis took the stand and testified to an alibi. He further testified the patrolmen struck him with their fists with a rubber hose and with a leather belt. He was unable to identify anyone who had struck him because he said they stood behind him when beating him. He denied to the patrolmen he was guilty but they made him "own up" to the facts in his confession. Ellis said the deputy at St. Charles did not lay a hand on him, that he made a statement to the deputy there but the statement was not true. He denied ever talking to Miss Connors or even seeing her. As to the admission to his m...