State v. Glass

• Decision Date: 08 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. SC 85128.,SC 85128.
• Citation: 136 S.W.3d 496
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Travis E. GLASS, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

136 S.W.3d 496

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Travis E. GLASS, Appellant.

No. SC 85128.

Supreme Court of Missouri, En Banc.

June 8, 2004.

Rehearing Denied July 1, 2004.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing July 1, 2004.

Deborah B. Wafer, Office of State Public Defender, St. Louis, for Appellant.

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., Adriane D. Crouse, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for Respondent.

WILLIAM RAY PRICE, JR., Judge.

A jury convicted Travis Glass of one count of first degree murder and recommended a sentence of death. Section 565.020.¹ Judgment was entered consistent with the jury recommendation. This Court has jurisdiction. Mo. Const. art. V, sec. 3. The judgment is affirmed.

A. Facts

Travis Glass was convicted of murdering thirteen year old Steffini Wilkins while in the process of kidnapping her. Steffini was the daughter of Elizabeth Campbell, who owned and ran a tavern in Hannibal called "Ole Milts."² In March 2001, Campbell hired Glass as a bartender. During his employment, Glass went to Campbell's home, also in Hannibal, on at least three occasions. There were also occasions when Steffini would visit the bar during the day where Glass would talk to her and joke around with her. Once he called her a "hottie." Glass also spoke with Steffini on the telephone. Approximately two weeks before Steffini's murder, Campbell fired Glass.

On May 24, 2001, at 8:30 p.m., Campbell left for work and took her two younger sons to the babysitter while Steffini stayed home. That evening, Steffini talked with a friend on the phone from 10:40 p.m. until 11:15 or 11:30 p.m. Meanwhile, at Ole Milts, Campbell saw Glass drinking beer. When he got up to leave, she told him to be sure to take his belongings that were behind the bar. Glass responded that he had his things and then turned to leave. Before exiting, he looked Campbell in the eye, gave her a "very snide sneer," and walked out the door.

Glass left the bar in his car, a black Oldsmobile, between 11:10 and 11:15 p.m. Around 11:30, Campbell's neighbor returned from work to his home and noticed a black Oldsmobile parked in front of Campbell's house.

Around 1:00 a.m., May 25, 2001, Michael King awoke to the sound of Glass honking his car horn and flashing his headlights into King's bedroom. King and Glass were friends, so he got dressed and went outside. When King got to the car, Glass asked King if he hated him. King got into the passenger side of the car, and they sat in King's driveway smoking cigarettes and talking for about two hours.

During this time, King noticed Glass was dirty and muddy. King also noticed a mark or injury on the palm of Glass's hand. Before Glass left, he asked King to replace a fuse in the trunk. As he was working under the hood, King found a size D "flashlight battery" next to the windshield wipers.

When Campbell came home from work around 3:00 a.m., she did not find Steffini in her room. Campbell checked the other rooms, but Steffini was not in the house. While in Steffini's room, Campbell noticed that Steffini's underwear was still inside the jeans she had been wearing when Campbell had left for work, and that one of the pant legs was inside out. Steffini did not ordinarily take her jeans off in that manner. After making several calls to friends and family, Campbell contacted the police. Sergeant Michael Lawzano of the Hannibal Police was assigned to investigate Steffini's disappearance.

During the early morning hours of May 25, 2001, a fisherman spotted a female body on the Indian Access Road at the Salt River campground in Ralls County. The nude body, later identified as the body of Steffini Wilkins, was lying face down in the grass with her head turned to the right. The fisherman contacted law enforcement, and an ambulance was called to the scene. Shortly thereafter, the coroner arrived, examined Steffini's body, and determined she was deceased.

Steffini's face appeared battered and bruised, and there was blood coming from out of her nose. Her body was covered in mud, dirt, and grass. There were muddy shoe prints in the middle of her back and along her shoulder blades. There was also a bra strap tied extremely tight around her neck that cut about a half inch into her flesh.

An autopsy revealed abrasions on Steffini's left cheek, right shoulder, lower neck, shoulder, breasts, upper and lower chest, lower abdomen, along her back, along her right left lower knee, and right lower leg. She also had multiple bruises on her face, swollen eyes, and a laceration above her right eyebrow. The linear abrasions on Steffini's back were consistent with being dragged.

The autopsy also revealed multiple hemorrhages in the head, suggesting a blunt trauma injury such as being struck by a fist or object. Steffini had six linear abrasions on the right side of her neck that corresponded with the ligature from the bra strap that was tied around her neck which suggested that the ligature had been moved. There were also hemorrhages in her kidney and appendix.

In addition, there was a one-inch laceration to one of the folds of skin surrounding her vagina, suggesting blunt trauma to that area through penetration. The age of the vaginal laceration was consistent with other bruises around that area and the other bruises on her body in that there was no evidence that healing had taken place.

The coroner ruled the cause of death as asphyxiation secondary to compression of the neck by a ligature. An injury of this type requires continued pressure to cause death over a period of time, with 30 to 40 seconds to lose consciousness and from two to three minutes to cause brain death.

Corporal David Hall, a criminal investigator for the Missouri Highway Patrol, examined the scene and seized hairs found on Steffini's back. Other officers found a piece of bra strap up the roadway and noted several impressions in the mud near Steffini's body. The officers also discovered several pieces of a broken flashlight in the parking lot and driveway area.

Sergeant Lawzano was also called to the scene. While Lawzano was investigating the scene at the Indian Camp Access area, his detectives were sent to Campbell's home, where they learned from Campbell's neighbor that he had seen a black Oldsmobile at Campbell's home the night before. Campbell informed the officers that Glass was the only person she knew who drove a black Oldsmobile. After checking motor vehicle records, Lawzano confirmed that a 1996 black Oldsmobile was registered to Travis Glass.

Sometime before noon on May 25, 2001, Lawzano and Trooper Scott Miller went to Glass's home where they saw a 1996 black Oldsmobile parked in the driveway. When they arrived at the house, Glass's grandparents and uncle were outside, and the officers asked to speak to Glass.

Glass came outside to speak with them, and Lawzano asked Glass if he had any information about Steffini's disappearance. Glass denied knowing anything about it, so Lawzano asked him if he had been to her house. Glass denied having been there and gave an account of his whereabouts from the night before.

Lawzano asked Glass about the clothes he had been wearing the night before, and Glass told him they were inside in the washer. Lawzano asked Glass if he would show him the clothes, which he did. Another officer later observed that there was a lot of sand on the clothes and in the bottom of the washing machine.

At 11:25 a.m., Lawzano asked for and received consent from Glass to search his car. Lawzano observed what he felt were signs of a struggle on the hood and trunk of the car. He saw "very distinct" mud smears that appeared to come from small fingers being dragged across the trunk of the car. Lawzano asked Glass how the mud got on the car, and Glass responded that he did not know. Lawzano seized hairs that were on the hood and trunk of the car. At some point that day, officers seized a pair of blue jeans from the back of the car. Also, what was later confirmed to be Steffini's blood was found on the back of the front license plate and exterior of the car.

Lawzano then asked Glass to accompany him to the Marion County Sheriff's Department to give a written statement, and Glass agreed. Neither Lawzano nor any other officer placed Glass under arrest or in handcuffs at that time. Glass and Lawzano rode to the station, which was less than a mile from Glass's home, in a cruiser driven by Corporal Holden, because Lawzano did not have a car, and Glass's car was still in the process of being searched. On the way to the station, they stopped so Glass could go, unattended, into a convenience store to purchase cigarettes.

While at the station, Glass gave three written statements over a period of hours. The first was given to Lawzano, and was not preceded by a Miranda warning.³ The second statement was given to Sergeant Michael Platte of the Missouri Highway Patrol after Glass had been given a Miranda warning and had signed a waiver of his Miranda rights. Finally, the third was given to Lawzano, who reminded him of his Miranda waiver prior to taking the statement. Glass was not placed under arrest prior to giving any of the statements. The circumstances and content of each statement are as follows.

1. First written statement—to Sergeant Lawzano

When they arrived at the station, Lawzano and Glass went over the verbal statement Glass had given earlier at his home. Glass asked Lawzano to write it out for him, after which Glass read it, agreed it was accurate, and signed it around 1:32 p.m. In this first written statement, Glass admitted he went to Ole Milts bar, that he drank between 12 and 16 cans of beer, that he played darts for quite a bit, and then left between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. He stated that he knew Campbell owned the bar, and that he knew Steffini through his having worked at the bar.

In the statement, Glass also admitted he had been to Campbell's home a few times while he worked for her, but that the last time he had been there was...