State v. Goforth

• Decision Date: 17 August 1994
• Docket Number: 19161,Nos. 17766,s. 17766
• Citation: 881 S.W.2d 256
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Jerry Wallace GOFORTH, Appellant. Jerry Wallace GOFORTH, Appellant, v. STATE of Missouri, Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 256

881 S.W.2d 256

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Jerry Wallace GOFORTH, Appellant.

Jerry Wallace GOFORTH, Appellant, v. STATE of Missouri, Respondent.

Nos. 17766, 19161.

Missouri Court of Appeals,

Southern District,

Division Two.

Aug. 17, 1994.

Rosalynn Koch, Office of the State Public Defender, Columbia, for appellant.

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., Mary Moulton Bryan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

CROW, Judge.

Appellant, Jerry Wallace Goforth, was charged with murder in the first degree. § 565.020. ¹ He waived his right to trial by jury in exchange for the State's waiver of its right to seek the death penalty. The trial court assented to the waiver. § 565.006.1; Rule 27.01(b). ²

After hearing the evidence, the trial court ³ found Appellant guilty as charged and sentenced him to imprisonment for life without eligibility for probation or parole. § 565.020.2. Appellant brings appeal 17766 from that judgment.

While appeal 17766 was pending, Appellant commenced an action per Rule 29.15 to vacate the judgment. The motion court ⁴ dismissed the action without an evidentiary hearing. Appellant brings appeal 19161 from that order.

We consolidated the appeals, Rule 29.15(l ), but address them separately in this opinion.

Appeal 17766

The first of Appellant's two points relied on asserts the trial court erred in denying Appellant's motion to suppress self-incriminating statements and receiving them in evidence, in that the statements were obtained in violation of Appellant's right to counsel during custodial interrogation, guaranteed by Amendments V and XIV to the Constitution of the United States and Article I, § 18(a) of the Constitution of Missouri (1945). Appellant maintains he made the statements "after being subjected to pressure to make a confession by his family who were acting at the behest of the authorities after Appellant had requested counsel."

Appellant's second point avers the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of deliberation, an element of murder in the first degree.

Because of the narrow dimension of the issues presented, we need not set forth all of the evidence supporting the finding of guilty. We shall, however, narrate the evidence pertinent to the two claims of error. In doing so, we are mindful that under Rule 27.01(b), the trial court's finding of guilty has the force and effect of a jury verdict; consequently, we review the case as though a jury had returned a verdict of guilty. State v. Giffin, 640 S.W.2d 128, 130 (Mo.1982). Evidence that supports a finding of guilty is taken as true and all logical inferences that support a finding of guilty and that may reasonably be drawn from the evidence are indulged. State v. O'Brien, 857 S.W.2d 212, 215-16 (Mo. banc 1993). Evidence and any inferences to be drawn therefrom that do not support a finding of guilty are ignored. Id.

In reviewing the trial court's denial of Appellant's motion to suppress, we will affirm if the evidence is sufficient to sustain the trial court's finding. State v. Fuente, 871 S.W.2d 438, 441 (Mo. banc 1994). Deference is given to the trial court's superior opportunity to assess the credibility of the witnesses and weigh the evidence. Id. Accordingly, we view the evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom favorably to the trial court's ruling. State v. Blankenship, 830 S.W.2d 1, 14 (Mo. banc 1992).

So viewed, the evidence establishes that Randy McCloud, Appellant's half-brother, owned a .22 caliber revolver which he kept in his truck. In mid-May, 1990, while he was working with Appellant, McCloud discovered the revolver was missing. McCloud asked Appellant about it. Appellant replied he "didn't get it." At trial, McCloud identified Exhibit 32 as the revolver.

Between 4:30 and 4:45 p.m., June 7, 1990, Appellant arrived at the home of Harold Junior Smith in Caruthersville driving a green "LTD." Appellant asked Smith's teenage son, John William Smith, whether he wanted to ride to Memphis to see his (John's) brother. John agreed. The duo departed immediately.

En route, John asked Appellant whose car he was driving. Appellant said it was Ola Mae Abbott's. Asked at trial whether Appellant said anything else about Ms. Abbott, John replied, "He told me that he shot her."

Appellant had a gun in the car. Shown Exhibit 32 at trial, John testified it looked like the same gun. John recounted that when they reached Memphis, they sold the gun for ten dollars to Willie Bowls, John's aunt's brother.

Meanwhile, John's father (referred to in the transcript by his middle name, "Junior"), had become suspicious that the car Appellant was driving belonged to Ms. Abbott, described in the transcript as a woman "in her 70's." Junior reported his suspicion by phone to the Pemiscot County Sheriff's Office.

Junior then phoned a friend at Cottonwood Point, asking him to go to the home of Appellant's mother, Pauline Goforth (where Appellant and his wife resided), and ask Pauline whether Appellant had borrowed a car from someone. Pauline, like Ms. Abbott, lived at Cottonwood Point which, according to the testimony, is some twelve miles from Caruthersville.

Junior's friend went to Pauline's home and asked her to phone Junior. Pauline went to her mother's home and phoned Junior. He told her he thought the car Appellant was driving belonged to Ms. Abbott.

Pauline went to Ms. Abbott's home and saw her car was gone. Pauline knocked on Ms. Abbott's door, but there was no answer. Pauline went to a grocery store and discussed the situation with a woman there.

Pauline then returned to Ms. Abbott's home, accompanied by Doris Smith and Doris's daughter-in-law, Debbie Smith. According to Debbie, they arrived about 6:00 p.m. (some 75 to 90 minutes after Appellant had appeared at Junior Smith's home in the LTD).

Debbie and Doris entered Ms. Abbott's home through an unlocked door. They found Ms. Abbott lying on a hall floor. Debbie determined Ms. Abbott had a "very faint pulse." Using Ms. Abbott's phone, Debbie called an ambulance and the sheriff's office.

Deputy Sheriff Stacy Preston Sims was dispatched to Ms. Abbott's home, arriving around 6:30 p.m. He observed Ms. Abbott in the hall. He found no sign of life.

The coroner arrived about 7:00 p.m. Upon examining Ms. Abbott's body, he found three gunshot wounds in the lower abdomen and a laceration on the back of the head. The body was removed to a Caruthersville funeral home, where Stephen Parks, a pathologist, performed an autopsy the following morning. The results are set forth infra in our discussion of Appellant's second point.

Deputy Sheriff Rodney Keith Ivie, another participant in the investigation, questioned Appellant's wife. She revealed she and Appellant had been arguing that afternoon. She quoted Appellant as saying he was going to town and steal a car, and for her to walk down the road and he would pick her up.

While the investigation proceeded, Appellant and John Smith--in Memphis--decided to return to the Caruthersville area. They drove back to Cottonwood Point, where Appellant parked the LTD on a levee near the Goforth home. Appellant and John walked from there to the Goforth home. Just before arriving, Appellant threw the car keys in a nearby field.

Appellant and John reached the Goforth home between 10:00 and 10:30 p.m. Appellant's father, J.B. Goforth, testified one of the "kids" said the authorities were looking for Appellant and John for shooting Ms. Abbott. J.B. told Appellant he had "better go on up the Sheriff's Office and get this straight." J.B. and Randy McCloud (Appellant's half-brother, mentioned earlier) took Appellant and John to the sheriff's office. On the way, Appellant told McCloud he took Ms. Abbott's car but did not shoot her.

About 11:00 p.m., Deputy Sheriff Sims was summoned to the sheriff's office by radio because Appellant and John Smith "had arrived and were turning themselves in." When Sims arrived, Appellant and John were "in the front part of the office." Neither had been questioned.

Sims and Appellant went to a "separate office." Using a printed form, Sims read Appellant the "Miranda warnings." ⁵ Appellant refused to sign a waiver of his rights, saying: "I ain't saying nothing until I speak with my lawyer. I'm not taking the blame for something that I didn't do." Appellant asked to speak to his father and McCloud. Sims noted on the waiver form: "Refused To Sign 11:30 P.M." Sims left the room without questioning Appellant.

Deputy Sheriff Ivie, who had arrived at the sheriff's office around 11:00 p.m., was asked by J.B. Goforth what kind of trouble Appellant was in. Ivie told J.B. that Appellant "was in a lot of trouble because he just committed murder." Ivie added that it would be in Appellant's best interest if he made a statement. Ivie also told J.B. that if Appellant gave a statement and explained what had happened and that he was sorry for it, it would be to his benefit.

According to Ivie, J.B. said, "I'll talk to Jerry."

Sims testified that J.B. and Randy McCloud asked him if they could speak to Appellant. Sims gave them permission, saying it would probably be in Appellant's best interest if he had a side of the story to go ahead and tell it at that time.

J.B. and McCloud entered the room occupied by Appellant. The trio remained there alone approximately 15 minutes.

When J.B. and McCloud came out, McCloud told Sims, "Jerry would like to talk to you now."

Sims reentered the room occupied by Appellant and, in the presence of J.B., again read Appellant the Miranda rights. Appellant signed a written waiver of his rights at 11:45 p.m., and made a three-and-a-half page written statement. J.B. was present during the statement and signed it as a witness. The contents of the statement pertinent to the issues on appeal, slightly paraphrased, are:

"I walked to Ms. Abbott's house from my house. I knocked on the door. She invited me in. I used the phone. I saw Ms. Abbott's gun, a blue .25 automatic...