State v. Hampton, 79354

• Decision Date: 23 December 1997
• Docket Number: No. 79354,79354
• Citation: 959 S.W.2d 444
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent v. James Henry HAMPTON, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 444

959 S.W.2d 444

STATE of Missouri, Respondent v. James Henry HAMPTON, Appellant.

No. 79354.

Supreme Court of Missouri En Banc.

Dec. 23, 1997.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 27, 1998.

Pete Carter, Asst. Public Defender, Columbia, for Appellant.

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., John M. Morris, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for Respondent.

WHITE, Judge.

James Henry Hampton appeals from his conviction for the first degree murder of Frances Keaton and the death sentence imposed for that crime. ¹ We affirm.

Reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, ² the following facts were established at trial. At approximately 9:00 p.m. on the evening of August 2, 1992, Mr. Hampton parked a green Pontiac Bonneville in the lot of Fellowship Baptist Church in Warrenton. Mr. Hampton told passersby that he was having car trouble, but declined offers of assistance, saying that he had a bicycle. Leaving a note on his windshield that read: "Car trouble. Gone for help. S.G. Gambosi," Mr. Hampton rode the bicycle about three miles to the neighborhood where Frances Keaton lived.

Mr. Hampton knew, through his acquaintance with Patricia Supinski--Ms. Keaton's realtor--that Ms. Keaton and her fiance, Allen Mulholland, had access to a checking account containing at least $30,000. Using a copy of Ms. Keaton's house key provided to him by Ms. Supinski, Mr. Hampton entered Ms. Keaton's house dressed in dark clothing, wearing a stocking cap over his face, and carrying a sawed-off shotgun. Some time after 10 p.m., Mr. Hampton awoke Ms. Keaton and Mr. Mulholland, who were asleep in their bedroom, and told them: "I've come here to rob you." After binding Mr. Mulholland's and Ms. Keaton's hands and feet, Mr. Hampton demanded $30,000 from them. They replied that they did not have that much money, but Ms. Keaton said she thought that she could get $10,000 from her pastor. Mr. Hampton untied her and allowed her to get dressed. When she attempted to escape, Mr. Hampton overpowered her, and eventually placed a coathanger around her neck and threatened to kill her if she again resisted him. Mr. Hampton told Mr. Mulholland that he had a police scanner and that, if the police learned of the kidnapping, he would kill Ms. Keaton. Mr. Hampton then took Ms. Keaton outside to her car and drove her towards the Supinski farm in Callaway County. While they were driving, at 1:15 a.m. on August 3, Mr. Hampton had Ms. Keaton call her pastor on Mr. Mulholland's cellular phone and ask him if he could provide her with $10,000 cash by nine o'clock that morning. The pastor later called her back on the cellular phone, but all contact with Ms. Keaton was lost at 2:24 a.m.

At some point during the drive, Mr. Hampton learned from his police scanner that law enforcement authorities had been alerted to the kidnapping. According to his own testimony, Mr. Hampton had decided in advance to kill his hostage if police learned of the kidnapping before he received the ransom. Carrying through with his plan, Mr. Hampton bound and blindfolded Ms. Keaton and took her to a wooded area one half mile from the Supinski farm. Once there, he killed Ms. Keaton with several hammer blows to her head and then buried her body.

The morning after killing Ms. Keaton, Mr. Hampton drove her car back to Warrenton and attempted to retrieve the green Pontiac he had left at the Fellowship Baptist Church. He abandoned his attempt when he saw that police were keeping the car under surveillance. Late that night, after police had impounded the car, he was apprehended attempting to enter the locked impound lot, but gave an alias and was released. After that, Mr. Hampton fled the State and was eventually apprehended in New Jersey, where he had committed another murder. As he was about to be taken into custody, Mr. Hampton shot himself in the head.

Right to Self-Representation

Mr. Hampton contends that he was denied his right to represent himself at trial. The Sixth Amendment's guarantee of assistance of counsel implies a correlative right to dispense with such assistance. ³ A criminal defendant who makes a timely, informed, voluntary and unequivocal waiver of the right to counsel may not be tried with counsel forced upon him by the State. ⁴ The determinative question, then, is whether Mr. Hampton made such a waiver.

On September 18, 1995, ten months before trial started, Mr. Hampton filed a "Motion/Demand/Notice for Self-Representation" wherein he asked the court to enter an order "permitting self-representation ... as explained ... in Faretta...." At that time, he also filed an "Entry of Appearance," advising "all persons connected [with the case] that he is now the attorney of record...." After hearing Mr. Hampton argue his motion, the trial court suggested that it delay ruling on the motion, but when pressed by Mr. Hampton, overruled it. On October 13, Mr. Hampton again sought to have the motion for self-representation taken up, but the court ruled that it would follow its original ruling on the issue. At that point, Mr. Hampton filed a second entry of appearance and motion for self-representation, and then sought a writ of prohibition in the court of appeals, seeking to prohibit further proceedings until he was allowed to represent himself. When that petition was denied, Mr. Hampton sought similar relief in this Court, which was also denied in March of 1996. The trial court again heard argument from Mr. Hampton on July 5, and, on July 16, noted that it was continuing to rule against Mr. Hampton's request.

The relevant considerations in evaluating a motion for self-representation were concisely set forth by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in the recent case Hamilton v. Groose:

A criminal defendant's motion to represent himself involves two mutually exclusive constitutional rights: the right to be represented by an attorney, and the right not to be represented by an attorney. A court must "indulge in every reasonable presumption against [a defendant's] waiver" of his right to counsel, Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 404, 97 S.Ct. 1232, 1242, 51 L.Ed.2d 424 (1977), and require the defendant to make a knowing, intelligent, voluntary, and unequivocal request before concluding that he has waived his right to counsel and invoked his right to represent himself. ⁵

Recognizing that a defendant who is allowed to proceed pro se may argue on appeal that the right to counsel was improperly denied, the court emphasizes that ambiguous requests for self-representation are not sufficient: "The probability that a defendant will appeal either decision of the trial judge underscores the importance of requiring a defendant who wishes to waive his right to counsel to do so explicitly and unequivocally." ⁶ What Faretta guarantees is the right to forgo the assistance of counsel in defending oneself, not the right to insist on self-representation in addition to representation by counsel: "Faretta does not require a trial judge to permit 'hybrid' representation...." ⁷ "Because there is no constitutional right for a defendant to act as co-counsel, the refusal [to grant a defendant's motion for self-representation] does not violate the dictates of Faretta." ⁸

In his numerous filings and arguments on this issue, Mr. Hampton never suggested that by asking to act as his own lawyer, he intended to waive his right to be represented by counsel. Mr. Hampton indicated, in arguing his motion to the trial court, that it was intended to prevent his attorneys from making "certain strategic decisions" in his case with which he disagreed. He argued that attorneys "are to advise and represent, not to replace or second-guess the defendant.... [I]f I am the attorney of record, then I will be able to make that decision. I don't intend to conduct the voir dire." Mr. Hampton also reported that he did not intend to conduct the cross-examination of "many, if any of the witnesses." The tenor of Mr. Hampton's argument is accurately reflected by the trial court's characterization: "At this point in time you're telling me that you want [defense counsel] to represent you, you want them to do the voir dire, you want them to cross-examine witnesses. But you want to have the final say-so."

In arguing that his conduct amounted to unequivocal waiver of the right to counsel, Mr. Hampton relies exclusively on United States v. Arlt, where the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a conviction because the defendant's right to represent himself was violated. ⁹ That case is factually distinguishable from the present matter. In Arlt, the defendant expressed the desire to represent himself before counsel had been appointed, and persisted in that position even when the trial court sought to dissuade him from it by explaining the disadvantages of forgoing the assistance of counsel. ¹⁰ Here, Mr. Hampton never expressed the desire to completely forgo the assistance of counsel and, without being prompted by the court, expressed the desire that his lawyers conduct crucial aspects of the case.

The factual situation here is much more similar to another Ninth Circuit case: United States v. Kienenberger. ¹¹ In that case, the defendant made numerous requests to be appointed "counsel of record," but also requested that the court appoint advisory counsel to assist him on procedural matters. ¹² The court affirmed the conviction, holding that defendant "never relinquished his right to be represented by counsel at trial. His requests to represent himself were not unequivocal." ¹³ As the Arlt court held: "A defendant must make an explicit choice between exercising the right to counsel and the right to self-representation...." ¹⁴ In this case, Mr. Hampton sought to have the best of both worlds. While the trial court attempted to indulge Mr. Hampton's requests to be heard along with his attorney, it did not err in refusing to make him "attorney of record," since that request did not amount to an unequivocal waiver of the right to coun...