State v. Hanson

• Decision Date: 29 August 1979
• Docket Number: No. 11001,11001
• Citation: 587 S.W.2d 895
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Calvin HANSON, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 895

587 S.W.2d 895

STATE of Missouri, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Calvin HANSON, Jr., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 11001.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, Division One.

Aug. 29, 1979.

Motion for Rehearing or to Transfer to Supreme Court Denied

Sept. 20, 1979.

Application to Transfer Denied Nov. 14, 1979.

John D. Ashcroft, Atty. Gen., Paul Robert Otto, Brenda F. Engel, Richard F. Engel, Asst. Attys. Gen., Jefferson City, for plaintiff-respondent.

David R. Fielder, Fielder & Jones, Springfield, for defendant-appellant.

GREENE, Judge.

On April 13, 1977, defendant Calvin Hanson, Jr., after jury trial, was convicted of the crime of capital murder in violation of § 559.009. ¹ By reason of such conviction, defendant was thereafter sentenced by the trial court to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 50 years, pursuant to § 559.011, which statute was in force at the time of sentence. Defendant then filed this appeal. We affirm.

The basic facts in the case are as follows. On July 5, 1976, Ollie Adkins, the victim, left his home in Pacific, Missouri, between 9 and 10 a. m. He was going to Springfield, Missouri, on a business trip. He took at least $200 in cash with him for expenses and emergencies. He was driving his Dodge truck. His wife, Stella, never saw him alive again.

At about 6:45 p. m., on the same date, Mrs. Hollis Young was in her home, located just north of the 3200 block of East Kearney in Springfield. Mrs. Young heard dogs barking and voices coming from the rear of her home. She went outside and saw two men struggling. The men were some 400-450 feet from her. One man had light hair. The other man was taller and had dark hair. The dark-haired man struck the light-haired man, who then fell to the ground. The dark-haired man then leaned over, struck the other man with something several times and began to drag him into some brush. Mrs. Young then called the police. She had not seen the men arrive, did not see any motor vehicle, did not see any weapon, and could not identify defendant as one of the two men.

Officer Bill Dennis, of the Springfield Police Department, went to the crime scene in response to Mrs. Young's call. He talked with Mrs. Young and searched the area where the struggle had taken place. He found two pieces of paper, a set of car keys, and a driver's license belonging to the victim. One of the pieces of paper had the name "Dick Hanson" and a phone number written on it. The area showed signs of a struggle and a considerable amount of blood. Officer Dennis followed a trail through the grass for a short distance and found the body of Adkins. Adkins' body bore numerous stab wounds, his right rear pants pocket was turned inside out, and his wallet was gone.

Dr. Busiek, the Greene County Medical Examiner, was called to the scene. He pronounced Adkins dead. The body was then taken to Cox Medical Center where an autopsy was performed by Dr. Robert Lovett. The examination revealed nine stab wounds in Adkins' body, most of which were in the chest or abdomen. Dr. Lovett testified that death was caused by the stab wounds and the ensuing loss of blood. He stated that the stab wounds were consistent with having been inflicted by a knife of the same general size and shape as state's exhibit 8 (the knife found on defendant's person when he was arrested). Dr. Lovett then took a blood sample from the body of Adkins which, on analysis, was found to be type A.

News of the killing reached the local news media and details, as were known at the time, were reported by a local television station. At about 9:30 p. m. on July 5th, an informant, who had seen the television broadcast, called Detective William Lloyd. Lloyd and Sgt. Bob Humphrey, both of the Springfield Police Department, went to the informant's home. The informant told them that he had seen the defendant hitchhiking near the crime scene earlier in the evening and that he had picked him up. He said that Hanson had blood on his clothing and was armed with a knife, which was located somewhere on his lower leg in a scabbard. The informant had given Lloyd information in the past that turned out to be reliable. Lloyd then checked Hanson's name for a prior criminal record and found that he had previously been involved in stabbing/robbery incidents in Polk and Pulaski Counties. Based on this information, a pickup was ordered for Hanson.

The defendant was arrested about 1 a. m. on July 6, 1976, on the parking lot of the Repair Shop Lounge by Police Officer Don Pippin. Pippin read Hanson his Miranda rights and then conducted a pat-down search of his person. He found a knife in a sheath taped to Hanson's lower right leg. Pippin took the knife (state's exhibit 8) to Donald Smith, Director of the Region Two Crime Laboratory. Smith examined the knife and found that it had fresh human blood on it. The blood was type A, with a PGM factor of 1. This finding corresponded with the test that had been made of the victim's blood.

After his arrest, Hanson told Detectives George Brinkman and Tony Glenn that he had been driving a truck on July 5, and that he had been involved in an accident. He said he did not know the name of the owner of the truck. Hanson admitted that the knife found on his person at the time of arrest was his, and that it had not been in the possession of anyone else for the past 2 years. He said there should not be any blood on the knife. Hanson denied any involvement in the crime.

After Hanson's arrest, a blood sample was taken from his finger by Don Smith. The sample was taken with the consent of Hanson. Smith, a trained technician, made an analysis of the blood sample. The sampling and testing were done under controlled laboratory conditions. In his opinion, Hanson's blood type was O.

As news of the murder spread, the police received more information. Gertrude Osbourne was the owner of the Quest Lounge located at 1810 East Kearney in Springfield. She said that Hanson had been in her lounge on the afternoon of July 5th with Joe Graves. Kenneth and Roseann Bass were school teachers in the Springfield school system. At about 6 p. m., on the evening of July 5th, they were stopped at the intersection of Kearney and Glenstone, waiting for the traffic light to change. They saw a hitchhiker standing on the southwest corner of the intersection. Later, when they saw television accounts of the murder, which included a picture of Hanson as the prime suspect, they both recognized that he was the hitchhiker, and identified him as such in court.

George and Barbara Innes were returning from a family outing at Fellows Lake, north of Springfield, about 6:30 p. m. on July 5th. They also stopped at the intersection of Glenstone and Kearney. A truck with an "unusual" looking tank of some sort on the truck bed, was stopped in front of them. The truck and the Innes car both turned east on Kearney. The truck stopped to pick up a hitchhiker near the intersection. In court, they identified photographs of the victim's truck as the truck that had stopped for the hitchhiker, and they testified that the hitchhiker was the defendant.

On July 5, at about 7 to 7:15 p. m., Rodney Stone, a 15 year old high school student was riding his bicycle in front of his farm home, located on Farm Road 199, one-quarter mile from East Kearney Street, when he saw a truck, which he identified in court as the truck pictured in state's exhibits 15, 16 and 17 (the victim's truck), come down the road and strike a concrete post. He "got a good look at the guy who came out of the truck". Rodney went home and told his father of the incident. His father then called the sheriff's office. Deputy Sheriff Barry Alexander came to the scene and photographed the truck. The defendant had left the scene before Alexander arrived. In court, Rodney identified defendant as the person who was driving the truck at the time of the accident.

On appeal, defendant makes 12 assignments of error, which are discussed in the order in which they appear in defendant's brief.

POINT I

The first assignment of error is that the trial court erred in failing to sustain defendant's first amended motion to dismiss the information for the reason that § 559.011 ² was unconstitutional, in that the sentence prescribed by the statute constituted cruel and unusual punishment.

Section 559.011 was in force at the time of the murder and at time of trial. Statutes are presumed to be valid unless declared otherwise by the courts. The supreme court, in State v. Duren, 547 S.W.2d 476, 480-481 (Mo. banc 1977), decided March 15, 1977, ruled that § 559.011 was a valid statute which provided an alternative punishment to death for crimes of this class. Since the statute was valid, and since it set statutory limits on punishment, the sentence here, which conformed to those limits, cannot, as a matter of law, be held to be cruel and unusual punishment. State v. Grimm, 461 S.W.2d 746, 754 (Mo.1971). The assignment of error is denied.

POINT II

The second assignment of error is that the trial court erred in failing to sustain defendant's first amended motion to dismiss for the reason that the sentencing of defendant under the provisions of § 559.011, constituted the application of an ex post facto law in violation of Article I, Sections 10 and 13 of the Missouri Constitution and Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution.

The homicide in this case occurred on July 5, 1976. Section 559.011 was enacted in 1975 and declared valid in State v. Duren, supra, on March 15, 1977. Defendant was tried on April 11, 1977 and was sentenced on June 3, 1977, with the formal judgment being filed on June 6, 1977. There was no application of an ex post facto law in this case. The statute in question had been enacted before the date of the crime, and had been declared valid by the supreme court in Duren, before defendant was sentenced under its provisions. The assignment of error is denied.

POINT III

The third...