State v. Hart

• Decision Date: 30 July 2013
• Docket Number: No. SC 93153.,SC 93153.
• Citation: 404 S.W.3d 232
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Laron HART, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

404 S.W.3d 232

STATE of Missouri, Respondent,

v.Laron HART, Appellant.

No. SC 93153.

Supreme Court of Missouri,

En Banc.

July 30, 2013.

Gwenda R. Robinson, Public Defender's Office, St. Louis, for Hart.

Evan J. Buchheim, Attorney General's Office, Jefferson City, for the State.

PAUL C. WILSON, Judge.

Mr. Hart was 17 years old when he shot and killed his victim during the second of two robberies he committed on the evening of January 24, 2010. The jury found Hart guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, and two counts of armed criminal action. Hart waived jury sentencing prior to trial pursuant to section 557.036.4(1),¹ and the trial court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murder and to concurrent 30–year sentences for each of the three non-homicide crimes.

Hart appeals only his convictions for first-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with first-degree murder. He challenges the use of his videotaped interrogation at trial and claims that his sentence of life without parole violates the Eighth Amendment. Finally, because he claims that the only authorized sentences for first-degree murder are unconstitutional as applied to juvenile offenders, Hart argues that section 565.020 is void for failure to provide a valid punishment. Hart's evidentiary claims lack merit, but his latter claims must be addressed in detail in light of recent changes in Eighth Amendment jurisprudence.

On June 25, 2012, while Hart's appeal was pending, the United States Supreme Court announced its decision in Miller v. Alabama, ––– U.S. ––––, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 2469, 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012), that the Eighth Amendment forbids sentencing a juvenile defendant to life without parole when there has been no consideration of the particular circumstances of the crime or the offender's age and development. “By making youth (and all that accompanies it) irrelevant to imposition of that harshest prison sentence, such a scheme poses too great a risk of disproportionate punishment.” Id.Miller does not hold that a juvenile never can receive this sentence for first-degree murder. It holds only that life without parole may not be imposed unless the sentencer ² is given an opportunity to consider the individual facts and circumstances that might make such a sentence unjust or disproportionate.

Hart's sentence of life without parole for first-degree murder violates the Eighth Amendment because, as in Miller, it was imposed with no individualized consideration of the myriad of factors discussed in the Miller decision. Accordingly, Hart must be re-sentenced in accordance with Miller's constitutional safeguards requiring the sentencer to consider whether a sentence of life without parole is just and appropriate in light of Hart's age and the other circumstances surrounding his offense.³

On remand, if the sentencer conducts the individualized assessment required by Miller and is persuaded beyond a reasonable doubt that sentencing Hart to life in prison without parole is just and appropriate under all the circumstances, the trial court must impose that sentence.⁴ If the sentencer is not persuaded that this sentence is just and appropriate, section 565.020 is void as applied to him because it fails to provide a constitutionally permissible punishment. In that event, Hart cannot be convicted of first-degree murder and the trial court must find him guilty of second-degree murder instead. In addition, the trial court must vacate Hart's conviction for armed criminal action that was predicated on Hart being guilty of first-degree murder and, instead, find Hart guilty of armed criminal action in connection with that second-degree murder. Finally, Hart must be sentenced for these two crimes within the applicable statutory punishment ranges.

I. Facts

Hart does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions. Viewing the evidence at trial in the light most favorable to the verdict, the Court presumes that the jury found the following facts.

Shortly before 9:00 p.m. on January 24, 2010, Ms. Hellrich was entering her car when Hart pulled the car door open and demanded her purse. Ms. Hellrich first tried to hand over only her wallet but, after Hart pulled out a handgun, she surrendered her purse as well. Hart ran back to the stolen blue Cutlass he had arrived in and sped off. Shaken but not injured, Ms. Hellrich quickly called the police.

A short time later and only a short distance away, Hart again jumped from the blue Cutlass and approached Mr. Sindelar from behind. When Hart grabbed the man's backpack, Mr. Sindelar began to struggle and yell for help. Hart pulled out a gun and fired a single, fatal shot into Mr. Sindelar's chest. Hart ran back to the blue Cutlass, leaving Mr. Sindelar to die.

The next morning, police stopped the blue Cutlass following a protracted chase through rush-hour traffic. Hart was not in the car, but Ms. Hellrich's belongings were found in the car and in the pockets of one of the occupants. Based on the descriptions given by Ms. Hellrich and a witness to Mr. Sindelar's murder, the police soon arrested Hart. Both Ms. Hellrich and the eyewitness identified Hart in a police lineup. After being read his rights, Hart acknowledged receiving and understanding those rights and signed a waiver agreeing to be questioned without counsel present. During the subsequent videotaped interrogation, Hart initially denied any involvement in the robberies. When confronted with the evidence against him, however, including the results of the lineup, Hart soon admitted—albeit in stages—to being present at both robberies, to knowing that the robberies would occur before they did, to being outside the car and near the victims during both robberies, and to watching an accomplice shoot Mr. Sindelar. Hart maintained throughout the interrogation that he did not shoot Mr. Sindelar.

At trial, Hart argued that the incriminating statements he made during the videotaped interrogation were coerced and, instead, offered alibi evidence that he claimed proved he was not involved in either robbery. The jury rejected this evidence and found Hart guilty of first-degree robbery and armed criminal action for the robbery of Ms. Hellrich, and first-degree murder and armed criminal action for the murder of Mr. Sindelar. To be clear, Hart's murder conviction was not based on felony murder or any theory of accomplice liability. Instead, the jury concluded—unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt—that Hart killed Mr. Sindelar knowingly and deliberately, after cool reflection on the matter.

Hart had waived jury sentencing prior to trial pursuant to section 557.036.4(1) and, by doing so, chose to have the trial court decide his punishments if the jury found him guilty of any of the charges. At the beginning of Hart's sentencing hearing, the trial court stated that it had not ordered a sentencing assessment report because, “as to [the first-degree murder conviction], the court's limited as to what it could impose by way of sentence.” The trial court was referring to the fact that, because Hart was not eligible for the death penalty due to his age, see Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551, 125 S.Ct. 1183, 161 L.Ed.2d 1 (2005) (death penalty categorically prohibited for juvenile offenders), the only other punishment for first-degree murder authorized by section 565.020.2 was life in prison with no possibility of parole. At the conclusion of the sentencing hearing, the trial court sentenced Hart to life without parole for first-degree murder and to concurrent 30–year sentences for the first-degree robbery and the two armed criminal action charges.

Hart appealed his convictions for first-degree murder and armed criminal action to the court of appeals. Because Hart argues that section 565.020 is invalid under Miller, the state moved to transfer Hart's appeal to this Court pursuant to article V, section 11 of the constitution. The court of appeals ordered transfer, and this Court has jurisdiction. Mo. Const. art. V, secs. 3 and 11.

II. The Miller Decision

Hart was found guilty of first-degree murder under section 565.020, which provides:

1. A person commits the crime of murder in the first degree if he knowingly causes the death of another person after deliberation upon the matter.

2. Murder in the first degree is a class A felony, and the punishment shall be either death or imprisonment for life without eligibility for probation or parole, or release except by act of the governor; except that, if a person has not reached his sixteenth birthday at the time of the commission of the crime, the punishment shall be imprisonment for life without eligibility for probation or parole, or release except by act of the governor.

§ 565.020, RSMo 2000 (emphasis added).

The language of section 565.020.2 is plain and unambiguous: Because Hart was 17 years old at the time he committed this murder, the sentencer was required to sentence him to “either death or imprisonment for life without eligibility for probation or parole[.]” Under Roper, however, Hart cannot be sentenced to death because the Eighth Amendment prohibits the death penalty for defendants who commit first-degree murder at age 17 years or younger. Accordingly, as the trial court expressly noted, life without parole is the only statutorily authorized punishment under section 565.020.2 available when a juvenile commits first-degree murder.⁵

Hart maintains that Roper categorically bars juvenile offenders from being sentenced to death, and he claims that Miller reaches the same conclusion with respect to life sentences without parole. He contends, therefore, that both of the punishments authorized by section 565.020.2 have been declared unconstitutional for all juvenile offenders. Claiming that a criminal statute must provide at least one valid punishment, Hart concludes that section 565.020 is void as applied to juvenile offenders and, therefore, he cannot be...