State v. Haslett

• Decision Date: 16 January 2009
• Docket Number: No. SD 28572.,SD 28572.
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Joseph W. HASLETT, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

283 S.W.3d 769

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Joseph W. HASLETT, Appellant.

No. SD 28572.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, Division One.

January 16, 2009.

Motion for Rehearing or Transfer Denied February 3, 2009.

Laura G. Martin, Kansas City, for appellant.

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., Shaun J. Mackelprang, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

ROBERT S. BARNEY, Judge.

Joseph W. Haslett ("Appellant") appeals his conviction by a jury for one count of the Class A felony of murder in the second degree, a violation of section 565.021.¹ Following a jury trial, Appellant was sentenced by the trial court to life imprisonment in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Appellant asserts five points of trial court error. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Appellant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction. "Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict," State v. Smith, 185 S.W.3d 747, 751 (Mo.App. 2006), the record reveals that Appellant began dating Jennifer Harvey ("Mother") in April of 2005. Mother had a son named Gavin Jordan ("Child") from a previous relationship with Dustin Jordan ("Father").²

Father's mother, Debra Davis ("Grandmother"), testified she often babysat for Child and in May or June of 2005 she began to notice "behavioral changes" in Child. She stated that Child began to be "extremely fussy and clingy" and had several physical injuries to various parts of his body. Grandmother stated that on July 24, 2005, she noticed "a bruise on [Child's] left cheek that look[ed] like he [had] been slapped" and in late August of 2005 she noticed "[h]e had a big bump, goose egg on his forehead, multiple bruises there. He had bruises underneath ... his jawline [and][h]is little head had a bald spot." In September of 2005, Grandmother contacted the Children's Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services ("the Division") because of the repeated bruising and injuries she witnessed on Child.³ She stated that after making the hotline call Mother would no longer let her see Child on a regular basis and when she saw Child on October 1, 2005, Child "had a burn mark on his right hand above his pinkie."

Father testified that he noticed changes in Child beginning in the spring of 2005. He stated Child "would show up with a lot bruises" to parts of his body including his face. He stated that Child became "very shy" and "any time you would try to discipline him or raise your voice, he would go and hide in a corner, or he would just immediately start crying." Father testified that when he last saw Child in early October of 2005 "[h]is bruises had kind of gone away. He did have a slight bruise ... on his head" and a burn on his hand. Father was told by Mother that Child was burned on "a power washer" which "seemed pretty unlikely" to Father, who felt that Child was being abused.

Mother testified that in the summer of 2005 she started seeing injuries on Child such as "[s]ome bruising on his cheeks, there was some bruising down the back of his spine, he had a sprained leg." She stated Appellant told her Child had climbed or fallen out of his crib and caused the aforementioned injuries. She stated Child suffered a burn to his hand while in Appellant's care and that Appellant told her Child "had touched the muffler on the power washer."

Mother testified that on the morning of October 4, 2005, she awoke at 9:00 a.m. and Child and Appellant had gone to run errands. Later in the day, Mother stopped by Appellant's parents' house to get gas money from Appellant although she did not see Child at that time. Mother left Child with Appellant for the remainder of the day.

At 5:23 p.m. a 911 call was placed to the Greene County Sheriff's Department reporting that an eighteen-month-old child was not breathing and individuals on the scene were performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation in an effort to revive him. When Deputies Roger Lee ("Deputy Lee") and Douglas Browning ("Deputy Browning") arrived at the scene, they observed emergency medical personnel attempting to revive Child. At this point in time the officers made contact with Appellant who was "extremely upset;" crying "rather hysterically;" and "kept saying over and over again it was his fault." Appellant told Deputy Lee that Child "was taking a bath and that he had stepped outside to smoke a cigarette and that when he came back in the house, he found [Child] unconscious, laying on his side in the bathtub."

Appellant then told Deputy Stan Hancock ("Deputy Hancock") he "had taken a shower and when he got done he ... ran the bath water for [Child]." Appellant stated he ran the water to a level "about up to [Child's] naval" and "[h]e stepped outside to go get a diaper bag and had smoked a cigarette while outside." He related that about five or six minutes later he returned to the bathroom and Child "was halfway in the tub, halfway out, appeared to be a little blue." Appellant also told Deputy Hancock that Child "was laying on [his] side in the bathtub," which was slightly different than his first account of events. Appellant related he then attempted to revive Child and he "wound up being revived and had gotten up and walked around a little bit." Appellant then called his mother while Child was "up walking around" and he related that Child "at one point ... had peed on the floor." Appellant stated Child then "fell down ... was not breathing" and Appellant called 911.

Child was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.⁴ Appellant remained at the scene. Sergeant James Farrell ("Sergeant Farrell"), a personal acquaintance of Appellant's family, spoke with Appellant and Appellant agreed to accompany Sergeant Farrell to the Sheriff's Department for an interview. At the Sheriff's Department, Sergeant Farrell advised Appellant of his Miranda⁵ rights, which Appellant waived, and Appellant told Sergeant Farrell that he was giving Child a bath when he decided to go outside to smoke a cigarette; that he returned to find Child face down in the bathtub; that Appellant pulled Child out of the bathtub; and that he then attempted to revive him. During the interview, Sergeant Farrell told Appellant that Child had passed away and that he did not believe Appellant's story that Child had drowned. Appellant then requested an attorney; however, he then changed his mind, again chose to waive his Miranda rights, and continued speaking to the police.

At that point, Chief Deputy Jim Arnott ("Chief Deputy Arnott") interviewed Appellant and Appellant initially told Chief Deputy Arnott that Child had drowned in the bathtub. Appellant then told Chief Deputy Arnott that he had been "in his daughter's bedroom and that he had put his full weight [against Child], [Child] landed on a corner of a bed which caused [Child] to go into a somersault, fly off the bed and then hit the metal bedframe and land on the floor." Appellant then made two partial written statements, but fell asleep while trying to do so.⁶ Appellant was arrested for endangering the welfare of a child and taken to jail where he was placed on suicide watch.

The following day, on October 5, 2005, Appellant was again interviewed by Sergeant Farrell, and he again waived his Miranda rights. Appellant told Sergeant Farrell that he had been "wrestling around with [Child] and he had picked him up and put him in kind of a ... playful headlock and had picked [Child] up by the ankles with his other hand [in a] reverse airplane" and that he was carrying Child through the house when Child "started to shake and was unresponsive after that." Due to concerns about Appellant's mental health, he was transferred to a mental hospital "on a 96-hour mental watch hold." Thereafter, Appellant was released. Approximately a week after his release, Appellant told Mother that he had been playing with Child, "he had taken his diaper off, was flying him around like an airplane, that [Child] had gotten ... diarrhea, so he ran him into the bathroom and put him on the toilet, and he ... just went lifeless."

Appellant was arrested on December 14, 2005, and charged by Felony Information on March 16, 2006, with murder in the second degree and, in the alternative, abuse of a child, a violation of section 568.060. While awaiting trial, Appellant shared a jail cell with inmate Randy Reed ("Mr. Reed"). Mr. Reed testified at trial that Appellant told him several times that Child was injured while he was bathing him; however, on one occasion Appellant told him a different story. Mr. Reed related that Appellant told him he had given Child a bath and Appellant

had [Child's] head between his arm and his body and he said [Child] was struggling, and he said he picked him up and [Child] was trying to catch his breath. And he said that [Child] started crying and stuff, and he said that's what gave him the idea about suffocat[ing] him. He said he put [Child's] head back under there and he put a lot of pressure on him and just held him there until he quit moving.

Mr. Reed testified that Appellant told him he suffocated Child because Mother had an abortion while they were dating and she had "killed his kid."

At the close of all the evidence, the jury convicted Appellant of murder in the second degree and he was sentenced by the trial court to life imprisonment. This appeal followed.

In his first point relied on, Appellant maintains the trial court "erred and clearly abused its discretion" in overruling his objection to the testimony of Dr. Douglas Anderson ("Dr. Anderson") and in allowing Dr. Anderson "who neither observed nor performed the autopsy on [Child], to testify about the autopsy performed by Dr. Paul Spence [("Dr. Spence")], whom the [S]tate claimed was unavailable to testify at trial." Appellant urges the trial court's rulings violated his "rights to cross-examine and to confront the witnesses against him ..." in that

Dr. Spence was not an...