State v. Hedges
| Decision Date | 26 April 2022 |
| Docket Number | WD 84346 |
| Citation | 649 S.W.3d 93 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Jerry Allen HEDGES, Jr., Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Eric S. Schmitt, Attorney General, and Garrick Aplin, Assistant Attorney General, Jefferson City, MO, Attorneys for Respondent.
Samuel Buffaloe, Assistant Public Defender, Columbia, MO, Attorney for Appellant.
Before Division One: Lisa White Hardwick, Presiding Judge, and Alok Ahuja and Mark D. Pfeiffer, Judges
Mr. Jerry Hedges ("Hedges") appeals from the judgment entered by the Circuit Court of Saline County, Missouri ("trial court"), following a jury trial in which he was found guilty of one count of first-degree rape, three counts of first-degree sodomy, one count of second-degree child molestation, and one count of incest and sentenced to a total of 109 years’ imprisonment. We affirm.
Victim2 was born on June 6, 2003, to Hedges and his then-wife. Hedges and Victim's mother divorced when she was young, and she lived primarily with Hedges. When Victim was twelve or thirteen years old and in sixth or seventh grade, Hedges started having sexual contact with Victim. At first, Hedges brushed against different parts of Victim's body; but his conduct escalated to touching Victim inappropriately, to molesting Victim, and finally to raping Victim. This would happen every few days when her stepmother was at work and her younger brothers were watching cartoons or taking a nap. Victim did not tell anyone about the sexual abuse because she was scared of Hedges and she did not think anyone would believe her because she did not tell anyone when the abuse first began.
On March 3, 2019, Victim's stepmother had gone to work and her brothers were napping. Hedges told fifteen-year-old Victim to change into a crop top and skirt with nothing underneath it while he took a shower. After his shower, Hedges and Victim went into the kitchen where he set up his phone to record them. Hedges then started kissing Victim on the mouth and neck, touching her breasts, rubbing his hand against her vagina, and putting his finger in her vagina before having her touch his penis. Hedges had Victim get on her hands and knees on the kitchen floor; then he got behind her and forced his penis into her vagina. Afterward, they went into one of the bedrooms, and Hedges put his penis into her mouth and had her give him a "blow job." Hedges then had Victim lay on her stomach on the bed; he got behind Victim and forced his penis into her anus, where he ejaculated. Victim was on birth control, and Hedges did not use a condom. This was not the first time Hedges had forced his penis into Victim's vagina and anus.
On March 6, three days after the last incident, Victim told her friend in the United Kingdom, Mr. Levi Wiseman, that Hedges had been raping her. She sent Mr. Wiseman screenshots of pictures and text message conversations between herself and Hedges that were "inappropriate" and about "different kinks" or about things that Hedges wanted Victim to say.
When Hedges found out that Victim had told Mr. Wiseman, Hedges became very angry and threatened to kill himself if Victim did not tell Mr. Wiseman that she was lying. Before Hedges left to pick up Victim's younger brothers from daycare and take her stepmother to her second job, Hedges took Victim's cell phone to prevent her from contacting anyone. Victim used a house phone to call her friend, Ms. Colette Strathman. Ms. Strathman drove to Victim's house. At first, Victim told her that she was scared that her father was trying to commit suicide, but eventually Victim told Ms. Strathman that Hedges had been raping her. Ms. Strathman took Victim to the Higginsville police station.
Initially, Victim told the detective only that she was worried that her father was trying to kill himself. The detective left the police station and made contact with Hedges during a traffic stop. Hedges told the detective that he was "having issues with his daughter," that she was "having boy issues," and that "it was just ... a bunch of teenage drama." He told the detective that he had taken Victim's cell phone from her as punishment. The detective returned to the police station and explained to Victim and Ms. Strathman that Hedges did not appear to be suicidal and that there was nothing more he could do. The detective observed that Victim was emotional and afraid, and Ms. Strathman told the detective that Hedges and Victim had been engaged in a sexual relationship for the past two years. Victim then told the detective about the sexual abuse. Victim told the detective that there were messages Hedges had sent her on her cell phone. After talking with the detective, she made a written statement.
Thinking that Victim's cell phone contained potential evidence, the detective again contacted Hedges, who was inside a police vehicle across the street from the police station. The detective told Hedges that there had been an allegation of sexual contact between him and Victim and that he needed Victim's phone for evidentiary purposes. After the detective retrieved the phone, Victim informed him that it was password protected. However, the detective found that the phone had been reset to a factory default setting with no password. Victim told him that it was not like that when she gave the phone to her father. The detective checked the phone for the SIM card, but the SIM card had been removed, making it impossible to retrieve any messages or information from Victim's phone. Later, when the detective called Hedges and asked him about the status of the phone and the location of the SIM card, Hedges told the detective that he had no idea what the detective was talking about and did not know anything about the phone or the status of the SIM card; Hedges then terminated the call.
During the detective's conversation with Victim, she explained that she had disclosed the information on her phone to Mr. Wiseman. Victim contacted Mr. Wiseman and had him send the pictures and messages she had previously sent him to the detective, who downloaded and printed them. Among the messages were Hedges telling Victim, "[R]emember .. I'm YOUR dog, so train me"; "[t]each me[,] Show me what you really want"; "I AM a filthy pervert and YOU have a nice rack"; and "various messages about daddy and ... pictures of breasts or sexual images." Hedges sent Victim "dirty talk"—"You're too little to do it by yourself, baby, let Daddy help," "Do that again and I'll spank you; is that what you want?"—with Hedges's comment, "I thought of you instantly." Hedges also sent Victim a picture that said, "I miss being my Daddy's ‘Dirty Little Slut’ or his ‘Baby Girl.’ " There were also text messages between Hedges and Victim just before the last incident on March 3, 2019, in which Hedges told Victim she was a "good girl" for washing her body before he came home, and that she should "wash DEEP, I'm going for both," which she understood to mean "[h]e was going to rape me both in my vagina and my anus." In response to Victim telling Hedges that she was about to start her period and was having cramps, Hedges replied, "[O]kay baby, I'll be gentle as possible."
The detective contacted Children's Mercy Hospital to set up a sexual assault examination for Victim on March 6, 2019. The Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner interviewed Victim, and she disclosed the details of the March 3, 2019 incident to the nurse and also told her that Hedges made Victim watch pornography. During the examination, the nurse observed redness at the opening of Victim's vagina and a transection or tear on her hymen, indicative of trauma. The nurse also collected external and internal genital swabs and an oral swab, as well as Victim's underwear. Victim's sexual assault kit was submitted to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Laboratory. A stain consistent with seminal fluid was detected on Victim's underwear.
After Victim had been taken to Children's Mercy for the physical examination, the detective learned that Hedges's wife had received a text message from Hedges stating that she would need to find a ride home, he had the van in a Walmart parking lot in Warrensburg, and she "can believe what [she] would like." After viewing the message, the detective sent officers to the Walmart location, but they were unable to locate Hedges. About six weeks later, Hedges was arrested in Oklahoma. While Hedges was in custody, a buccal swab was collected from him. The Missouri State Highway Patrol Laboratory determined that the DNA from the non-sperm fraction profile from Victim's underwear was consistent with Victim's DNA profile, and the DNA from the sperm fraction of the profile from Victim's underwear was consistent with Hedges's DNA profile.
Hedges was charged with:
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