State v. Hughes

• Citation: 596 S.W.2d 723
• Decision Date: 08 April 1980
• Docket Number: No. 61616,61616
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Steven L. HUGHES, Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri

Page 723

596 S.W.2d 723

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Steven L. HUGHES, Appellant.

No. 61616.

Supreme Court of Missouri, En Banc.

April 8, 1980.

Scott B. Tinsley, Springfield, for appellant.

John Ashcroft, Atty. Gen., Mary C. P. Pincus, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

WELLIVER, Judge.

Appellant, Steven L. Hughes, was convicted of first degree robbery by means of a dangerous and deadly weapon, § 560.135, RSMo Supp.1975, and felony car tampering, § 560.175, RSMo 1969. He was sentenced to consecutive terms of thirty years' imprisonment for the robbery and five years' imprisonment on the tampering offense. Appellant seeks reversal of his convictions, alleging that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence statements made by appellant to police investigating the robbery, in admitting into evidence a gun allegedly used in the robbery, and in admitting in evidence testimony concerning appellant's escape from custody pending trial. The case was transferred from the Court of Appeals, Southern District, after opinion, and we decide it as though on original appeal. Mo.Const. art. V, § 3. We affirm.

On December 28, 1976, at approximately 7:00 p. m., a white pickup truck with a red top was "hot-wired" and stolen from the parking lot of Battlefield Mall in Springfield, Missouri. Approximately one half hour later two men in a red and white pickup stopped in front of an Apco service station located on the Skaggs shopping center parking lot on South Glenstone Avenue in Springfield. The man on the passenger side of the truck entered the station, displayed a short barrelled, rusted, .22 caliber revolver, and robbed the lone attendant Barry Bertram of approximately two hundred and twenty dollars. The two men then drove across the parking lot, abandoned the pickup, and joined a third man who drove them to Joplin, Missouri.

On January 13, 1977, Officers Wells and Phillips of the Joplin Police Department arrested Charles Bruce Miller, Jr., at his apartment in Joplin in connection with multiple robberies in the Joplin area. The officers found a .22 caliber revolver in Miller's apartment and collected it as evidence in a Joplin robbery. As a result of information obtained from Miller concerning the gun and the Joplin robberies, the same officers arrested appellant early the next morning at his home in Joplin for investigation of illegal sale of a firearm. Officers Wells and Phillips later arrested Donald Trimble in connection with the investigation of the Joplin robberies.

On January 14, 1977, Officers Wells and Phillips questioned appellant concerning offenses in the Joplin area. The officers also questioned Miller and Trimble individually and then together with appellant. From the interviews, the officers gathered information implicating the three in the Springfield Apco station robbery. Three days later, Officers Hobson and Brinkman of the Springfield Police Department interviewed the appellant in Joplin concerning the Springfield service station robbery. On both occasions, the officers advised appellant of his Miranda rights and obtained appellant's signature on forms which indicated that he understood his rights and that he waived his right to remain silent and his right to counsel. On both occasions appellant made a statement detailing his role in the Springfield robbery. In addition, appellant implicated himself in a number of Joplin crimes to the Joplin officers.

In subsequent proceedings, appellant was charged with burglary and stealing arising out of the incidents in the Joplin area. Appellant pleaded guilty to those charges and was sentenced to two years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. On June 24, 1977, he was transferred to the Greene County Jail in Springfield to await trial for the Apco station robbery. In the early morning on August 30, 1977, appellant escaped from jail with two other prisoners but was recaptured within twenty minutes of his escape.

On September 16, 1977, appellant filed a pre-trial motion to suppress evidence of statements made to the Springfield Officers Hobson and Brinkman on the ground that the statements were made involuntarily and were made in reliance upon a promise of leniency made by Officer Phillips in an interview with appellant the afternoon of his arrest. The court overruled the motion after a pre-trial hearing into the voluntariness of the statements. On December 6, 1977, the day before trial, appellant filed a written motion to suppress evidence of statements made to Joplin Police Officers Wells and Phillips, alleging that they were made in reliance upon Officer Phillip's promise of leniency. On December 6, 1977, appellant filed a written motion in limine to prevent the state from referring to or producing a handgun and a mugshot of appellant in the presence of the jury until the state established the relevance, materiality and competence of those items out of the jury's hearing. The trial court overruled both the motion to suppress and the motion in limine on the first day of trial.

Barry Bertram testified at trial, and identified appellant as the person who demanded the money from him at gunpoint. He also identified the pickup truck from a photograph of the stolen pickup as the vehicle used in the robbery. He also testified that State's Exhibit 4, the gun found in Miller's apartment, looked exactly like the gun used in the robbery.

The Joplin and Springfield officers testified that appellant made statements on two separate occasions in which he admitted to driving the truck in the Apco station robbery. ¹ The officers testified that appellant stated that he, Trimble and Miller had stolen the pickup from a shopping center parking lot, he and Trimble committed the robbery, and that he and Trimble then met with Miller, who drove them back to Joplin. Officer Wells also testified that, when questioned about the .22 caliber revolver found in Miller's apartment, appellant stated that he had sold the gun to Miller. Officer Phillips identified State's Exhibit 4 as the gun taken from Miller's apartment.

Deputy Sheriff Otis Hoppe testified that while he was working at the Greene County Jail on the morning of August 30, 1977, he observed three men running from the jail. He stated that he found a basement window loosened, and afterwards determined that appellant was one of three men who were missing from the jail. Deputy Hoppe also testified that appellant and one of the other escapees were brought back to the jail approximately twenty minutes later. Lieutenant Raymond Hargrove of the Springfield Police Department testified that he received a radio dispatch at 2:55 a. m. on August 30, 1977, about an escape of prisoners from the Greene County Jail, and that he apprehended appellant about six blocks from the jail shortly thereafter.

Appellant testified, and denied that he admitted to participation in the Apco station robbery, or to the sale of the gun to Miller. He admitted his escape from the Greene County Jail, but explained that his motive for escaping was to see his month-old son. On direct examination, appellant denied that he had understood his rights at the time he was questioned by the Joplin and Springfield police officers; however, on cross-examination he stated several times that he had understood his rights at the time that the officers questioned him. Appellant also testified in the pre-trial hearing on the motion to suppress evidence of statements made to the Springfield officers that Officer Phillips had promised him that if he confessed to the Joplin burglary, Phillips would "do his best to prevent other charges being filed against me." Appellant claims that he relied on that promise in his conversations with the Joplin officers and that he continued to rely on that promise when he was questioned by the Springfield officers.

On December 8, 1977, the jury found appellant guilty of first degree robbery and felony car tampering. On December 19, 1977, appellant's motion for a new trial was considered and overruled and consecutive sentences of 30 years' imprisonment for first degree robbery and five years' imprisonment for car tampering were imposed. On December 21, 1977, appellant filed a notice of appeal with the Circuit Court of Greene County. On July 20, 1979, the Court of Appeals, Southern District, filed a written opinion to affirm appellant's conviction and on August 8, 1979, the court of appeals overruled appellant's motion for rehearing or transfer to this Court. On appellant's application, we ordered the case transferred to this Court on September 11, 1979.

Appellant alleges that it was error for the trial court to admit three types of evidence: (1) the testimony of the Joplin and Springfield police officers concerning statements which appellant made to them; (2) the handgun that was introduced into evidence; and (3) the testimony concerning appellant's escape from the custody of the Greene County Jail while awaiting trial on the robbery and car tampering charges. We will consider each allegation of error separately.

I

Appellant contends the trial court erred in failing to suppress evidence of his oral confessions. Appellant denies confessing involvement in the Springfield robbery and maintains that any statements made pertaining to that incident were induced by a promise allegedly made by Officer Wells that if appellant cooperated, Wells "would make sure I got charged with only one charge and one charge, only." Appellant claims he relied on the promise of leniency when he made statements concerning the robbery in Springfield to the Joplin and Springfield police officers. ²

The admissibility of a confession depends upon whether it was compelled within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 753, 90 S.Ct. 1463, 1471, 25 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970). " '(A) confession, in order to be admissible, must be free and voluntary: that is, must not be extracted by any...