State v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 08 April 1980
• Docket Number: No. 61694,61694
• Citation: 598 S.W.2d 123
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Willie Mae JOHNSON, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 123

598 S.W.2d 123

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Willie Mae JOHNSON, Appellant.

No. 61694.

Supreme Court of Missouri, En Banc.

April 8, 1980.

Rehearing Denied May 13, 1980.

Christelle Adelman-Adler, Asst. Public Defender, St. Louis, for appellant.

John Ashcroft, Atty. Gen., Weldon W. Perry, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

PER CURIAM.

This case involves double jeopardy.

Appellant was tried in January 1977 of murder in the first degree of Gladys Gregg and robbery of Gladys Gregg. Appellant was acquitted of the charge of murder. The jury could not reach a verdict on the robbery charge and a mistrial was declared. In March 1977 appellant was tried again for the robbery of Gladys Gregg. She was convicted of robbery by the jury and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. Appellant appealed to the Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals where the judgment of conviction was reversed and appellant was ordered discharged. The cause was then transferred to this Court. We decide it "the same as on original appeal." Mo. Const. art. V, § 10.

The "substitute information in lieu of indictment" upon which appellant was tried the first time charged that she, acting with another, "feloniously, willfully, premeditatedly, deliberately, on purpose and of her malice aforethought did make an assault upon one Gladys Gregg, with a plastic bag, and then and there feloniously, willfully, premeditatedly, deliberately, on purpose and of her malice aforethought did strangle and suffocate the body of the said Gladys Gregg * * * " thus causing her death. However, at the conclusion of the trial and over defense counsel's objection, the trial court refused to give a "conventional murder first degree" instruction. Rather, the murder charge was submitted to the jury under the felony-murder doctrine, thus directing the jury to find appellant guilty of the murder of Gladys Gregg if it found that she caused the death of the victim "and, Second, that she did so in robbing Gladys Gregg, * * *." As pointed out above, appellant was acquitted of the murder charge.

After a mistrial was declared as to the charge of robbery of Gladys Gregg, appellant filed a motion to dismiss the charge, alleging that retrial on such charge would violate her right against double jeopardy. The motion was denied by the trial court. After the second trial, the point was properly preserved in the motion for new trial.

It is clear that appellant cannot again be tried for the offense of murder, of which she was acquitted. The question is whether appellant may be retried for robbery, the underlying felony, on which the jury became deadlocked and a mistrial was declared.

In the context of this case, there are three aspects of double jeopardy which must be considered: 1) multiple punishment; 2) multiple prosecution; and 3) collateral estoppel of issues previously determined.

First, there is no danger of multiple punishment here, where no conviction as to either offense was returned.

Second, although the multiple prosecution problem is applicable here to the robbery offense, case law consistently holds that a defendant is entitled to immunity from reprosecution only if he can show that the mistrial was intentionally triggered by the state for the tactical purpose of strengthening the prosecutions's case. United States v. Dinitz, 424 U.S. 600, 611, 96 S.Ct. 1075, 1081, 47 L.Ed.2d 267 (1976). Since a hung jury cannot be attributed to bad faith on the part of the prosecution, a retrial is permissible. United States v. Sanford et al., 429 U.S. 14, 97 S.Ct. 20, 50 L.Ed.2d 17 (1976); State v. Berry, 298 S.W.2d 429 (Mo.1957); State v. Sales, 558 S.W.2d 302 (Mo.App.1977).

The crucial question on the collateral estoppel issue is: What issues does a general verdict of acquittal of felony-murder resolve? See Turner v. Arkansas, 407 U.S. 366, 369, 92 S.Ct. 2096, 2098, 32 L.Ed.2d 798 (1972). It cannot be convincingly argued that the jury's acquittal of the murder charge impliedly acquitted appellant of the robbery, as in Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1969). Distinguishing this case from Ashe is the fact that here it cannot be said that there was only a "single rationally conceivable issue in dispute before the jury." Id. at 445, 90 S.Ct. at 1195. In light of the inability of the jury in the January 1977 trial to return a verdict on the robbery charge, we conclude that its acquittal of murder under the felony-murder doctrine was for a reason, or on an issue, not related to robbery.

Appellant next contends that there was error in the trial court's overruling her motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of the case, i. e., that a submissible case of robbery first degree had not been made against appellant.

Briefly, the evidence adduced consisted of 1) several fingerprints identified as appellant's lifted from various objects at the decedent's premises; 2) testimony of a neighbor of the victim that one Sandra Ross, admittedly appellant's lover, had been seen entering and leaving the decedent's premises on the night in question, and that concurrently a dark colored car containing two other unidentified occupants had been observed beside her apartment building; 3) the subsequent arrest of Sandra Ross and appellant's brother in a maroon and black car, which contained two pillowcases full of silverware, all identified as belonging to the decedent; and 4) the flight of appellant when she was much later approached by police officers.

It is obvious that the state's case consisted of, and the jury's conviction was based on, circumstantial evidence. Appellant made a statement to police after her arrest that she was unfamiliar with decedent's residence and did not recognize a photo of it. At trial, however, appellant attempted to lessen the impact of the damning fingerprint evidence by suggesting that since she was Sandra Ross's lover and frequent companion, it would not be unlikely that she might have accompanied Ross to decedent's premises in the past, since Ross was acquainted with her. Although no evidence to this effect was put on, appellant argues that the state has not met the test of sufficiency required when circumstantial evidence is relied on: that the facts and circumstances relied upon by the state to establish guilt must be inconsistent and irreconcilable with a hypothesis of defendant's innocence. See State v. Thomas, 452 S.W.2d 160 (Mo.1970). We note, however, that this test must be realistically tempered in its application; the circumstances need not demonstrate the impossibility of innocence; the mere existence of other possible hypotheses is not enough to remove the case from the jury. See State v. Franco, 544 S.W.2d 533 (Mo. banc 1976), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 957, 97 S.Ct. 2682, 53 L.Ed.2d 275 (1977).

State v. Gales, 507 S.W.2d 35 (Mo.App.1974) is a case involving facts very similar to those presented here. The victim lived alone and was found dead. She was bound, her apartment was in disarray, and defendant's fingerprints were found on her jewelry box. Articles of personal property which had been in defendant's possession were identified as belonging to the victim. Similarly, in this case no eyewitnesses to the crime were present, the victim was found dead, bound and gagged, the premises were in disarray, and appellant's fingerprints were found on objects therein. Objects stolen from decedent were found in the possession of appellant's lover and appellant's brother, and a neighbor had seen three people near the house on the night that the victim was last seen alive.

"Much of the evidence in the instant case is circumstantial. But, the rule in Missouri is, that in order to convict upon circumstantial evidence, the circumstances must be consistent with each other and with the theory of the defendant's guilt and inconsistent with innocence, and must exclude every other reasonable hypothesis except for guilt. * * *.

" * * * Proof that fingerprints found in the place where a crime is committed under such circumstances that they could only have been impressed at the time the crime was committed corresponding to those of the accused may be sufficient proof of identity to sustain a conviction."

Id. at 37. We conclude that appellant's claim that the evidence was insufficient for submission to the jury is without merit.

Finally, appellant contends that the court erred in overruling appellant's motion to suppress numerous pieces of silverware and two pillow slips obtained by search and seizure without a warrant and allegedly without other lawful authority. The state submits that appellant has no standing to raise such a claim, and that in any event, the arresting officer had probable cause to stop the vehicle in question. The underlying facts giving rise to appellant's constitutional claims are that a neighbor of the decedent testified that she saw a dark colored automobile occupied by two persons parked near the decedent's house on the night of the murder. On the day after the decedent was found dead, detectives of the St. Louis Police Department were maintaining surveillance of appellant Willie Mae Johnson's residence. As they watched, a man and a woman appellant's brother, Ronnie Johnson, and Sandra Ross walked out of the house suspiciously carrying pillowcases filled with items and entered an automobile. Since neither of the persons was the object of the surveillance, the detectives did not confront them but placed a radio call to Sergeant Charles McCrary who was parked several blocks away as a backup to the detectives. At their request, McCrary stopped the vehicle, a black over maroon 1968 Pontiac, driven by Ronnie Johnson. On the floorboard in front of Sandra Ross were two pillowcases containing numerous articles of silverware in plain view. McCrary seized the silverware and took Ronnie Johnson and Sandra Ross to police headquarters for questioning. The pillowcases were identified by...