State v. Jones, 9557

• Decision Date: 09 January 1975
• Docket Number: No. 9557,9557
• Citation: 518 S.W.2d 304
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Marvin Jack JONES, Jr., Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 304

518 S.W.2d 304

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Marvin Jack JONES, Jr., Appellant.

No. 9557.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Springfield District.

Jan. 9, 1975.

John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., Robert M. Sommers, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

John B. Newberry, Springfield, for appellant.

Before BILLINGS, C.J., and TITUS and FLANIGAN, JJ.

BILLINGS, Chief Judge.

The 31-year-old defendant, Marvin Jack Jones, Jr., was convicted of murder in the first degree for the garrote slaying of his 46-year-old paramour, Edna Maybelle Rose, and the jury assessed his punishment at life imprisonment. In this appeal the defendant attacks certain of the court's instructions, questions the qualifications of one of the state's witnesses, and challenges the weight of the evidence to support the verdict of the jury. We affirm.

Initially we note that it is not our appellate function or prerogative to weigh the evidence to determine whether the charge in a criminal case has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt; that is a function of the jury. State v. Strong, 484 S.W.2d 657 (Mo.1972); State v. Sherrill, 496 S.W.2d 321 (Mo.App.1973).

However, from an examination of defendant's unsuccessful motion for a new trial and the argument portion of his brief herein, we have concluded that it is the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction that the defendant is questioning. We will, therefore, overlook the inartful phrasing of defendant's point and consider the same relative to the sufficiency of the evidence.

We detail the evidence relied upon by the state to sustain the conviction, keeping in mind that it is those facts and circumstances and favorable inferences flowing therefrom which are most favorable to the state's position that are for our consideration and we disregard evidence and inferences to the contrary. State v. Strong, supra; State v. Sherrill, supra. With the foregoing principles as boundaries for our review of the sufficiency of the evidence, the jury could reasonably find the facts giving rise to the death of Edna Maybelle Rose as hereinafter set forth.

Defendant and Edna had been living together in her apartment for several months prior to January 16, 1973. Marriage had been discussed but not consummated and a week or so before her death Edna had suggested that defendant move out of the apartment until they were married. Defendant had acquiesced in this suggestion and had removed his personal belongings from the apartment and was living elsewhere at the time of the murder.

Edna Rose's apartment was the top floor of a two-story dwelling located near the intersection of Kansas and Division Streets in Springfield. The first floor apartment was occupied by Mildred Rodriquez and her ex-husband. Access to the second story apartment was by way of the front entrance hall and a stairway. The front bedroom of the Rodriquez apartment is located directly beneath the living room of the upstairs apartment and to one side of the bedroom where the victim's body was found.

On the night of January 16, 1973, Edna's son, Melvin Meads, and his girl friend, Sandra Louise Belle, were at his mother's apartment visiting. The defendant was there with Edna when Melvin and his friend arrived about 7 o'clock in the evening. Both Melvin and Sandra observed that the defendant was wearing a white crew-neck undershirt beneath his outer shirt. When Melvin and Sandra left the apartment about 8 o'clock, the defendant was still there.

Mildred Rodriquez was taking care of another's baby in her apartment that night and watching television. Her former husband arrived about 9:30 o'clock and retired to a bedroom located at the rear of the downstairs apartment. The show Mrs. Rodriquez was watching ended at approximately 12:15 a.m., January 17. She then went into the front bedroom to attend the baby and while doing so she heard 'thumping' sounds and 'whimpering' noises emanating from the upstairs apartment. 'It sounded like a woman, kind of a girlish woman's sound,' was the way Mrs. Rodriquez described the source of the 'whimpering.' The sound and noises heard by Mrs. Rodriquez continued for ten to fifteen minutes. There was a period of silence, followed by sounds from the Rose apartment of someone walking around and water running. Mrs. Rodriquez then heard someone walking down the steps of the stairway, 'like heavy boots walking down the steps,' and heard the door to the front of the dwelling being opened. She looked out her front window and saw the defendant walking towards his car. She knew the defendant and recognized his station wagon. Arc lights from the street intersection and other lighting in the area illuminated the scene and Mrs. Rodriquez saw the defendant enter the station wagon and drive away.

About two or three hours later Mrs. Rodriquez heard someone walk up the stairway, knock on the door of the upstairs apartment, and then descend the stairs. As the person left the dwelling Mrs. Rodriquez looked out her window and again saw the defendant.

Early the next morning Melvin Meads went to his mother's apartment to take her to a cafe where she was employed as a waitress. There was no response to his knock on the apartment door so he drove to the cafe to see if she was there. Edna Rose was not at the cafe but the defendant was there. Melvin asked the defendant if he had seen his mother and the defendant replied that he had not. At Melvin's request the defendant accompanied him back to the apartment to look for Mrs. Rose. The defendant was described by the son as 'pretty nervous and was smoking cigarette right after cigarette' and was not wearing an undershirt.

Melvin and the defendant were unable to enter the upstairs apartment because the door was locked. Knocking on the door did not result in any response from within. The owner of the dwelling lived nearby and he was summoned to unlock the door. This was about 7:30 o'clock in the morning. When the door was unlocked, ¹ Melvin started into the apartment first but was pushed back by the defendant who said 'Let me go first.' The defendant went straight to the bedroom normally occupied by Mrs. Rose. A blanket covered a figure on the bed. The defendant placed his hand on the figure and said 'Get up.' There was no response. The defendant raised the blanket, looked and replaced the blanket. He 'acted like he was crying' but witnesses did not observe any tears.

Officers were immediately summoned to the apartment. An examination of the dead woman revealed that she had been severely beaten and then stragled to death. There were several bone fractures in the facial and upper body areas. ² Knotted around her neck was a black nylon apron she used in her work as a waitress. Her nightgown was askew and her underpants had been torn off. There was evidence of recent sexual intercourse. There was blood on the face and hands of the deceased, as well as on the sheet and small rug located near the bed. In the bathroom the officers found a man's white crew-neck undershirt which was stained with blood.

The defendant was taken into custody by officers at the scene of the killing. When he was booked at the police station all of his clothing, consisting of shirt, pants and socks, together with his boots, were removed by the authorities. Subsequent tests revealed bloodstains on the defendant's shirt, trousers and a rug fiber found on the toe of his right boot. Further testing of the undershirt found in the bathroom and the defendant's trousers demonstrated that the blood found on these items was of the same type as that of the dead woman. A test for blood made of the defendant's hands was positive.

When the defendant was initially questioned by police officers ³ on January 17th he stated he left Edna's apartment about 10 o'clock the evening before and had not returned. He said he had gone to a bar and had a sandwich and a beer and from there he went to a truck terminal where he spent the night. Later the same day the defendant asked to speak to one of the officers alone. He told the officer that after he had had a sandwich and beer at the bar he went to a second bar and consumed an additional four or five beers; that he had gone back to her (Edna Rose's) home and talked to her but could not remember what had happened; that he did not remember leaving the bar until he was at Edna Rose's apartment talking to her. The defendant then told the officer he wished he were dead and wished someone would shoot him. He asked the officer if it would be possible 'to go before the judge and plead guilty without anyone in the courtroom.' The next day, January 18, the defendant told officers that 'he guessed he had killed Edna Rose and that after he had talked to his attorney he would tell us all about it, but his father was employing an attorney and he didn't wish to discuss it further.'

The defendant took the stand in his own behalf and denied he beat or strangled Edna Rose. He testified he left her apartment about 10 o'clock in the evening of January 16 and never saw her alive again. He acknowledged that he returned to the apartment sometime after midnight but since there was no answer to his knock on the door he left and went to the truck terminal. He denied ownership of the bloody undershirt found in the bathroom of the apartment and had no explanation for the source of the bloodstains on his shirt, trousers, and the rug fiber on his boots.

In questioning the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his conviction the defendant has narrowly limited his attack. He contends that the testimony of Mildred Rodriquez is the only evidence that placed him at the deceased's apartment when she was killed; that this testimony is the only probative evidence upon which the jury could have convicted him; and, that since it was 'absolutely impossible' for witness Rodriquez to have seen him from her window, because of shrubbery in front of the window, her testimony is unbelievable and the case should...