State v. Lorenze, 11300

• Decision Date: 24 March 1980
• Docket Number: No. 11300,11300
• Citation: 596 S.W.2d 762
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Oscar Eugene LORENZE, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 762

596 S.W.2d 762

STATE of Missouri, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Oscar Eugene LORENZE, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 11300.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, Division One.

March 24, 1980.

John D. Ashcroft, Atty. Gen., Jerry Short, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for plaintiff-respondent.

Robert H. Handley, Springfield, for defendant-appellant.

PREWITT, Judge.

Defendant was charged with escaping from custody after conviction of a criminal offense. § 557.380, RSMo 1969. He waived trial by jury and was convicted by the trial judge and sentenced to three years imprisonment.

On November 1, 1978, two bailiffs were returning defendant to jail from the Greene County Circuit Court after a jury had found him guilty of rape and determined that he should serve a sentence of 50 years imprisonment. After the bailiffs denied him permission to talk to members of his family outside the courtroom, he ran, vaulted over a railing and dropped approximately 25 feet down to a lower floor. Although he suffered head and leg injuries in the fall, he broke a glass door and left the courthouse. He was apprehended the next day.

Defendant presents these points for our review: (1) that the trial court erred in finding him guilty when the evidence failed to show that he had been in custody; (2) that the information filed was insufficient because it alleged that he had been convicted on November 1, 1978, which conviction was not final and was being appealed at the time of his trial on this charge; (3) that the trial court erred in allowing a psychiatrist who testified for the State to read from his report on his examination of the defendant; (4) that he should have been found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect; and (5) that the errors stated in points one through four denied defendant's right to due process of law and to a fair and impartial trial under the United States and Missouri Constitutions.

We consider first defendant's point one. Defendant contends that he was not "imprisoned or detained" in the county jail as charged in the information at the time of his alleged escape. The information charged that defendant "while held in custody by Greene County Circuit Court Bailiffs . . . going to the Greene County Jail, broke such custody and escaped therefrom, while, the said Oscar Eugene Lorenze, was a person lawfully imprisoned or detained in said county jail having been convicted on November 1, 1978, of the charge of rape, . . . ." The statute provided that it was illegal for any person to break from custody or escape if "confined in any county jail upon conviction . . . or held in custody going to such jail, . . . ." § 557.380, RSMo 1969. Defendant was not physically restrained or handcuffed, but he was being escorted from the courthouse to the jail. As the bailiffs were taking defendant to the jail, they were attempting to exercise control over his person. Custody refers to the actual corporeal detention of a prisoner and also to where one person exercises control over the custody of another which confines such other person within certain limits. State v. Baker, 355 Mo. 1048, 199 S.W.2d 393, 396 (1947). One can be in custody even though his guard was several yards away. Id. See also 30A C.J.S. Escape § 5c(1). We believe there was sufficient evidence that he was in custody and the evidence is undisputed that he left the area without permission. Point one is denied.

Defendant's second point contends that he could not have been convicted of escaping while "upon conviction for any criminal offense" because his conviction was not final and at the time of trial was being appealed. In State v. Hulsey, 553 S.W.2d 719 (Mo.App.1977), the defendant contended that he was improperly charged under § 557.380, RSMo 1969. There he had not been formally sentenced but a jury had found him guilty and he escaped while he was being held in jail awaiting the determination of his motion for new trial. This court held that the charge under § 557.380, RSMo 1969, was proper as the defendant was being held "upon conviction". State v. Hulsey, supra, 553 S.W.2d at 721. Also see State v. Alderman, 500 S.W.2d 35 (Mo.App.1973). Here defendant was being held in custody upon a conviction. Point two is denied.

We now consider defendant's third point. Defendant claims prejudicial error in the court allowing a psychiatrist to read from his report "when the witness had no independent recollection of his conclusions as well as his examination of the defendant, regarding the defendant's mental state at the time of the offense." The prosecutor asked the psychiatrist to explain the kinds of tests and procedures he went through in examining defendant. The witness replied:

"Well, I did a regular mental status psychiatric examination of this patient.

And at that time he appeared anxious and evasive, on interview.

I'm going to read from the report.

'He was dressed casually, with apparent good personal hygiene. He tried to relate to the interviewer the best he could, and his behavior was generally appropriate. He was cooperative, answered questions relevantly, coherently, logically. Speech was continuous, slow, and clear. His thought processes were...