State v. Lytle

• Decision Date: 16 September 1986
• Docket Number: No. 68042,68042
• Citation: 715 S.W.2d 910
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Anthony LYTLE, Appellant.

Page 910

715 S.W.2d 910

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Anthony LYTLE, Appellant.

No. 68042.

Supreme Court of Missouri En Banc.

Sept. 16, 1986.

L. Patrick O'Brien, Kansas City, for appellant.

William L. Webster, Atty. Gen., Christine M. Szaj, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

RENDLEN, Judge.

Defendant appeals his convictions for the first degree murder (felony murder), § 565.003, ¹ of Pauline Chambers, armed criminal action, § 571.015, and robbery in the first degree, § 569.020, committed during a burglary. Error is asserted in the admitting of defendant's confession which he contends was coerced, involuntary, and taken in violation of U.S. Const. amends. V and XIV.

Defendant was charged by a six-count indictment: Count I, first degree murder of Earl Chambers, § 565.003; Count II, armed criminal action, § 571.015; Count III, first degree murder of Pauline Chambers, § 565.003; Count IV, armed criminal action, § 571.015; Count V, robbery in the first degree, § 569.020; and Count VI, burglary in the first degree, § 569.160. The jury acquitted defendant on Count II and though they found him guilty of manslaughter and burglary in the second degree on Counts I and VI, respectively, the trial judge "dismissed" those counts. Defendant was sentenced to consecutive life sentences on Counts III and IV and to a concurrent twenty-five-year sentence on Count V.

The Court of Appeals, Western District, reversed because of the alleged improper admission of defendant's videotaped confession and remanded for new trial. The cause comes to us on certification of a dissenting judge. Mo. Const. art. V, § 10.

I.

On the morning of November 27, 1983, police officers found Pauline and Earl Chambers lying dead from stab wounds on the bedroom floor of their Kansas City home. The front door of the home had been kicked in, the house ransacked and a bloody eleven-inch butcher knife was found in one of the bedrooms. One of the shoe prints found on the blood-stained floor matched tennis shoes recovered from Donald "Bug" Dixon. Blood stains were found on shoes recovered from Jon Keith Smith and one of the Chambers' television sets was found at the Smith residence bearing Jon Keith's palm print. A second television, with Earl Chambers' social security number, was found under the front porch at James Bowman's residence.

Shortly after the murders, police officers interrogated defendant, on November 30 and again on December 2. Evidence presented by the state at a pretrial suppression hearing and at trial demonstrates the following:

On November 30, 1983, defendant was taken into custody for questioning and after waiving his Miranda ² rights was interrogated at police headquarters from 1:26 p.m. until 4 p.m. by Detectives Floyd Williams and Bennie White. Sometime after 1:26 p.m. defendant was allowed to talk to his mother. Detective Williams was "very hard" on defendant during this round of interrogation and used this "technique" to "shock the young man into reality, into telling the truth." He told defendant that "if he went to the penitentiary, he would definitely not survive because he was too small, he couldn't protect himself" and "if he would prefer to remain in Jeff City, that he wouldn't survive because of his size, age, and looks," but Williams did not "threaten" defendant that if he did not tell the truth he would go to jail. Despite this "hard-line" technique Detective Williams had trouble getting defendant to talk to him and believed he was holding back information. At some point during this round of interrogation, defendant was examined by polygraph and at the conclusion of that examination he again waived his Miranda rights. Defendant was then interrogated by Detectives Edward Glynn and Earl Craven from 5:30 p.m. until 10:45 p.m. ³

Initially, on November 30, defendant denied all knowledge of the Chambers homicides but later admitted ⁴ being at the residence the night of the crime. He stated that he and Jon Keith Smith were at the home of a friend, Marcell Small, when Donald "Bug" Dixon and Eddie Bowman came by to get Small to go "stealing" with them. Although Small declined, defendant and Smith decided to accompany Dixon and Bowman. They proceeded to the Chambers' residence which Smith remembered was the home of some elderly white persons and upon arrival then discovered two other men already in the process of burglarizing the home. Defendant first stated he did not go into the house but learned from someone else there were two dead persons inside. Defendant then changed his account by stating he did enter the residence, rummaged through some drawers and stood watch at the front door. He went to a hallway from which he saw the blood-covered body of a dead person lying on a bedroom floor and then, taking a number of items from the home with them, the two groups of men left separately. At the conclusion of the November 30 interrogation defendant was released to return home to his family.

On December 2, 1983, while at his workplace defendant was arrested, handcuffed, placed in a "paddy" wagon, and once more informed of his Miranda rights. He was taken to police headquarters and processed in approximately forty-five minutes and after again waiving his Miranda rights was interrogated from 7:06 p.m. until 10:15 p.m. by Detectives Glynn and Craven.

These detectives used a "quiet" or "soft-spoken" interrogation technique, talking to defendant in a normal tone of voice and in a father-son fashion. Glynn told defendant that he knew defendant was holding back information and that if he did not tell them everything then he would keep it inside him the rest of his life and it would eat him up. For approximately the first hour defendant repeated his statement that the Chambers already were dead when he arrived. Detective Glynn told defendant that if he knew something then he should tell the detectives, and that "[h]e could only help himself by doing this." But at some point he became tense, began to cry, his lips quivered and he was "on the brink of losing control." Detective Glynn then began to talk to defendant about other matters not related to the investigation such as his personal life, his church life, and whether he was a Christian. On Glynn's suggestion defendant walked around and took some breaths and for ten or fifteen minutes said nothing. At this point he became more relaxed and began to talk more openly with the detectives. He then told Glynn and Craven that "Eddie did it," a reference to Eddie Bowman. He stated that while in the house he heard grunts and groans from one of the bedrooms and then saw Bowman stab someone whom he later learned was Pauline Chambers. After the officers reviewed the sequence of events surrounding the Chambers murders, they videotaped defendant's confession. The videotaping did not begin until about one hour after the questioning had ceased.

In the videotaped confession, defendant described the events of the night of November 26, 1983, and early morning of November 27, 1983. Among those details were the following: Smith, Dixon, Bowman, and defendant drove around in Bowman's car looking for houses to burglarize. After knocking on several doors to determine whether anyone might be present, the four men proceeded to the Chambers' house and upon arrival they discovered that two other men were at that time burglarizing the house. Defendant, Smith, Dixon and Bowman joined the burglary in progress. Defendant kept watch for a while then rummaged through drawers while others carried items out of the house. Defendant could hear one of the other men talking in a bedroom, and defendant assumed he was talking to the residents. Bowman went into the bedroom and defendant heard a scuffle, then heard someone cry out "No, no, no" and "sounds of pain." Defendant ran to the bedroom where he saw Bowman stab someone he thought was a man "one last time" and then Bowman put a long-bladed knife in his pocket. The burglars completed their escapade, stealing wallets, coin purses, televisions, a microwave, a fur coat, and a jewelry box. After defendant helped load a television into the car, the two groups of burglars departed separately. Defendant initially drove the car though Bowman, who threw a number of items out of the car including wallets, a coin purse and a screwdriver, later took over. Eventually the four men arrived at Dixon's house where they took a television to see if it worked. They then drove to Smith's house and left a microwave and a television set and thereafter the others drove defendant home.

II.

Prior to trial, defendant filed a motion to suppress the videotaped statement as involuntary, coerced, and the product of physical and psychological pressure so great as to overcome his will. A suppression hearing was held, at the conclusion of which the trial judge determined that "the statements of the defendant were voluntarily and freely given, and the motion to suppress the statements is overruled." The suppression hearing evidence, which for the most part also was introduced at trial, included the following in addition to the facts recited above.

Detectives Glynn and Craven testified they did not strike defendant, made no threats or promises, and exerted no psychological pressure. Craven testified that defendant's reactions during the interrogation--"the tearing, the quivering, and the nervousness"--were those expected from a witness to a vicious crime. Detective Williams, also a state's witness, testifying at the suppression hearing stated that on December 2 he questioned defendant for approximately 1 1/2 minutes in order to clear up a certain detail. From Detective Williams' trial testimony, it is clear that he was alone with defendant during this brief interview on December 2 and it occurred after defendant had told Detectives Glynn and Craven that "Eddie did it." Williams testified concerning his observations of defendant at that time, stating at the suppression hearing...